‘Billie Jean’ video hits 1 billion views on YouTube

“Billie Jean” may have been about “just a girl” who was not Michael Jackson’s lover, but the music video for the song has reached a historic milestone.

Debuting on MTV in March 1983, the Steve Barron-directed clip — where Jackson lands on his toes and illuminates tiles on the ground — has crossed one billion views on YouTube, making it only the third music video of the ’80s to rack up that many viewers, and the first ’80s clip by solo artist to hit that benchmark.

Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’Mine,” from 1988, and a-ha’s 1984 groundbreaking video for “Take On Me,” previously entered the Billion Views club.

According to YouTube, the “Billie Jean” video has been averaging 600,000 daily views globally this year.

Some could argue that Jackson wouldn’t have reached the levels of superstardom he enjoyed in the ’80s if MTV hadn’t been bullied by his record company into playing “Billie Jean.”

Because of racism and segregation in the music business, MTV wouldn’t play any videos by Black acts during its early years.

When Jackson’s record company, CBS Records, first asked MTV to play “Billie Jean,” the programming executives at the channel refused, because they reportedly didn’t feel that Black music was “rock” enough. Subsequently, Walter Yetnikoff, then president of CBS, told MTV that if it didn’t air “Billie Jean,” he’d pull all the label’s other artists off the channel, never give them any videos in the future, and would tell the media that MTV didn’t want to play music by a Black artist.

MTV reluctantly caved and put the “Billie Jean” video in heavy rotation only after it topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. It was a move credited with generating an extra 10 million in sales for the “Thriller” album, which was the bestselling album of all time for decades.

Meanwhile, the video for the album’s title track is nearing 765 million views on YouTube.

“Billie Jean” — which was inducted into the Music Video Producers Hall of Fame in 1992 — is considered one of the greatest videos of all time.

The infectious track, written by Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones, won two Grammy Awards and two American Music Awards.