Michael Jackson straight-up stole his signature hit, "Billie Jean," from Donna Summer ... is what Quincy Jones claims, and it turns out -- on this topic, at least -- Quincy ain't so crazy.
Here's how Q broke it down to Vulture ..."Michael stole a lot of stuff. He stole a lot of songs. [Donna Summer’s] 'State of Independence' and 'Billie Jean.' The notes don’t lie, man."
He's right. Through the magic of editing -- just like they do in recording studios -- we slowed down Donna's song, and BAM! The first 8 seconds here are just "State of Independence" ... then we added the famous bass line from "Billie Jean" on top of it.
Identical.
Just for giggles, you can check out both songs at full speed, too.
There's another piece to this puzzle ... Quincy actually produced Donna's song, too!
As for the timing -- Donna's album was released in the summer of 1982 ... when MJ and Quincy would have been working on the "Thriller" album. That came out in November 1982.
We got lover-of-all-things-MJ, Corey Feldman, out last night, and he thinks Quincy should share some of the blame for the song theft. Hmm ...