 According to Daryl Hall , when Jackson was recording " We Are the World " , Jackson approached him and admitted to lifting the bassline for " Billie Jean " from a Hall & Oates song ( apparently referring to Hall 's " I Can 't Go for That ( No Can Do ) " from the 1981 album Private Eyes ) : " Michael Jackson once said directly to me that he hoped I didn 't mind that he copied that groove . " Hall says he told Jackson that he had lifted the bassline himself , remarking , " it 's something we all do . " 
