Jackson sang this as a duet with female singer Siedah Garrett. Whitney Houston and Barbra Streisand were asked to sing this with Jackson, but they refused. Garrett also co-wrote "
Man In The Mirror," another track from
Bad.
On the album, this song begins with a spoken intro: Jackson saying, "A lot of people misunderstand me. That's because they don't know me at all." His producer Quincy Jones had the idea to insert this intro, which gave a telling insight into Jackson's personality.
Jackson also released a Spanish version: "Todo Mi Amor Eres Tu."
On Jackson's 1987 tour, Sheryl Crow was a backup singer and sang this with him on stage. It was set up to look like there was sexual chemistry between them, which led to untrue rumors and tabloid stories that they were an item. Crow explained in a 2008 interview with National Public Radio that she got the job based on her all-American look, and felt Jackson's handlers wanted to pair him on stage with an innocent-looking girl so he would appear more "normal" - this was around the time that the press was picking up on Jackson's eccentricities.
Garrett recalled in an interview with SongTalk magazine in the late 1980s how she came to duet with Jackson on this song. "It came as a total surprise. Quincy called me after I had worked with him doing the background vocals for 'Man In The Mirror' to come back to the studio to do more work, but when I got there, I was surprised to discover that there was nobody else in the studio but Quincy, Michael and me. And the song they were working on wasn't 'Man In The Mirror.' It was a song that Quincy had given me a tape to learn. But I had no idea – I do lots of vocals on demos for Quincy, so this was nothing unusual.
So Quincy said, 'You got the tape, right? Did you learn the song?' I said, 'Sure, I know the song.' He said, 'Well, go in there and sing it.'
I go into the booth: there's two music stands. Michael Jackson is standing at one of them in front of a microphone and there's another microphone for me. This is the first time I realized what was happening. On the sheet music it said, 'Michael, Siedah, Michael, Siedah, etc.' I said, 'Wow! I get it.'"
Jackson and Garrett didn't take the recording entirely seriously. Siedah recalled to SongTalk magazine: "Michael is funny. He has a real keen sense of humor. Which surprised me, because you hear all these stories about how strange he is. I guess he felt relaxed with me because I wasn't in awe of him when we met. I was kind of, 'Yo, Michael, what's up?' I think he found that refreshing."
She added: "If I was talking to Quincy and we were serious for some reason, Michael would toss cashews and peanuts at us. I would be talking to Quincy and these peanuts would fly by. [Laughs]
You know, the duet is a very serious love song. And when I was doing my verse, Michael was making these faces at me so that I would mess up. Quincy would say, 'Siedah – come on! You're holding up the whole album!' And I would get in trouble!"
Michael Jackson's
Thriller album is by far the
best selling album worldwide, but his next album
Bad was also a huge success. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" was the first of a record five US #1 singles from that album.