Songfacts®:

• This heartfelt ballad was written by Tom Bahler. Though he dated Karen Carpenter (who would die of complications from anorexia in 1983), the song was not about the eventual demise of their romance. Bahler explained it was actually inspired by his breakup with his previous girlfriend, Rhonda Rivera.
• Off the Wall producer Quincy Jones had been saving the track for Frank Sinatra but wanted to introduce Jackson to more mature themes in his music. The song would become famous for the King of Pop's tearful performance. Jones remembered: "She's Out of My Life, I'd been carrying around for about three years - you can feel the pain in it, you know. And I held on to it and finally something said 'this is the right moment to give it to Michael'.
  
  And when we recorded it with Michael, I know it was an experience he'd never even thought about to sing in a song, 'cause it's a very mature emotion. And he cried at the end of every take, you know. We recorded about - I don't know - 8-11 takes, and every one at the end, he just cried, and I said 'hey - that's supposed to be, leave it on there.'"
• Bruce Gowers directed the stark music video that put Jackson's emotions front and center. He told Rolling Stone: "What you're seeing on there is one complete take, it was shot multi-camera. [This and 'Rock With You'] were both shot on the same day. I think we shot one at like three in the afternoon and one at 5… Very emotional he was in that. I was worried that he was actually going to break down and cry – which would have probably been a bit wonderful if we got some tears rolling down the face. That almost happened but not quite."
• In his Moonwalk autobiography, Jackson explained that the song forced him to confront feelings of loneliness, of being "so rich in some experiences while being poor in moments of true joy."