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Queen didn't want to release 'Another One Bites the Dust.' Then Michael Jackson intervened.

Queen's drummer Roger Taylor didn't even like the song at first.

Christopher Hopper; distributed by Elektra Records (left), Matthew Rolston; Distributed by Epic Records (right)

Michael Jackson had a surprising influence on one of Queen's greatest hits.

When a band strikes gold (or platinum) with a hit song, it's easy to think that success was predictable. After all, a great song with wide popular appeal is a great song with wide popular appeal, right?

But when you dig into the history of some of the world's iconic hit songs, you often find a fascinating backstory filled with surprising details that make it clear how unpredictable the music industry really is. Case in point: Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust."

queen, freddie mercury, another one bites the dust "Another One Bites the Dust" is one of Queen's greatest hits. Giphy

The YouTube channel Behind the Track shared the fascinating story of how Another One Bites the Dust became one of Queen's greatest hits. The song was written by John Deacon, Queen's bassist, who was the last member to join the band. Deacon wrote some of the band's other songs, including "You're My Best Friend" and "I Want to Break Free," but none had the massive popular success of "Another One Bites the Dust."

However, the would-be-hit almost wasn't.

Known for its catchy drumbeat and powerful bass line, "Another One Bites the Dust" was an unusual song that didn't fall in line with Queen's usual sound. No big guitar riffs. No layered harmonies. In fact, drummer Roger Taylor didn't even like the song. The band debated putting it on their album and didn't plan to release it as a single at all until the King of Pop himself intervened.

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Jackson was a fan of the band and often attended their shows. After a concert in Los Angeles in 1980, he showed up backstage and told the band members that they needed to release "Another One Bites the Dust" as a single. Taylor did not think it would be a hit at all, but the others listened to Jackson's advice, and the song was released in August of 1980. It went to No. 1 in the U.S. and spent 31 weeks on the Hot 100.

But there's even more to the story of how the song came about. Deacon had come up with the idea for the song initially after scribbling lines from old western American films. One line that kept coming back to him was "another one bites the dust." The lyrics were all about cowboys at first, a bit light-hearted and humorous, but Deacon was too embarrassed to even show his bandmates that version.

Old West Movie GIF by GritTV Giphy

When the band began to record the bass line, Deacon realized the song needed to be edgier and he changed the lyrics from cowboys to a vague story about a guy named Steve who gets into a street fight. That iconic bass line was inspired by disco funk music, specifically "Good Times" by Chic, a band that Deacon had hung out with. Deacon wanted the drum beat to be very simple, and Taylor's drums were covered in tape and the basic beat looped—a technique Taylor really didn't care for at the time. "I didn't really want to get into dance music," Taylor later explained. "Wasn't my thing."

In 2024, Brian May shared with Guitar World how Deacon led the band through the song recording:

"He would tell Freddie what the words were, and play the tune on the guitar. You can imagine it was quite a strange process. Freddie absolutely adored it. He just stepped into it with a vengeance. And he sang it until he bled! He was forcing himself to get those high notes and he loved it. Freddie really was such a driving force."

freddie mercury, queen, another one bites the dust Freddie Mercury was Queen's larger-than-life lead singer. Giphy

However, the rest of the band wasn't as fond of the song.

“You know, Roger actually didn’t want to have it on the album, didn’t like it," May said. "It was much too funky and not enough rock for him. I was a bit on the fence. I kind of enjoyed it. But it obviously wasn’t the rock that I would have been creating. And I remember saying, ‘Look, it needs a little bit of something a bit more dirty on it.’

“So I started playing these little bits of the more grungy guitar. I don’t think the word ‘grungy’ existed in those days. But the distorted guitar is obviously me, and that punctuates it and gives it another dimension, takes it to a slightly more rocky place."

May remembers Michael Jackson hearing the song and saying that's what he wanted to do. "I think his whole album which followed [Thriller] was deeply influenced by 'Another One Bites The Dust' and the fact that it straddled funk and rock," May said. "Michael came to the same place from a different direction.”

michael jackson, thriller, queen, another one bites the dust Michael Jackson pushed Queen to release "Another One Bites the Dust" as a single. Matthew Rolston; Distributed by Epic Records (Public domain)

It seems that Queen and Michael Jackson had one another to credit for at least some of their success, and apparently we can thank them both for one of the best bop-alongs ever made.

