Song:Thriller
Album:Thriller
Michael Jackson was already a huge star when Thriller made him an even bigger star. But the most important thing about Thriller was the significance of the music video and how it increased the power of MTV. Jackson's 1979 album Off The Wall was successful enough that he was already at Elvis Presley levels of stardom. He was called the King of Pop. He planned to record with Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury but Mercury's drug abuse and Jackson bringing his llama to the recording studio ended that. Jackson also worked on The Jacksons 1984 album Victory and he contributed a song to Steven Speilberg's 1982 film E.T. Jackson didn't think Off The Wall was a big enough success. So he wanted Thriller to be much bigger. That was his mindset when he entered the studio with producer Quincy Jones and the usual gaggle of studio musicians. Rod Temperton wrote Thriller because he knew Jackson loved horror movies. Temperton, Brian Banks, Greg Phillinganes and Anthony Marinelli all played keyboards on Thriller with David Williams on guitar and Jerry Hey of Seawind arranged the horns. Jones brought in Vincent Price to narrate. He knew Jackson would love that. Jackson wanted the video to be like the transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London. He hired that film's director John Landis to direct the video. The two wrote the script based on the 1957 film I Was A Teenage Werewolf. Jackson and Michael Peters choreographed. Jackson's girlfriend was played by Ola Ray. Rick Baker did the makeup effects as he had done on An American Werewolf on London. This was the first music video that was produced like a major film. And that was why it was so successful. There was even a documentary about the making of the video. As big as Thriller was for Jackson, it was bigger for MTV as it established them as a force in pop music. And record companies had to improve the production of music videos. Up to that point, music videos were pretty cheesy. Thriller is available as a budget CD and a 25th anniversary edition is also available. Here's the full version of the video for thriller by Michael Jackson.
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