Once the mega-project Thriller album was complete, Michael’s work was just beginning. He interviewed a slew of video directors in order to explode out the gate. His first single that he wrote, “The Girl is Mine,” a duet with Paul McCartney, was a hit in December of 1982, eventually sitting at #2 for three weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, but it failed to move copies of the Thriller album because fans didn’t associate the song with the album. He needed a jolt to get Thriller moving. He got it with Steve Barron, another iconic video director, who proposed a new concept he had in his head — “lighted” sidewalks and split screens. The only thing was that Barron didn’t want Michael to dance in the video, but that was not about to happen. It is the most memorable part of the video that started Michael-mania in March of 1983 and continues to this day, even after Mike’s passing.
