The pairing of former Beatle Paul McCartney and megastar Michael Jackson was one of the biggest collaborations of the decade, never mind the year. The two worked on the song 'Say Say Say', which was recorded in 1981 during sessions for McCartney's album 'Tug of War', but along with many other tracks (including 'Man', another Jackson collaboration) actually saw the light of day on his 'Pipes of Peace' album released in October of 1983.
Jackson and McCartney had become friends during the early 1980s and during one evening together, the former Beatle had revealed to Jackson that much of his income came from music publishing rights. (The Beatles, famously, missed out on this from their own songs when the rights were sold without their knowledge.) He had showed Jackson a booklet detailing what songs he owned the rights to (he owned the publishing rights to Buddy Holly's back catalogue for example, and had covered some of his material), and the American megastar duly took note.
'Say Say Say', a pop/disco number, was accompanied by a humorous video directed by Bob Giraldi (who also directed Jackson's 'Beat It' promo) showing the duo as travelling 'snake oil' salesmen (dubbed 'Mack and Jack') selling 'wonder potion', before donating all their proceeds to an orphanage and becoming vaudeville performers. The video included an appearance from Jackson's sister LaToya, and McCartney's wife Linda. The song was a hit in many countries, reaching number 1 on the Billboard hot 100 and reaching at number 2 in the UK singles chart.
The collaboration continued with 'The Girl Is Mine'; this duet appeared on Jackson's mega-successful 'Thriller' album and initially appeared in late 1982, although the song was actually recorded at a later time than 'Say Say Say'. That song originated from producer Quincy Jones asking Jackson to write a song about two men arguing over the same girl, and he completed writing that while watching cartoons on television alongside McCartney. The sessions were described by Jackson as some of his most enjoyable, as the two stars joked about in the studio. However this pairing came to an abrupt end, as in 1985 Jackson (having taken on board McCartney's advice about purchasing music publishing rights), bought up ATV Music Publishing, who owned the rights to the Beatles' back catalogue - outbidding McCartney and John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono in the process. That spelt the end of their partnership and the two remained estranged until Jackson's death in 2009. As of 2013, the rights to the Beatles' material remain out of the hands of their creators.
From happier times, here is Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson's video for 'Say Say Say':
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