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Footage of the Chili's 'Baby Back Ribs' recording session will catapult you to the '90s

Those guys could sing!

via Alvin Chea/YouTube

The “Chili’s (Welcome To Chili’s)" singers putting it down.

Few jingles get stuck in your head as easily as the Chili's "Baby Back Ribs" song, officially known as “Chili’s (Welcome To Chili’s),” which was first broadcast in 1996. The music starts with a deep-voiced man singing, “I want my baby back, baby back, baby back,” and builds from there to a sweet and tangy crescendo of “I want my baby back ribs!”

Guy Bommarito, the songwriter who wrote the jingle, says that Chilli’s execs weren’t initially too excited by his creation. "The response was, 'Yeah, that should work.' Nobody was blown away or overly impressed," he told Delish. "But it could've been my singing."

The song was later rerecorded in 1998 by a team of studio pros who took it to the next level with their soulful professionalism. The recording session video was shared on YouTube by singer Alvin Chea, and there’s something so satisfying and nostalgic about watching these guys put it down together at the same time.

In the new version, the iconic “baby back” bassline is sung by Alvin Chea, the bass singer for Grammy-winning gospel a cappella group Take 6, who also sang on Michael Jackson’s “This is It.” Dorian Holley, in the vest and tie, sang harmonies and also worked with the King of Pop as a background singer.

Oren Waters takes the lead on the “Chili’s” line and is part of the Waters family who sang background on MJ’s “Thriller" album. Louis Price sings the “barbeque sauce” line and was the lead singer of The Temptations from 1977 to 1980.

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Oprah’s revealing Michael Jackson interview was 30 years ago. Here are 5 unforgettable moments.

Jackson set the record straight while also raising more questions.

via Wikimedia Commons and Wikimedia Commons

Michael Jackson and Oprah Winfrey.

In 1993, Michael Jackson was the most famous person in the world but his image was severely tarnished by countless bizarre rumors. Why was he turning white? How much cosmetic surgery did he have? Did he really try to buy the Elephant Man’s bones? Why did he grab his crotch during performances? What was his sexual orientation? Did he sleep in a hyperbaric chamber? Why does a grown man love to play with children in a home filled with theme park rides and exotic animals?

To add to the controversy, Jackson’s most recent album “Dangerous,” which sold around 20 million copies, was seen as a “disappointment” because it failed to reach the status of his previous albums “Bad” (1987) and “Thriller” (1982).

To help improve his public image, Jackson sat down for a live, 90-minute interview from his Neverland Ranch in Santa Ynez, California, with Oprah Winfrey. At a time when the media landscape was far less fragmented, the interview was a massive event that drew more than 90 million viewers.

Jackson hadn’t given a TV interview in 14 years and Winfrey was at the peak of her fame as America’s favorite talk-show host. "It was the most exciting interview I had ever done," Winfrey later recounted. "It certainly was going to be the most watched interview I had ever done."

Here are five of the most memorable moments from “Michael Jackson Talks … to Oprah,” which originally aired on February 10, 1993.

1. Jackson admitted to having cosmetic surgery.

When asked about his history of cosmetic surgery, Jackson said it’s less than most people think. "You can count them on two fingers," he said, admitting he’s had his nose done. "I have never had my cheekbones done, never had my eyes done, never had my lips done," he added.

Given his drastic change in appearance over the years, the admission was a little hard for some to swallow. Reports show that it’s likely he wasn’t being totally honest about his history of cosmetic surgery during the Winfrey interview.

2. He admitted to having vitiligo.

One of the biggest questions about Jackson at the time was why he was becoming paler by the day. Many believed it was because he wanted to become white. To set the record straight, Jackson admitted to having vitiligo, a skin disorder that causes the skin to lose pigmentation, resulting in visible blotches.

"It is something I cannot help. When people make up stories that I don't want to be who I am, it hurts me," he said. "It's a problem for me. I can't control it. But what about all the millions of people who sit in the sun to become darker, to become other than what they are? Nobody says nothing about that."

Vitiligo forced Jackson to change his appearance but he made it clear that he was still a proud Black man. "I am a Black American. I'm proud to be a Black American. I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am,” Jackson emphatically told Winfrey.

3. He taught Winfrey how he does the moonwalk.

The moonwalk was Jackson’s signature dance move that gives the appearance he’s moving backward while hovering above the ground. In the interview, he revealed how he creates the illusion and where it started.

