Single:
Thriller entered the Australian singles chart* on 16 January 1984 and peaked at #4. The song was #20 on the Top 100 of 1984.
Album:
The song is on Thriller which entered the Australian albums chart* on 13 December 1982. It was #1 four times between June 1983 and March 1984, for a total of 11 weeks.
Songwriter:
Rod Temperton
Producer:
Quincy Jones
Record label of Australian release:
Epic
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
The 13-minute music video:
Wikipedia:
The single version of Thriller was released as the seventh and final single from Jackson’s sixth studio album, Thriller. It was produced by Quincy Jones and written by Rod Temperton, who wanted to write a theatrical song to suit Jackson’s love of film.
Jackson decided to release Thriller as a single only after the album had left the top of the US Billboard chart, but it became one of the best-selling singles of all time. It has returned to the Billboard Hot 100 multiple times due to its popularity around Halloween.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(song)
Songfacts:
Vincent Price, an actor known for his work on horror films, did the narration at the end of the song, including the evil laugh. Price’s rap includes the line “Must stand and face the hounds of hell.” This was inspired by the most popular Sherlock Holmes novel to date, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in which Sir Henry Baskerville’s family is supposedly cursed by a bloodthirsty, demonic hound. Price recorded the central spoken section in this song on his second take, after it had been written by Rod Temperton in a taxi on the way to the studio for the recording session.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/michael-jackson/beat-it
Music video:
The music video for Thriller was directed by John Landis. It references numerous horror films and stars Jackson performing a dance routine with a horde of the undead. Jackson contacted Landis after seeing An American Werewolf in London (1981). They conceived a 13-minute short film with a budget much larger than previous music videos. It premiered on MTV in December 1983 and was played regularly, helping to double sales of Thriller.
Many elements have had a lasting impact on popular culture, such as the zombie dance and Jackson’s Thriller jacket, designed by Landis’s wife Deborah Nadoolman Landis. The zombie dance, choreographed by Michael Peters for the music video, is re-enacted worldwide by fans and remains popular on YouTube.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller_(song)#Music_video
Lyrics:
It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurkin’ in the dark
Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes,
You’re paralysed
Click for full lyrics
Also on Bang a Gong from Jackson’s Thriller album: Beat It
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