Songfacts®:

• In the early 1980s Michael Jackson and Freddie Mercury recorded three tracks together: "Victory," "There Must Be More To Life Than This" and the original version of "State Of Shock." "Victory" ended up becoming the unreleased title track of this album, while "There Must Be More To Life Than This" ended up being recorded by Mercury on his first solo LP. "State Of Shock" finally became a hit in 1984 when Jackson and his brothers re-recorded it with Mick Jagger. No explanation was given as to why the Mercury version was canned.
• Michael Jackson teamed up with Paul McCartney to spar over a girl in the anodyne 1982 duet The Girl Is Mine. This collaboration is far more electric, with Jackson and Jagger singing about their burning passion for a girl.
• The composer credit on this song is listed as Randy Hansen/Michael Jackson. Hansen, who was The Jacksons' guitar player, is a well-known Seattle musician famous for his Jimi Hendrix tribute show. While Freddie Mercury was not officially credited, he likely had a role in composing the song.
• In 1984, Michael Jackson graced the Hot 100 in myriad ways. In addition to writing and performing on this song, he wrote the #24 hit "Centipede" for his sister Rebbie Jackson, sang with Rockwell on "Somebody's Watching Me" (#2), got a songwriting credit on Weird Al Yankovic's parody song "Eat It" (#12), and scored with his own hit "Thriller" (#4).
• Mick Jagger and Tina Turner did a lusty version of this song at Live Aid. Performing on the Philadelphia stage, their duet found them singing the lines to each other in a mutual state of shock. Jagger was burning hot on this one.
  
  Jagger originally planned a live intercontinental duet with David Bowie, with Bowie in London and Jagger in Philadelphia, but a four-second satellite delay scuttled that plan.