Thriller

Michael Jackson’s Thriller was not only the biggest album of the 1980s but it is the biggest-selling album of all time with more than 70 million copies sold worldwide. This album turned MJ into a megastar and led him straight to the throne and crown as the King of Pop.

Thriller was Jackson’s sixth overall solo album but it was his second collaboration with producer Quincy Jones after they came together to create the classic 1979 album Off the Wall. While Off the Wall was successful in selling millions of records worldwide and winning several awards, Jackson didn’t feel that album got enough attention and wanted to come back stronger. Prior to the release of Thriller, Jackson negotiated a deal to receive a royalty rate of 37 percent, which was by far the highest in the music industry at the time, giving him even more incentive to create a powerful project.

The dynamic duo of Jackson and Jones began working on Thriller in April 1982 at the Westlake Audio studio in Los Angeles. Inspired by Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, where Michael felt “every song is a killer,” his aim was to make Thriller an album where every song could be released as a single. With a production budget of $750,000, the album session was completed in approximately seven months, and out of many demos that were produced, nine songs made the final cut. Thriller was a mix of R&B, pop, rock, funk and ballads that had a little something for everyone’s musical taste and “no B-sides.”

The first single from Thriller was “The Girl is Mine,” a duet with Paul McCartney, which was one of the first songs recorded for the album. Released in October 1982, one month before the album, the single was a hit, achieving platinum status in the US and topping the Billboard R&B singles chart while peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 behind Hall & Oates' “Maneater.” Despite the success, the song received mixed reviews as many critics felt it was a “middle of the road” ballad that sounded too poppy.

Thriller was released on November 30, 1982, with the second single “Billie Jean” released on January 2, 1983 and “Beat It” released as the third single on February 14, 1983. These two songs fueled Thriller’s rise as both singles reached number one on multiple international pop charts, including the US Billboard Hot 100, which helped the album reach the number-one spot on the US Billboard 200 on February 26, 1983. Out of the album’s nine songs, seven were released as singles and they were all Top 10 pop hits.

One element that helped propel Thriller and Jackson’s status as a megastar was the visuals. Thriller’s release coincided with the establishment of the cable channel MTV—Music Television—which began broadcasting in 1981. However, MTV was notorious for not featuring Black artists on their playlists, but Jackson broke through that color barrier with his videos for “Billie Jean,” “Beat It” and his mini-movie for “Thriller”—which was named by MTV as the Greatest Music Video Ever Made. He changed the game for music videos in making them more cinematic and using them as marketing tools. Jackson and his style—such as his iconic Thriller jacket—soon permeated pop culture. He further established himself as an out-of-this-world figure as he unleashed the Moonwalk during a performance of “Billie Jean” on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special broadcast in May 1983.

Thriller would go on to spend 37 non-consecutive weeks on top of the Billboard 200 and spent over 500 non-consecutive weeks on the chart overall. It was the top-selling album of 1983 and 1984, and at its peak, the album was selling upwards of one million copies per week worldwide. The album has sold over 33 million albums in the US, and with over 70 million copies sold worldwide, Thriller is the best-selling album of all time—a title the album attained within the first 15 months of its release as it sold more than 20 million copies.

With its iconic status, Thriller has accumulated numerous accolades. It won a record eight American Music Awards and a record eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. It was named as the top album of 1983 by The Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll, inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009, it was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2007 and the music video for “Thriller” was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2009. Rolling Stone ranked the album #12 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ranked it #3 on their list of the Definitive 200 Albums of All Time, while numerous publications have included the album in their lists of the greatest albums of the 1980s and all time. The album has been reissued several times, with a special edition being released in 2001 with extra songs such as “Someone in the Dark” and “Carousel,” while Thriller 25 was released in 2008 with new remixed versions of the hits and Thriller 40 was released in 2022 with several demo tracks.