{"id":378795,"date":"2026-04-02T20:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378795\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T20:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:27:10","slug":"he-obviously-wanted-to-do-something-like-that-for-billie-jean-and-he-did-his-own-version-of-that-groove-john-oates-agrees-with-daryl-hall-that-i-cant-go-for-that-was-the-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378795\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHe obviously wanted to do something like that for Billie Jean and he did his own version of that groove\u201d: John Oates agrees with Daryl Hall that I Can\u2019t Go For That was the inspiration for one of Michael Jackson\u2019s greatest hits"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Oates has reiterated a claim made by his former bandmate Daryl Hall that Michael Jackson took the groove from their 1981 hit I Can\u2019t Go For That and used it as the template for his own Billie Jean, which was released a year later.<\/p>\n

Speaking in a new episode of the Rock & Roll High School podcast<\/a>, Oates says: \u201c[Michael] came to one of our shows in LA and he said he liked to dance to it in front of his mirror in his bedroom. You can hear, he obviously wanted to do something like that for Billie Jean and he did his own version of that groove.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daryl Hall & John Oates – I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) (Official Video) – YouTube
\n\"Daryl<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

This comes after Hall said something similar to Mix<\/a> way back in 2006. \u201cNo question about it,\u201d he noted of I Can\u2019t Go For That\u2019s influence on Billie Jean. \u201cMichael Jackson once said directly to me that he hoped I didn\u2019t mind that he copped that groove. That\u2019s OK; it\u2019s something we all do. [Eddie] Van Halen told me that he copied the synth part from Kiss On My List<\/a> and used it in Jump<\/a>. I don\u2019t have a problem with that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall repeated the claim in 2018 in an interview with The Guardian<\/a>, adding that the conversation took place during the We Are The World recording session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got talking to Michael Jackson and he said: \u201cI hope you don\u2019t mind. I stole the groove from I Can\u2019t Go for That for my song Billie Jean,\u2019\u201d Hall remembered. \u201cI told him: \u2018Oh Michael, what do I care? You did it very differently.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say I\u2019d ever noticed but he was quite insistent. Of course, I went away and listened to Billie Jean. And sure enough, it was our groove.<\/p>\n

Michael Jackson – Billie Jean (Official Video) – YouTube
\n\"Michael<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Discussing the origins of that groove in the Mix interview, Hall said: \u201cRemember the old Roland CompuRhythm box<\/a>? I turned to the Rock and Roll 1 preset, sat down at a Korg organ that happened to be lying there and started to play this bassline that was coming to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n

This classic pop moment could easily have been lost, though, had it not been for a quick-thinking engineer who must have realised that Hall was onto something.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the old recording studio story: The engineer heard what I was doing and turned on the tape machine,\u201d Hall confirmed. \u201cGood thing, because I\u2019m the kind of person who will come up with an idea and forget it. The chords came together in about 10 minutes, and then I heard a guitar riff, which I asked John, who was sitting in the booth, to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, Hall and Oates\u2019 relationship now appears to be broken beyond repair, with the two men trading barbs in the press after Hall took legal action against Oates in a bid to prevent him from selling his share of the duo\u2019s publishing rights. This case has seemingly now been settled, but there\u2019s no sense that it will lead to a reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Discussing the situation in his Rock & Roll High School episode, though, Oates suggests that he\u2019s trying to stay positive about it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always bittersweet when a relationship falls by the wayside, of course. But look at the legacy that Daryl and I leave behind. We left a musical legacy that very few people could match. You know what, that\u2019s pretty good in a lifetime I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Oates has reiterated a claim made by his former bandmate Daryl Hall that Michael Jackson took the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-378795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}