"The moonwalk came from these beautiful Black kids who live in the ghettos in the inner cities, who are brilliant. They just have that natural talent for dancing any of the new, hot dances. They come up with these dances," Jackson said. "All I did was enhance the dance."

4. He was an incredible beatboxer.

Winfrey asked Jackson to sing something acapella and he gave her a lot more than that. He did a perfect beatbox version of “Who Is It” from his “Dangerous” album and was able to perform the percussion and bass line simultaneously.

5. He discussed his abusive dad and losing his childhood.

Jackson revealed that growing up a child star he missed out on the simple joys of childhood and that's why he enjoyed spending time with children as an adult. This seemed to be an honest explanation for one of the most curious parts of his personality. He also admitted that his father called him “ugly” and was physically abusive.

"I love my father, but I don't know him. … Sometimes I do get angry. I don't know him the way I'd like to know him," he said. "My mother's wonderful. To me, she's perfection. I just wish I could understand my father."

Jackson’s interview with Winfrey was a public relations success for Jackson because it provided a psychological framework for his peculiar public image. In the interview, Jackson comes off as sensitive, thoughtful, intelligent and his dancing and beatboxing reminded everyone of his incredible talent. The Washington Post said the interview changed public opinion of him from being “weird” to an “eccentric” and resulted in an increase in album sales.

But this pubic re-evaluation would be short-lived. By the end of the year, he’d be the subject of an intense investigation into sexual abuse, and he'd be dogged by lurid allegations for the rest of his days.

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Rehearsal footage from 'We Are the World' shows how incredibly talented everyone was in the '80s

Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, man oh man.

via Wikimedia Commons and Wikimedia Commons

Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote "We Are the World."

From 1983 to 1985, more than 1 million people in Ethiopia died from extreme famine. A few months after a BBC report on the famine that triggered the U.K. Band Aid charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?," the biggest stars in the American music industry came together in 1985 to record a charity single to help those suffering in Ethiopia, Sudan and other impoverished African countries.

The collection of entertainers called themselves USA for Africa, and their single, “We Are the World,” sold more than 7 million records worldwide and has generated $60 million over the past 37 years.

The song was written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones. The vocals were recorded after the American Music Awards in Los Angeles on January 28, 1985, in a single 8 p.m. to 8 a.m session at Hollywood's A&M Recording Studios.

The list of those who appear on the song is impressive: Dan Aykroyd, Harry Belafonte, Lindsey Buckingham, Kim Carnes, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Sheila E., Bob Geldof, Daryl Hall, James Ingram, Jackie Jackson, LaToya Jackson, Marlon Jackson, Michael Jackson, Randy Jackson, Tito Jackson, Al Jarreau, Waylon Jennings, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Huey Lewis and the News, Mario Cipollina, John Colla, Bill Gibson, Chris Hayes, Sean Hopper, Kenny Loggins, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson, John Oates, Jeffrey Osborne, Steve Perry, The Pointer Sisters, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick and Stevie Wonder.

A video going viral on TikTok shows behind-the-scenes footage of the entertainers singing the song and what’s incredible is just how great their voices are. Even though it’s just a run-through, every one of them sounds pitch-perfect. It’s a great reminder that in 1985, you had to really know how to sing to be a famous singer.

In a post-autotune world, it’s hard to know which singers can actually sing and sadly, not a lot of people care if they can.

When Michael Jackson hits the line, “We’re down and out, there is no hope at all,” in the bridge, it’s spine-tingling. It’s believed that Prince was supposed to appear on the song but didn’t show up at the session, so Huey Lewis got his line.

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A funny video from the sessions is always making the rounds on social media. Bob Dylan looks completely out of place in a room full of flashy ’80s celebrities and appears to have no idea what everyone is singing. Dylan’s “mood” in the room has become a universal representation of what it feels like to be part of a group project without having read the book.

The USA for Africa project didn’t stop with “We Are the World.” Since 1985, it has raised more than $100 million for people struggling with poverty and malnutrition in Africa and the U.S. It also encouraged many to become an agent of change in their own right.

“‘We Are the World’ motivated millions to become activists in their own way. Their bold, individual and collective power brought change to their communities and beyond. Lives were transformed,” Marcia Thomas, USA for Africa’s executive director said. “Access to food, education, health care and peace became a reality for many who had been left out. ‘We Are the World’ became a movement…your movement. And… it still resonates.”

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