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Michael Jackson Remembered: Patrick Stump on Busting Boundaires

July 9, 2009 1:10 PM ET

Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump

Thriller is two years older than I am, but it was omnipresent when I was a kid. "Billie Jean" was a huge thing — legend has it that there were 80 layers of snare drums on that snare drum. Being a drum-obsessed kid, that was a big deal for me. The great thing about Michael Jackson is that he never gave a shit about his music being categorized: "Beat It" has a straight rock riff. It wasn't incongruous for my pop-punk band to cover it. It's the only song we've ever played that everyone knows all the words to, worldwide, guaranteed.

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“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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