Billie Jean (Michael Jackson). 40 Songs for 40 Years, 1983

Speaking of things that weren’t cool. This is the first record I bought with my own money. To my credit, I also bought The White Album at the same time, which redeems things somewhat.

It’s probably just as well that I didn’t know that this song was about disputed paternity. What I did know is that the record was really fun to dance to. I was also fascinated by the stripped-down drumming on this record and how much discipline Ndugu Chancler must have had to play essentially no fills at all. Nowadays, such things are handled by machines, and records aren’t as much fun to dance to. Alas.