THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

511-Michael Jackson-Thriller.

1983-Number 10 single.

Due to the introduction of downloads, and the songs popularity at Halloween, it reached Number 35 in 2008, and Number 34 in 2017. After the death of Michael Jackson in 2009, the song reached Number 12.

Best Bit-At 4.24. Don’t be frightened, it’s about as scary as the Honey Monster.

‘Thriller’ was the seventh and final single released from Michael Jackson’s sixth solo studio Album of the same name from 1982, with sales in excess of 66 million it is the best selling Album of all time. The Album had already been a major success, and with sales now beginning to drop off after six top 10 Billboard singles, Jackson (see also best songs 812-249-191 and 137) pushed for the release of the single ‘Thriller,’ but the record company having already paid for previous video’s refused to promote a seventh single, so Jackson financed it himself.The video was directed by John Landis, and co-written by Landis and Jackson, and ran for 13 minutes and 43 seconds.It was premiered on MTV on December 2nd, 1983, and is credited with transforming the music video in to a serious art form. In 1999 MTV listed it as being the greatest music video ever, on their list of ‘100 Greatest Videos.’

‘Thriller was written by Rod Temperton (1949-2016) (see also best songs 812 and 703) and produced by Quincy Jones, the pair had both worked with Michael Jackson on his 1970 Album ‘Off the Wall.’ Rodney Lynn Temperton was born on October 9th, 1949 in Cleethorpes, Lincolshire, England, as a student he had attended ‘De Aston School’ in Market Rasen, England, the same school as the future lyricist Bernie Taupin.

Temperton had first come to the attention of Quincy Jones through the recording engineer Bruce Swedien (1934-2020) who had recommended Temperton on the basis of his songwriting for the UK band ‘Heatwave,’ whose songs he had written included ‘Boogie Nights,’ and ‘Always and Forever.’ Temperton wrote ‘Off the Wall,’ and ‘Rock With You’ for Jackson’s 1979 Album, and he also wrote three of the nine tracks on Thriller. The other two songs ‘Baby Be Mine,’ and ‘The Lady in My Life,’ were the only songs on the Album not released as singles.

With ‘Thriller Temperton wanted to write something theatrical for Jackson knowing his love of films. At first Temperton called the song ‘Starlight’ but Quincy Jones (see also best songs 1022-889-812-703-357 and 191) didn’t think that suited the image they were looking for, eventually after giving it a great deal of thought Temperton said that he awoke one morning with the word ‘Thriller’ on his mind.It was Peggy Lipton (1946-2019) who was the wife of Quincy Jones at that time who suggested that Vincent Price (1911-1993) who was a friend, should provide the spoken word, which was also written by Temperton.

Incidentally I suggest you take a listen to the Rick James song ‘Give It To Me Baby,’ from his 1981 Album ‘Street Songs,’ to hear where Temperton may have taken inspiration for this songs bassline.

‘Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand.Creatures crawl in search of blood to terrorise your neighbourhood, and whosoever shall be found without the soul for getting down, must stand and face the hounds of hell, and rot inside a corpse’s shell.’