Songfacts®:

• On this funky album cut, written by "Thriller" scribe Rod Temperton, Jackson is experiencing the heady emotions of a new relationship and begs his girl to commit to him.
• Jackson's producer, Quincy Jones, recruited Temperton to the project after working together on the King of Pop's hit Off The Wall album. Jones appreciated Temperton's knowledge of musical principles and his ability to incorporate those influences in a pop friendly manner.
  
  In a 2009 interview with Hi-Fi news & Record Review, he pinpointed jazz great John Coltrane as the inspiration behind the song's bebop flavor. "Take a close look at 'Baby Be Mine,' the Rod Temperton song. Rod is a genius," he said, starting to scat. "It goes 'Deedle, dee-do- dee-dee- dee…' That's Coltrane, man. It's got pop lyrics and a beat, but it's Coltrane. It all came from the same place."
• Bruce Swedien, who was the engineer for Thriller, credits Jackson's clear vocals to his microphone, an early model of the Shure SM7 (serial number 232). The mic preamp was a Neve 1084 that Swedien used to carry with him from session to session. The same mic and mic pre were used throughout the entire album.
• Ndugu Chancler manned the sticks on this track. Bruce Swedien recalls him playing on an eight-foot square drum platform where Jackson also performed his vocals. He explained: "By getting the sound source up off the floor, it prevented secondary pick-up if I was recording other instruments along with whatever was on the drum platform."