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Thriller (album): the story on HearLore | HearLore
Thriller (album)
Michael Jackson was twenty-one years old in August 1979 when he made a declaration that would haunt his career for the rest of his life. He told his new manager John Branca that he intended to become the biggest and wealthiest star in show business. This was not a typical boast from a pop singer who had already found success with the Jackson 5. Jackson was deeply unhappy during the years between his previous album Off the Wall and the creation of Thriller. He described sitting alone in his room crying, walking the neighborhood at night hoping to find someone to talk to, and returning home to silence. The music industry had treated him as a child star, and now that he was an adult, he felt undervalued and isolated. When Rolling Stone declined to run a cover story on him in 1980, Jackson responded with a prediction that would come true: black people on the cover of magazines did not sell copies, but one day those magazines would be begging him for an interview. He was determined to create an album where every song was a killer, rejecting the industry standard of one hit single surrounded by filler tracks. He wanted to release an album where every song was so great that people would want to buy it if it were released as a single. This ambition set the stage for a project that would change the music industry forever.
The Studio That Changed Everything
Recording began on the 14th of April 1982 at noon at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California. The budget for the project was $750,000, a massive sum for the time, yet Jackson and producer Quincy Jones worked on thirty songs before selecting nine for the final tracklist. Jackson did not write his songs on paper; instead, he dictated them into a sound recorder and sang from memory during the sessions. The relationship between Jackson and Jones became strained as the recording progressed, with Jackson spending much of his time rehearsing dance steps alone. When the album was completed, both men were unhappy with the result and remixed every song, spending a week on each track to perfect the sound. The album featured a unique blend of post-disco, funk, pop, and rock, with Jackson transitioning away from the disco-heavy sound of his previous work due to the ongoing backlash against disco music. Paul McCartney appeared as the first credited featured artist on a Jackson album, recording The Girl Is Mine with Jackson. The album also included a cover of Behind the Mask, originally by the Japanese band Yellow Magic Orchestra, which was omitted when the parties could not agree on royalties. Jackson wrote four songs for the record, including Billie Jean and Beat It, and insisted on keeping the long introduction to Billie Jean because it made him want to dance, despite Jones wanting to shorten it.
When was the Thriller album by Michael Jackson released?
The album Thriller was released in 1982. Recording began on the 14th of April 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California.
How many Grammy Awards did Michael Jackson win for the Thriller album?
Michael Jackson won eight Grammy Awards for the Thriller album at the 26th Grammy Awards. The album won Album of the Year and a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in total.
What is the sales record for the Thriller album by Michael Jackson?
The Thriller album is the best-selling album of all time with an estimated 70 million copies sold worldwide. It sold 32 million copies by the end of 1983 and 48 million copies by the end of the decade.
Who produced the Thriller album by Michael Jackson?
Quincy Jones produced the Thriller album alongside Michael Jackson. The project had a budget of $750,000 and involved thirty songs before selecting nine for the final tracklist.
When did the Billie Jean music video debut on MTV?
The Billie Jean music video debuted on the 10th of March 1983 on MTV. It was one of the first videos by a black artist to be aired regularly by the channel.
What songs are included on the Thriller album by Michael Jackson?
The Thriller album includes songs such as Billie Jean, Beat It, The Girl Is Mine, and the title track Thriller. It also features a cover of Behind the Mask originally by Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Billie Jean was personal to Jackson, who struggled with obsessed fans who alleged he fathered her child. The song opens with a long bass-and-drums introduction and features a lyricon, a wind-controlled synthesizer played by jazz saxophonist Tom Scott. Jones had Jackson sing overdubs through a six-foot cardboard tube to achieve a specific sound. The album foreshadowed the contradictory themes of Jackson's later works, using a motif of paranoia and darker themes including supernatural imagery in the title track. The song Thriller includes sound effects such as creaking doors, thunder, footsteps, wind, and howling dogs. Rod Temperton wrote the song Thriller and wanted to call it Starlight or Midnight Man, but settled on Thriller because he felt the name had merchandising potential. Jones brought in actor Vincent Price to recite the closing lyrics, and Price completed his part in two takes. Temperton wrote the spoken portion in a taxi on the way to the recording studio. The album also featured the anti-gang-violence song Beat It, which became an homage to West Side Story and was Jackson's first successful rock crossover piece. Jackson later said of Beat It that the point was no one has to be the tough guy, you can walk away from a fight and still be a man. The album explored genres including post-disco, funk, pop, synth-pop, R&B, and rock, with a tempo ranging from 80 beats per minute on The Girl Is Mine to 138 on Beat It.
