Songfacts®:

• Control was a breakout album for Janet Jackson, featuring very assertive songs like "What Have You Done For Me Lately" and "Nasty." Her record company even turned down "How Will I Know," which went to Whitney Houston, because it didn't fit the tone of the album. "When I Think of You" was one of the lightest songs, but it was her biggest hit from the album and the first of her 10 US chart-toppers. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Bertrand - Paris, France
• Jackson was just 20 years old when this was released, but she had already put out two albums, including her self-titled debut in 1982. Growing up in a showbiz family, she was encouraged to perform at a young age and had matured a great deal by the time this song came out.
• Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis wrote this song with Jackson and also produced the track. The duo helped out on many of Jackson's hits, fusing R&B and pop into a distinctive, but radio-friendly sound.
• When this song hit #1, Michael and Janet Jackson became the first and only siblings to each have #1 solo hits in the United States. In the UK, where Janet never hit the top spot, that distinction goes to Daniel and Natasha Bedingfield.
• "When I Think of You" was the first Hot 100 #1 produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who reached the top spot on that tally a remarkable 16 times. Their second #1 is one you probably wouldn't expect: "Human" by the British synth-pop group The Human League. That song went to #1 on November 22, 1986, just five weeks after "When I Think Of You" hit the top.
• The video for this song was choreographed by Paula Abdul (along with Michael Kidd of Guys And Dolls fame) and directed by Julien Temple, who also directed the video for Jackson's "Alright." A few years later, Abdul broke through as a singer.
• Before Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis teamed up with Jackson, they wrote most of the songs for the Control album for another singer: Sharon Bryant. The former Atlantic Starr vocalist wasn't interested in the tracks, so they were tucked away until the right person came along.
• During the recording of this album, Terry Lewis became more than a producer and songwriter for Jackson - he became her personal chef. Jam remembered: "Terry cooked her some home-cooked meals because she was sick of eating hotel food." This was actually part of a tactic to help Jackson get comfortable with the team. "We spent a week getting her to open up to us," Jam recalled. "With artists you sometimes have to be a psychologist, a counselor, a masseuse - anything."
• The music video follows Jackson through a neighborhood populated by a diverse cast of characters, including unruly sailors, flamethrowing jugglers, and zoot-suited dancers. Julien Temple captured the action in what seems to be one sweeping shot - only not really. It's actually three takes edited together, disguised with the help of a photographer's camera flash.
  
  "The camera movement is the hardest part, to keep it dynamic and exciting," Temple told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. "The key to pulling it off was getting our camera crew together with the dancers on the set, because the dancers had been rehearsing in their studio, but we needed to adjust the timing of each routine, so the dancers could hit their marks precisely when we had the camera in position. This was actually a low-budget video, so a lot of our extras did double-duty. It was very funny to watch. After they'd performed their first routine, they'd run off behind the camera, changing hats and jackets as they got in position for another shot down at the end of the street."
• The video was staged at 20th Century Fox on a leftover set from the 1986 John Carpenter movie Big Trouble In Little China.
• The sheepdog in the video went on to portray the Bundy family's dog, Buck, on the sitcom Married… With Children for eight years, starting in 1987. He also shows up in the films The Best Of Times (1986) and Scrooged (1988).