Wanna be startin' somethin' - Michael Jackson

Late last year, I started trying to complete my Michael Jackson singles collection. It started when I found the red vinyl collectors set of 'Thriller' singles. It's gone on from there, until I had almost every Michael Jackson single from 1978 onwards (The early years are much harder, as Motown singles are always expensive). The only single still missing was 'Wanna be startin' somethin'', a single I left standing in the racks numerous times back in the Eighties and Nineties. That omission has now finally been rectified.

The song was released as the fourth single from 'Thriller', and another smash hit. The song includes references to the sometimes unhealthy nature of fandom: 'Still they hate you, you're a vegetable / They eat off of you, you're a vegetable'. The song ends with a chorus repeatedly singing 'Mama-se, mama-sa, ma-ma-coo-sa'. The chant is a riff on one first used by Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango, who broke into the American market in 1973 with his classic 'Soul Makossa'. That track was a big hit in Africa, Europe and America. Dibango named his song after the makossa, a Cameroonian dance, but he stretched the word out and played with it: 'Ma-mako, ma-ma-ssa, mako-makossa'.

My collection: 7" single no. 4014
Found: Vinylfabriek, Haaksbergen, September 14, 2009
Cost: 2 euro
Tracks: 'Wanna be startin' somethin'' / 'Rock with you (live)'