Not Your Typical N.E.R.D.: Pharrell Williams, Bound by Chords

"The beat's crazy," Williams says of the song. It was a rare hit for the dance-pop duo of Mic Murphy and David Frank, who recorded five albums in the '80s and produced such acts as Chaka Khan and Phil Collins. "That record right there," Williams says, again shaking his head as "Groove" winds down. "Shee-eeesh."

She-eeesh, indeed.

Hey, this won't really work unless you weigh in on these songs, Pharrell. A story about you singing your favorite songs, uh, it won't make much of a story.

"Yeah, okay," he says, sounding resolved. He wants to be helpful.

There's more idol worship when it's time for Michael Jackson's "The Lady in My Life," the last cut on "Thriller."

"This record right here, man . . ." Williams says, newly dumbfounded. "Only had nine songs, and the ninth is a killer."

He notes a chord change he calls "mystic," and then lets slip that he's met Jackson a few times, once at Neverland Ranch.

What was he like?

"He's cool, man. Nice dude."

Nice dude? Hey, how about some detail? Any detail.

What did you guys talk about? Music?

"No. When I get around people like that I don't talk much. I was just in awe."

He apparently didn't say much to Stevie Wonder, either.

"I just told him he's a genius," Williams says as "Golden Lady," from Wonder's "Innervisions" of 1973, plays. He sings along and does a bit of air piano, pointing out key changes as they happen. "Naming a particular song of his is almost insulting because it's, like, what about the rest of them?"

More singing, more symphony conducting. He's then silenced by "Bonita Applebum," a song from the 1990 debut of A Tribe Called Quest, a pioneering trio in the world of alternative rap. Pharrell recalls hearing it and thinking that the course of hip-hop had changed for good.

"When this came out, I didn't care about nothing else," he says.