The Girl Is Mine in the context of "Beat It"

Thriller is the sixth studio album by the American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, released on November 29, 1982, by Epic Records. It was produced by Quincy Jones, who previously worked with Jackson on his album Off the Wall (1979). Recording took place from April to November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a budget of $750,000 (equivalent to $2,443,707 in 2024). With the ongoing backlash against disco music, Jackson moved in a new musical direction, resulting in darker themes and a mix of genres, including rock for the first time. Paul McCartney appears as the first credited featured artist on a Jackson album.

Thriller was praised by critics and soon attracted greater acclaim. It was Jackson's first number-one album on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, and stood atop for a record 37 non-consecutive weeks. The album's second and third singles, "Billie Jean" and "Beat It", topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while "The Girl Is Mine", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", "Human Nature", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", and "Thriller" also reached the Top 10, setting a record for the most Top 10 hits from one album. Sales of Thriller surged after Jackson debuted his signature moonwalk dance in Motown 25 and the "Thriller" music video premiered on MTV, and by 1984 it had sold 32 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling album of all time.

"I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is a 1987 duet ballad by American singer Michael Jackson featuring singer and songwriter Siedah Garrett, and was released as the first single on July 20, 1987, by Epic Records from his seventh album, Bad. The song was written by Jackson, and co-produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. The presence of Garrett on the track was a last-minute decision by Jackson and Jones, after Jackson's first two choices for the duet both decided against participating. Garrett, a protégé of Jones who co-wrote another song on Bad, "Man in the Mirror", was unaware that she would be singing the song until the day of the recording session. It became her first hit since Dennis Edwards' 1984 song "Don't Look Any Further". Garrett remains known primarily for her work with Jackson to this day.

"I Just Can't Stop Loving You" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, R&B Singles and Adult Contemporary charts, making it the first in a string of 5 number-one singles from Bad. It was Jackson's second number-one song on the Adult Contemporary chart after "The Girl Is Mine" with Paul McCartney. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" was released without an accompanying music video. Jackson and Garrett later recorded Todo Mi Amor Eres Tú (loosely translated to "All My Love Is You"), a Spanish-language version of the song, with lyrics translated by Rubén Blades, and "Je Ne Veux Pas La Fin De Nous" (loosely translated to "I Don't Want The End Of Us"), a French-language version, with translation by Christine "Coco" Decroix. All three versions are featured on the 2012 reissue album Bad 25. The original English-language version was re-released as a single in 2012, as part of the Bad 25 release.