Thriller (album)

For other albums, see Thriller (disambiguation) § Music.

Thriller
The cover has Jackson reclining in a white suit
Studio album by
Michael Jackson
ReleasedNovember 29, 1982 (1982-11-29)
RecordedApril 14 – November 8, 1982
StudioWestlake, Los Angeles, California
Genre
Length42:16
LabelEpic
Producer
Michael Jackson chronology
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
(1982) 		Thriller
(1982) 		18 Greatest Hits
(1983)
Singles from Thriller
  1. "The Girl Is Mine"
    Released: October 18, 1982
  2. "Billie Jean"
    Released: January 3, 1983
  3. "Beat It"
    Released: February 14, 1983
  4. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
    Released: May 9, 1983
  5. "Human Nature"
    Released: July 4, 1983[1]
  6. "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"
    Released: September 19, 1983[2]
  7. "Thriller"
    Released: November 11, 1983[3]

Thriller is the sixth studio album by the American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, released on November 29, 1982, by Epic Records.[4][5] It was produced by Quincy Jones, who previously worked with Jackson on his album Off the Wall (1979). Jackson wanted to create an album where "every song was a killer". With the ongoing backlash against disco music at the time, he moved in a new musical direction, resulting in a mix of pop, post-disco, rock, funk, synth-pop, and R&B sounds, and darker themes. Paul McCartney is the first credited appearance of a featured artist on a Jackson album. Recording took place from April to November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a budget of $750,000.

Thriller became Jackson's first number-one album on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart, where it spent a record 37 non-consecutive weeks at number one, from February 26, 1983, to April 14, 1984. Seven singles were released: "The Girl Is Mine", "Billie Jean", "Beat It", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", "Human Nature", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", and "Thriller". They all reached the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, setting a record for the most top 10 singles from an album, with "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" reaching number one. Following Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" in the Motown 25 television special, where he debuted his signature moonwalk dance, the album began selling one million copies per week. Sales doubled after the release of the "Thriller" music video on MTV in December 1983.

Thriller sold 32 million copies worldwide by the end of 1983, making it the best-selling album of all time. It was the best-selling album of 1983 worldwide, and in 1984 it became the first album to become the best-selling in the United States for two years. It set industry standards, with its songs, music videos, and promotional strategies influencing artists, record labels, producers, marketers and choreographers. The success gave Jackson an unprecedented level of cultural significance for a black American, breaking racial barriers in popular music, earning him regular airplay on MTV and leading to a meeting with US President Ronald Reagan at the White House. Thriller was among the first albums to use music videos as promotional tools; the videos for "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Thriller" are credited for transforming music videos into a serious art form.

Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, having sold an estimated 70 million copies worldwide. It is the best selling non-compilation album and second-best-selling album overall in the United States, and was certified 34× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2021. It won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male. "Beat It" won two Grammys for Record of the Year & Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male, and "Billie Jean" won two Grammys for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male & Best Rhythm & Blues Song.[6] Jackson also won a record-breaking eight American Music Awards at the 1984 American Music Awards. Thriller is frequently included in lists of the greatest albums of all time. In 2008, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant recordings".

  1. ^ Halstead 2007, p. 144.
  2. ^ Halstead 2007, p. 256.
  3. ^ "New Singles (for the week ending November 11, 1983)" (PDF). Music Week: 30. November 5, 1983. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 13, 2022. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
  4. ^ Grein, Paul (November 6, 1982). "Stars Due Out: Platinum acts prominent in labels' November releases" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 94, no. 44. New York, NY, USA. p. 4. ISSN 0006-2510. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 27, 2021. Epic has set a Nov. 29 release date for "Thriller"
  5. ^ Martinez, Michael. "The Rhythm Section: Short cuts" (PDF). Cash Box. Vol. 44, no. 28. New York, NY, USA. p. 27. ISSN 0008-7289. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 9, 2020. Retrieved November 29, 2022. The much-awaited "Thriller" album on Epic by Michael Jackson, due to ship November 29
  6. ^ "Michael Jackson". Recording Academy Grammy Awards. Retrieved August 11, 2023.