Ask an everyday person to name one MJ song and they will say "BIllie Jean", ask them to name one Prince song they will most likely tell you "When Doves Cry". So, I ask you,which song is better?,Better back then and better today.

Both classics. I refuse to choose!

CynicKill said:

co-sign!

Though I prefer Prince To MJ, "When Doves Cry" is not a favorite of mine. I have to go with "Billie Jean".

i agree both are classics

no choosing

damn, that's a tuff one. normally i would say billie jean but when does cry is the shit too. too hard to choose but maybe i'll say bilie jean.

Gonna have to go for "When Doves Cry", especially for that guitar intro.

Although I'm not a huge fan of MJ's videos, I'd have to give Billie Jean the edge in that respect, though. I can hardly watch the video for "...Doves".

When doves cry

Cause the lyrics to Billie Jean obviously
make no sense whatsoever , sung by MJ
can't imagine he EVER was into girls
[Edited 12/14/04 11:38am]

Although I love 'When Doves Cry', Billie Jean beats every song, it's simply the best song ever.

Dewrede said:

That sounds like a knock against homosexuality

Interesting thread.
"Billie Jean" has a killer bass line while "When Doves Cry" has no bass line at all. Despite that, I believe that "When Doves Cry" has a lot more to offer musically. Great vocal, great guitar, great keyboard at the end. I do have a copy of 'Thriller', but I never listen to "Billie Jean".
It's a cool song, but I just can't get myself to bump that in my car. It's probably just one of those things that I enjoyed as a kid more than I do now.
I've heard some people on this board say that "When Doves Cry" is played out. As played out as it may be, it's still one of the coolest things a musician has ever done.

jayaredee said:

Oh no , i never meant it like that !
Just saying he shouldn't have been pretending to be straight
[Edited 12/14/04 11:54am]

I have to go with "When doves cry"....BJ is a good song but the thing that does
it for me.....When doves cry has no bass-line....how genius is that!

No contest... Doves

Besides Billie Jean is based on a riff of a Johnny Guitar Watson song.

Dewrede said:

Gotcha

Anyways i also have to go with When doves Cry, it's just more deep and inspiring to me

When doves cry. I agree there's no contest.

"When Doves Cry" by far. "Billie Jean" is a good song but people have put it far too high on a pedastol.

I'd much rather see a battle between Prince's "Let's Work" and The Jacksons' "Lovely One".

"When Doves Cry" hands down. Talk about a unique song. It was definitely one of Prince's best and one of the best in all of music history. Pure genius.....and it didn't even have bass. Plus, it was ALL Prince. How much did Quincy Jones have to do with Billy Jean?

vainandy said:

'Billie Jean' and as you mentioned it 'Let's Work'.

Both are extremely played out.

Ifsixwuz9 said:

Yeah, and according to Dez, Prince stole the rhythm for When Doves Cry from one of his songs.

That is impossible too choose. They are both the arist respected theme song. And "Let's Work" over "Lovely One"

Another good would be "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" or. "I Wanna Be Your Lover"

Ask the same question on a Michael Jackson fansite and let me know if the answers are the same as they are here.

I love them both. It's a Draw in my book

my personal take: Billie Jean and When Doves Cry are certainly the most popular songs for Michael and Prince respectively though neither is necessarily their best song. However, one could argue that they are in fact the definitive song for each of them and have just been overplayed. If one were to assess the two of them on the basis of these two songs, they would be pretty evenly matched, their just both very good. Sure, Prince recorded When Doves cry entirely by himself but I don't think whether or not the artist is playing every single instrument should be a criteria on judging the song itself. However, Quincey Jones did help produce it which might've contributed to it's overall sound but I think few MJ fans would argue that Q's anal retentive production is, if anything, one of the major drawbacks to Michael's albums (sounds too contrived), so Quincey might've made the song sound worse than it could've. Both are fantastic songs though and both belong in the top ten greatest songs of the 80s.

jacktheimprovident said:

That's nonsense. Without Quincy's input we would've had MJ beatboxing over the two chords he knows on his keyboard.

I take it that you've never heard the "Billie Jean" demos? Quincy didn't really have that much to do with the sound of this song.

Supernova said:

I'm not gonna choose