“Michael Jackson modeled ‘Billie Jean’ on ‘I Can’t Go For That'”

John Oates he reiterated a statement made by his former bandmate Daryl Hallaccording to which Michael Jackson would have taken the groove of their 1981 hit “I Can’t Go For That” and he would use it as a model for his own “Billie Jean”published a year later.

In a new episode of
Rock & Roll High School podcast
the 77 year old
John Oates
said: “Michael came to one of our concerts in Los Angeles and said he liked dancing to that song in front of his bedroom mirror. You can clearly hear that he wanted to do something similar for ‘Billie Jean’ and created his own version of that beat.”

This follows a similar statement made by
Daryl Hall
to
Mix
in 2006 regarding the influence of the song by
Hall & Oates
on
“Billie Jean”
. “There’s no doubt about it. Michael Jackson once told me directly that he hoped I wouldn’t mind him copying that groove. It’s okay, it’s something we all do. Eddie Van Halen told me he copied the synthesizer part from “Kiss On My List” and used it on “Jump.” I don’t have any kind of problem with it.”

As reported
MusicRadar
Hall reiterated the story in a 2018 interview with the Guardian, adding that the conversation took place during the recording session of
“We Are The World”
. “I talked to Michael Jackson and he said, ‘I hope you don’t mind. I stole the groove from ‘I Can’t Go for That’ for my ‘Billie Jean.’

Talking about the origins of that beat in the Mix interview,
Daryl Hall
he said, “Remember the old Roland CompuRhythm? I selected the Rock and Roll 1 preset, sat down at a Korg organ that was there, and started playing this bass line that came to mind.”

All could have been lost if there hadn’t been a sound engineer ready to record the thing, as confirmed by Hall himself: “It’s the classic recording studio story: the engineer heard what I was doing and turned on the recorder. Luckily, because I’m the type of person who has an idea and then forgets it. The chords came out in about 10 minutes, then I heard a guitar riff, which I asked John, who was sitting in the booth, to play.”

Relations between Hall and Oates are not the best, so much so
Hall had filed a lawsuit against Oates
to prevent him from selling his share of the royalties. The issue seems to have been resolved, but there is unlikely to be any reconciliation. However, talking about the situation a
Rock & Roll High School
,
John Oates
suggests trying to stay positive. “It’s always bittersweet when a relationship ends. But look at the legacy that Daryl and I left. We left a musical legacy that very few can match. You know what? I’d say that’s a pretty good lifetime achievement.”