On This Day: “Thriller”

On this day 38 years ago, Michael Jackson released “Thriller”, his 6th studio album. Thriller would become MJ’s first #1 album, spending 37 consecutive weeks in that spot & by the end of 1983, sold 32 million units worldwide. With Disco dead & MJ in need of a new direction, he & Super Producer, Quincy Jones reunited for an album in which every song would be a smash hit. Thriller featured 9 songs in total with 7 singles: “Thriller”, “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “P.Y.T.”, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”, “Human Nature” & “The Girl is Mine” ft. Paul McCartney, the first person to be a feature on any MJ album. Every single made the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Billie Jean” & “Beat It” reaching #1. With a budget of only $750,000 Thriller became the best-selling album of all-time in 1983 & still holds that title today, selling over 66 million units worldwide by 2017, making the album a whopping 33x Certified Platinum. Thriller also set a record at the 1984 Grammy’s winning 8 total awards & 8 awards at the AMA’s that same year. Thriller is regarded by many as arguably the greatest album ever made in any genre & has gone on to enter the Grammy Hall of Fame, The Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry & the Guinness Book of World Records. With this album, the King of Pop would go on to break many racial barriers, not only in music, but in society. Because of Thriller, Michael became one of the first Black musician to have music videos aired on MTV regularly & even met Ronald Regan at the White House. The iconic music videos that were featured on “Thriller” helped the music industry see music videos as a true art form & was one of the first albums to use videos as a promotional tool. Without Michael Jackson & “Thriller”, the music industry might still be stuck in an antiquated age of bigotry fueled by ego & dominated by white contemporaries. With all that being said, “Human Nature” is the greatest song ever composed. Which track is your favorite from the classic album ?

November 30th, 1982