Thriller Michael Jackson

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Release Date

November 30, 1982

Duration

42:19

Genre

R&B, Pop/Rock

Styles

Contemporary R&B, Pop, Adult Contemporary R&B, Quiet Storm, Post-Disco

Recording Date

April 14, 1982 - November 8, 1982

Recording Location

Ocean Way Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA

Westlake Audio, Los Angeles, CA

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Discography Timeline

See Full Discography

Got to Be There (1972)

Ben (1972)

Music & Me (1973)

Forever, Michael (1975)

Off the Wall (1979)

Thriller (1982)

Bad (1987)

Dangerous (1991)

Invincible (2001)

Michael (2010)

Xscape (2014)

Thriller Review by AllMusic

Thriller Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Off the Wall was a massive success, spawning four Top Ten hits (two of them number ones), but nothing could have prepared Michael Jackson for Thriller. Nobody could have prepared anybody for the success of Thriller, since the magnitude of its success was simply unimaginable -- an album that sold 40 million copies in its initial chart run, with seven of its nine tracks reaching the Top Ten (for the record, the terrific "Baby Be Mine" and the pretty good ballad "The Lady in My Life" are not like the others). This was a record that had something for everybody, building on the basic blueprint of Off the Wall by adding harder funk, hard rock, softer ballads, and smoother soul -- expanding the approach to have something for every audience. That alone would have given the album a good shot at a huge audience, but it also arrived precisely when MTV was reaching its ascendancy, and Jackson helped the network by being not just its first superstar, but first black star as much as the network helped him. This all would have made it a success (and its success, in turn, served as a new standard for success), but it stayed on the charts, turning out singles, for nearly two years because it was really, really good. True, it wasn't as tight as Off the Wall -- and the ridiculous, late-night house-of-horrors title track is the prime culprit, arriving in the middle of the record and sucking out its momentum -- but those one or two cuts don't detract from a phenomenal set of music. It's calculated, to be sure, but the chutzpah of those calculations (before this, nobody would even have thought to bring in metal virtuoso Eddie Van Halen to play on a disco cut) is outdone by their success. This is where a song as gentle and lovely as "Human Nature" coexists comfortably with the tough, scared "Beat It," the sweet schmaltz of the Paul McCartney duet "The Girl Is Mine," and the frizzy funk of "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)." And, although this is an undeniably fun record, the paranoia is already creeping in, manifesting itself in the record's two best songs: "Billie Jean," where a woman claims Michael is the father of her child, and the delirious "Wanna Be Startin' Something," the freshest funk on the album, but the most claustrophobic, scariest track Jackson ever recorded. These give the record its anchor and are part of the reason why the record is more than just a phenomenon. The other reason, of course, is that much of this is just simply great music.

Thriller User Reviews

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Azapro Nineoneone February 2, 2016

Love or loathe Michael Jackson, Thriller is an everlasting monument to great popular music that deserves respect. I can guarantee you that nine out of every ten people who said that they didn't like his weirdness (he certainly had plenty of that) or his desire to be the 'King of Pop' will either openly or secretly like at least one thing about this album. "It's bubblegum nonsense, I can't stand it or him! Now let me just close the curtains, I don't want anybody to see me do air guitar on Eddie VH's 'Beat It' solo......" Guest star Paul McCartney had been popularising the 'something for everyone' formula with his old chums as far back as 15 years earlier, but nobody ever managed to cram in so many different styles and genres as successfully as Jackson did here and it's extremely doubtful that anyone ever will again, not even Michael himself ever quite managed to duplicate it. Quincy Jones has also done a wonderful job, alongside Jackson, of making the album sound like 1982/83 without it becoming horribly dated in the years since, an extremely difficult trick to pull off and one that is only possible with a batch of killer songs and a gifted artist at the very, very top of his form. 'Billy Jean', 'Beat It' and the title track are still firmly implanted within society's pop culture consciousness to this very day, while songs such as 'Human Nature' and 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' are beginning to garner even bigger levels of attention in the years after Jackson's sad passing. Off The Wall, Bad and Dangerous were very popular, but Thriller was COLOSSAL, officially the most purchased album of all-time right across the globe. And the fact is folks, it really has earned that status.

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Bertmeister BG August 1, 2015

This is simply the greatest R&B album of all time. It was the game changer for so much music, live performance and music videos. When critics are virtually unanimous in their praise, and music lovers the world over, speak with their wallets and make this the best selling album of all time, there's not much else to be said about it. I think that combination is the ultimate measure to be used in whether the music is great or not. You can be influential and start a new trend or do something different, but in the end, it's all about the quality of the music and how it's received and this one passes with flying colours and stands the test of time more than 30 years after it's release.

