Ebony and Ivory "Billboard" Hot 100 charts. At the simplest level, the song is about the ebony (black) and ivory (white) keys on a piano, but also deals with integration and racial harmony on a deeper, human level. The title was inspired by McCartney hearing Spike Milligan say "black notes, white notes, and you need to play the two to make harmony, folks!". The figure of speech is much older. It was popularised by James Aggrey in the 1920s, inspiring the title of the pan-African journal "The Keys", but was in use from at least the 1840s. Written by McCartney alone, the song
Girlfriend (Paul McCartney song) album. This proved to be another hit single for Jackson and one of his first recordings of a Paul McCartney song. McCartney and Jackson subsequently worked together on "The Girl Is Mine" from Jackson's "Thriller", as well as "Say Say Say" and "The Man", from McCartney's "Pipes of Peace". In 1985, Jackson acquired the ATV Music Publishing catalog (which held the rights to nearly every Beatles song) uncontested by McCartney. According to McCartney, they "drifted apart" after he talked to Jackson about getting a "raise" and Jackson did not act on it. Girlfriend (Paul McCartney song) "Girlfriend" is a song