The Video That Broke The Internet
The Billie Jean music video debuted on the 10th of March 1983 on MTV, bringing the network to mainstream attention. It was one of the first videos by a black artist to be aired regularly by the channel, as the network's executives felt black music was not rock enough. CBS Records president Walter Yetnikoff told MTV that he was not going to give them any more videos and was going to go public and tell them about the fact that they did not want to play music by a black guy. Yetnikoff persuaded MTV to begin airing Billie Jean and Beat It, which led to a long partnership and helped other black artists to gain mainstream recognition. The Beat It music video had its premiere on MTV during primetime on the 31st of March 1983. To add authenticity to the production but also to foster peace between them, Jackson had the idea to cast members of rival Los Angeles street gangs the Crips and the Bloods, and included around 80 genuine gang members. Its plot is Jackson bringing two gangsters together through the power of music and dance. The Thriller music video premiered on MTV on the 2nd of December 1983. In the video, Jackson and his girlfriend played by Ola Ray are confronted by zombies while walking home from a movie theater. Jackson becomes a zombie and performs a dance routine with a horde of the undead. It was named the greatest video of all time by MTV in 1999, by VH1 in 2001, and by Time in 2011. In 2009, it became the first music video to be selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
The Moonwalk And The Mania
Sales of Thriller surged after Jackson debuted his signature moonwalk dance in Motown 25. The album became the best-selling album of all time by early 1984, with sales of over 30 million copies. The album reached number one on the Billboard Top LPs and Tape chart on the 26th of February 1983 and stood atop for a record 37 non-consecutive weeks. It also spent a record 37 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, from the 26th of February 1983 to the 14th of April 1984, and has remained on the chart for 626 nonconsecutive weeks. The album sold one million copies worldwide per week at its peak. Thriller was the best-selling album in the United States in 1983 and 1984, making it the first album to be the best-selling for two years. It also spent a record 37 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, from the 26th of February 1983 to the 14th of April 1984, and has remained on the chart for 626 nonconsecutive weeks. The album's success gave Jackson an unprecedented level of cultural significance for a black American, breaking racial barriers in popular music and notably causing an intense fan frenzy known as Michaelmania. The album has gained Diamond certifications in Argentina, Canada, Denmark, France, Mexico and the UK. By the end of 1983, Thriller became the world's best-selling album, having sold 32 million copies. By the end of the decade, Thriller had sold 48 million copies, with industry estimates suggesting an additional 15 million international sales were lost to bootleg cassette sales by 1985.
The Night The Grammys Changed
Jackson was nominated for a record 12 Grammy Awards at the 26th Grammy Awards. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. Jackson won seven of the Grammy Awards for the album, while the eighth Grammy Award went to Bruce Swedien. Richard Harrington of The Washington Post described the ceremony as The Michael Jackson Show, writing it was exactly the kind of one-man show that everyone had anticipated. In winning the Album of the Year award, Jackson became the third-youngest to win the award after Barbra Streisand at 22 and Stevie Wonder at 23. That same year, Jackson won eight American Music Awards, including the American Music Award of Merit, and three MTV Video Music Awards. Thriller was recognized as the best-selling album of all time on the 7th of February 1984, when it was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records. The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008 and added to the National Recording Registry of culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant recordings by the Library of Congress. The album has been certified 34x platinum in the US, denoting 34 million album-equivalent units. By the end of 2021, the album has been certified 34x platinum in the US, denoting 34 million album-equivalent units. The album has sold an estimated 70 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling album of all time.
The Legacy Of A Pop Icon
Thriller has continued to receive critical acclaim and has been reissued multiple times. The album was reissued on the 16th of October 2001 in an expanded set, Thriller: Special Edition. The album is remastered and includes a new booklet and bonus material, including the songs Someone in the Dark, Carousel and Jackson's original Billie Jean demo. In February 2008, Epic Records released Thriller 25, with Jackson serving as executive producer. Thriller 25 appeared on CD, USB and vinyl with seven bonus tracks, the new song For All Time, a snippet of Price's voiceover and five remixes featuring American artists Fergie, will.i.am, Kanye West and Akon. After Jackson's death in June 2009, Thriller set additional records. The album sold 101,000 units in the US on the chart week ending the 1st of July 2009 and was the third biggest-selling album of the week. The album placed at number three on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. The following week the album sold 187,000 units in the US on the chart week ending the 8th of July 2009 and was the second biggest-selling album of the week. Songs from Thriller also helped Jackson become the first artist to sell more than one million song downloads in a week. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Thriller was the 14th best-selling album of 2009 in the United States, with 1.27 million copies sold. The album has sold over 740,000 vinyl records alone worldwide since 2022 according to the IFPI. In 2022, Sony Music released Thriller 40, a 40th-anniversary reissue of Thriller including a bonus disc containing outtakes from the original recording sessions.