Thriller

CLICK ON THE SONG TO KNOW THE STORY BEHIND IT

To understand Thriller, you have to understand the fury that fueled it. In 1980, Michael Jackson was a superstar, but he was a frustrated one. His first solo album with Epic Records, Off the Wall, had been a massive success, selling 10 million copies and generating four Top 10 hits. Yet, in Michael’s eyes, the music industry had snubbed him. At the Grammy Awards that year, he walked away with only one statuette: Best R&B Vocal Performance for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." He was shut out of the major categories like Album of the Year.

Michael famously told a reporter from Rolling Stone, who had declined to put him on the cover because "black artists don't sell magazines," that he had been treated unfairly. He went home and cried, but his sadness quickly turned to determination. He told producer Quincy Jones, "The next album isn't just going to be good. It's going to be where every song is a killer." He didn't want any "B-sides." He didn't want any album fillers. He wanted a tracklist of nine potential #1 hits that would force the entire world, not just the R&B charts, to acknowledge him.

The "All Killer, No Filler" Philosophy In April 1982, Michael and Quincy Jones reassembled the "A-Team" at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles. This included British songwriter Rod Temperton and the legendary engineer Bruce Swedien. The goal was audacious: to create the best-selling album of all time.

The selection process was brutal. Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson listened to over 600 demos to find the nine songs that would make the final cut. They were ruthless. Great songs were thrown away because they weren't perfect songs. The team worked with a philosophy of "sonic personality." Each song had to have its own unique soundscape that grabbed the listener within the first five seconds.

The genius of Thriller lies in its refusal to be categorized. At the time, radio was deeply segregated; "black music" was played on R&B stations, and "white music" was played on rock and pop stations. Michael set out to dismantle these walls.

For the Rock Fans: Michael wrote "Beat It." He wanted a song that would be played on rock radio. Quincy Jones famously told him to write "a black version of 'My Sharona'." To seal the deal, they recruited Eddie Van Halen, the guitar god of the era. Van Halen recorded his blistering guitar solo as a favor, free of charge, while his bandmates were out of town. The combination of heavy metal guitar and R&B dance rhythms was revolutionary.
For the Pop/Soft Rock Crowd: They collaborated with Paul McCartney on "The Girl Is Mine." By releasing this as the first single, they tricked pop radio stations into playing Michael Jackson, ensuring that the "white" audience was listening before the funk tracks dropped.
For the Club Heads: They created "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," tracks driven by African rhythms, paranoia, and relentless funk.

The title track itself underwent a massive transformation. The song, written by Rod Temperton, was originally titled "Starlight." The chorus lyrics were: "Starlight! Starlight sun... Gimme some starlight, for a new day has begun." It was a catchy, optimistic disco tune.

However, Michael wanted something darker. He wanted to explore a theatrical, cinematic side, something that tapped into his love for horror movies and transformation. Temperton went home and rewrote the lyrics overnight, changing the title to Thriller. He envisioned a "mini-movie" for the ears, complete with creaking doors, howling wolves, and footsteps. To cap it off, Quincy Jones’s wife, Peggy Lipton, suggested they get a horror icon to do a spoken word verse. They called Vincent Price, who was a friend of hers. Price arrived at the studio and recorded his legendary "darkness falls across the land" rap in just two takes.

Despite the high quality of the songs, the production process hit a crisis point. The team was working under immense pressure from CBS Records to get the album out for the Christmas market. They worked around the clock, sleeping in the studio.

When they finally finished the first mix of the album, they sat down for a playback. It was a disaster. The team had worked so hard, layering so many overdubs, that the tape had effectively "choked." The sound was muddy, flat, and lifeless. The energy was gone. Michael Jackson, exhausted and heartbroken, dissolved into tears in the control room. He told the team, "We can't release this."

Quincy Jones made a bold executive decision. He told the label they would miss the deadline if necessary. He sent everyone home for two days to sleep. They played stickball in the studio parking lot to clear their heads. Then, refreshed, they went back in and remixed the entire album from scratch one song per day over a manic eight-day period. This "fresh ears" approach saved the record. The final mix was punchy, crisp, and dynamic.

Before Thriller, MTV was almost exclusively a white rock channel. They famously refused to play videos by black artists, claiming it didn't fit their "rock" format. CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff was furious. He called MTV executives and threatened to pull all of his artists (including huge acts like Billy Joel and Cyndi Lauper) off the network if they didn't play "Billie Jean." MTV caved.

The result was an explosion. The video for "Billie Jean," with its lighting-up sidewalk, was mesmerizing. Then came "Beat It," featuring real gang members from Los Angeles. But the coup de grâce was the 14-minute short film for "Thriller," directed by John Landis. It wasn't a music video; it was a cultural event. Premieres were held in movie theaters. The "Making of Thriller" VHS tape became the best-selling home video of all time. Michael didn't just get on MTV; he became MTV.

If the album made him a star, the television performance on May 16, 1983, made him a legend. During the Motown 25 TV special, Michael performed "Billie Jean" solo. He unveiled the Moonwalk, a move he had refined from street dancers, gliding backwards across the stage while appearing to walk forwards. The next day, Fred Astaire called him to congratulate him. Sales of the album, which had started to slow down, skyrocketed again, selling a million copies a week.

Thriller was released on November 30, 1982. It spent 37 weeks at #1 on the Billboard chart. It won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in one night (Michael famously wore his sunglasses and sequined glove to the podium to collect them).

It didn't just break records; it shattered the ceiling of what was possible in the music industry. It revitalized the record business, which had been in a financial slump, and established Michael Jackson not just as a star, but as a global entity, the most famous person on the planet. To this day, it remains the best-selling album in human history, with estimated sales of over 70 million copies worldwide. It is the yardstick by which all other pop albums are measured.