Songoftheday 1/11/13 - I took my baby to the doctor with a fever but nothing he found, by the time this hit the street they said she had a breakdown..

Michael Jackson - "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
from the album Thriller (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's Song of the Day is the fourth single and lead-off track on the biggest album in the pop era, Michael Jackson's Thriller. After releasing the treacly duet "The Girl Is Mine", his signature brooder "Billie Jean", and the rock epic "Beat It", the full-fledged paranoia of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" perfectly encapsulated Michael's view of the world and the media circus following him and his family, over a frantic beat overstuffed with percussion and brass instruments...

"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" raced up the pop chart to become his fourth top-5 hit from the album, and while people associate Michael with being a big video artist, it's good to note that only three of the seven top-10 hits from the album had an official music clip. It also made the top-5 on the R&B chart in the US, and went to #1 in Canada in the summer of 1983.

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On the 25th anniversary of Thriller, a remixed version of the song was released in 2008 featuring singer Akon, and dented the American pop chart while going to the Top-10 in France, Sweden, and Australia and New Zealand...

Michael was actually sued by Cameroon musician Manu Dibango for cribbing his "Soul Makossa" record for the classic breakdown on this record. Jackson, the song's writer, settled out of court....