The girl is mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

This duet by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney was the first single taken from the album 'Thriller'. Following its release, some observers assumed 'Thriller' would only be a minor hit album. At the time of recording, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney were still on speaking terms. This would change some years later, when Michael acquired the rights over Beatles songs.

This single was pressed on red vinyl and is part five of a limited edition nine disc set released in 1983.

My collection: 7" single no. 3526
Found: eBay, January 6, 2009
Cost: 2 euro
Tracks: 'The girl is mine' / 'Can't get outta the rain'
Download: here

Wonderful Christmas time - Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney: living legend or schmalz-king? The question comes back regularly. Between songs like 'Live and let die', 'No more lonely nights' and 'From a lover to a friend' there's always strange duds like 'We all stand together' and this, 'Wonderful Christmas time'. It is an original, but a bit repetitive, Christmas song. The B-side, an instrumental version of 'Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer' is even weirder.

It's a great little ditty, though, and so useful for the Christmas season.

My collection: 7" single no. 43

Found: Rapsody, Den Haag, 1980

Cost: 3 guilders

Tracks: 'Wonderful Christmas time' / 'Rudolph the red-nosed reggae'

Download: here

Do they know it's Christmas? - Band Aid

The song that embodied the Christmas spirit in the Eighties was Band Aid's 'Do they know it's Christmas?'. The project initiated by Midge Ure and Bob Geldof started when the two met up and worked out this song Bob had written in a rather rudimentary way. They phoned up the musician friends they knew and before you knew it you had a media spectacle of unprecedented size.

I bought the single as soon as it came out, although, strangely, I didn't like the song that much. There were just so many of my eighties idols participated that I felt I couldn't pass up on this historic single. Two decades later, it's somehow reassuring (or troubling) that everything has stayed the same in Africa: it's still a continent of war, hunger and drought.

My collection: 7" single no. 249

Found: Wouters, Den Haag, 1984

Cost: 6 guilders

Tracks: 'Do they know it's Christmas?' / 'Feed the world'

Download: 12" single 'Do they know it's Christmas?', including both tracks (password: burningtheground-djpault.blogspot.com )