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R S January 19, 2019

Where do we begin with Thriller? Thriller is THE best selling album of all time in America having received the triple diamond (over 30 million copies sold!) certification from the RIAA, the first album to ever receive that certification. Thriller was ubiquitous in 1983 and '84 and once more it was ubiquitous in 2009-10 after Michael Jackson's earth shaking, Internet breaking death. To quote from 1,001 Albums You must Hear before you die "Thriller is an album shrouded in statistics." So with it's legendary cultural status, one has wonder, what is it about Thriller that made it so big? Thriller builds upon the excellence of it's predecessor Off the Wall by replacing the inventive disco heaven of that record with inventive post disco such as boogie funk (Wanna Be Startin' Something, Baby be Mine and Billie Jean and P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)) and hi-NRG proto techno/eurodisco (the title track), soft rock/adult contemporary (The Girl is Mine) and hard rock (Beat It) in addition to an updated version of the quiet storm Jackson had previously done on Off the Wall (Human Nature and The Lady in My Life). With this new and expanded formula, Jackson and Quincy Jones polished, tuned, and streamlined the tracks and the album as a whole (Thriller has nine tracks compared with Off the Wall's ten) to pop perfection explicitly designing the album for maximum mass crossover appeal and success with every track being designed to be a hit, even the two album tracks, Baby be Mine and The Lady in My Life have hit appeal (although they stand out compared to every other track that was released as a single). The result is album of pure, joyous pop pleasure that represents everything that can be great about pop music that also broke down racial and cultural barriers and established a standard by which pop albums from later in 80's and afterward would be judged against.

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Olivia Selby September 15, 2019

The Thriller album was Michael's pivotal point in popularity. Frankly, if we counted just sales, accolades, impact, influence, and legacy... this album would be the greatest in history. And it arguably is. While this may seem very biased, I am a huge Michael Jackson fan, so I'll digress a little. But the truth is, this album changed the landscape of pop culture and music itself. Before Thriller, you wouldn't see an African American artist on MTV. Personally, I don't think this album is the climax of Michael's unprecedented creativity (look at Dangerous, or the much underrated Invincible).

Michael was insanely disappointed by the commercial success of Off The Wall. To understand where this album spawned is to understand Michael's yearning to become the greatest of ALL TIME, to have the best selling album of all time! Of course, he fulfilled that with seven grammy's (plus one for the ET soundtrack, yes I know he won eight in a night.), eight billboard music awards, and countless others. Oh, and remember the music videos? Another reason why Thriller was so freaking popular, the legendary music videos.

From the lurking story of Billie Jean to the dancing zombies in the Thriller short film, this album is the greatest I've ever heard (or one of them). So yes, I highly recommend you listen to this album that forever changed popular music. If you're looking for some of the most important albums in history, this should be on your wishlist.
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Must-listen tracks:
Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
Baby Be Mine
Thriller
Beat It
Billie Jean
Human Nature
The Lady In My Life

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The Musiclover November 13, 2015

Thriller is an unforgettable collection of inventive and ingenious R&B and rock compositions that is still loved today.

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Eduardo Fuentes-Morán May 26, 2018

A remarkable and ambitious project for a maturing Michael Jackson. The album is not only monumental for its music, but also for the impact it had on the music industry and society as a whole.

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Matthew Sullivan January 13, 2018

Why Is MJ so highly regarded? Thriller is a big part of it. Not too many albums are as timeless as this one. Billie Jean remains my favorite song...period. Soemtiimes an album just has TOO MANY hot songs on it to be less than a 10/10...thats the case here.

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Tavan Scoggins January 25, 2016

Tavan25 1/24/16
I love this album! Thriller is Michael's best album! This album changed the music industry forever! Buy this album if you don't have it in your collection! R.I.P. Michael! The songs on this album are fun and enjoyable! Thriller was the 1st Michael album I bought! Thriller cemented Michael as the King Of Pop!

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Peter Sigal December 15, 2022

I decided to revisit this after 40 years. It was NOT my kind of music when it came out, and to be honest i was indifferent to it (was more into postpunk/hardcore etc). But even then, it was irresistable. Even a thrash-lovin' teen like me couldn't deny these songs.

I thought, well, it was the videos/MTV that made this. MJ was a tragic creep. This is funk for white folks etc. etc.

You know what? This still holds up. MJ's voice is a beautiful instrument; Quincy Jones's production is tight, the funk is funky, adding EvH and other rock touches were genius. Yeah, it's super-slick, VERY cynical and knowing what we know about MJ now, you wonder how much agency he had when this record was made. But no one has made a better pop album, if you're talking about sales and crossover success.

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Gabriele Bernardi April 20, 2021

record that you love or hate, if I try to evaluate it objectively I have to take off my hat in front of songs like thriller, billie jean, beat it, human nature .. in short, have some! also nice the girl is mine and flashes of great class even in baby be mine, quincy jones does a great job both harmoniously and in the arrangements. some things, however, sound very dated and some pieces like the initial wanna be startin something go on without taking. not a perfect album, but an album absolutely to have and to remember, one of the symbols of the decade.

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Thriller Track List

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'

Michael Jackson