Thriller

"***Thriller***" is a song by the American singer Michael Jackson. It was released by Epic Records in the US and UK in November 1983, and in the USSR on January 23, 1984, as the seventh and final single from his sixth studio album, *Thriller*.

"Thriller" is a funk song featuring a repeating synthesizer bassline and lyrics evoking horror films, with sound effects such as thunder, creaking doors and wolf howls. It ends with a spoken-word sequence performed by the horror actor Vincent Price. 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.

"Thriller" received positive reviews and became the album's seventh top-ten single on the *Billboard* Hot 100, reaching number four. It reached number one in Belgium and France, and the top ten in many other countries. "Thriller" is certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America. In the week of Jackson's death in 2009, it was Jackson's bestselling track in the US, with sales of 167,000 copies on the *Billboard* Hot Digital Tracks chart. It charted on the *Billboard* Hot Digital Singles Chart at number two, and remained in the charts' top ten for three consecutive weeks. It appears on several of Jackson's greatest-hits albums and has been covered by numerous artists.
The "Thriller" music video was directed by John Landis and premiered on MTV on December 2, 1983. In the video, Jackson becomes a zombie and performs a dance routine with a horde of the undead. Many elements of the video have had a lasting impact on popular culture, such as the zombie dance and Jackson's red jacket, and it was the first music video inducted into the National Film Registry. It has been named the greatest music video of all time by various publications and readers' polls.

## Composition

"Thriller" is a disco-funk song. Set in the key of C# minor, it has a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute. The instrumentation consists of a synthesizer bassline, a Roland Jupiter-8 synthesizer, an electric guitar, a Rhodes piano, an organ, and a horn section consisting of trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn, saxophone, and flute. The introduction features sound effects such as a creaking door, thunder, feet walking on wooden planks, winds and howling wolves.

## Lyrics

***[Intro: Vincent Price & Michael Jackson]***

*(This is Vincent Price inviting you to...*

*The Thriller)*

*Ah, babe*

*Oooh, babe*

*Thriller night (All night)*

*Thriller night, darling*

*I'm gonna thrill you tonight*

***[Verse 1]***

*It's close to midnight*

*And something evil's lurking 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 paralyzed*

***[Verse 2]***

*You hear the door slam*

*And realize there's nowhere left to run*

*You feel the cold hand*

*And wonder if you'll ever see the sun*

*You close your eyes*

*And hope that this is just imagination (Girl)*

*But all the while*

*You hear a creature creepin’ up behind*

*You're out of time*

***[Chorus]***

*'Cause this is thriller, thriller night*

*There ain't no second chance*

*Against the thing with forty eyes, girl*

*Thriller (Ooh), thriller night*

*You're fighting for your life*

*Inside a killer, thriller tonight*

***[Bridge]***

*Night creatures call*

*And the dead start to walk in their masquerade*

*There's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time*

*(They're open wide)*

*This is the end of your life, ooh*

***[Verse 3]***

*They're out to get you*

*There's demons closing in on every side (Ooh)*

*They will possess you*

*Unless you change that number on your dial*

*Now is the time*

*For you and I to cuddle close together, yeah*

*All through the night*

*I'll save you from the terror on the screen*

*I'll make you see*

***[Monologue 1: Vincent Price]***

*Darkness falls across the land*

*The midnight hour is close at hand*

*Creatures crawl in search of blood*

*To terrorize y'all’s neighborhood*

*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*

***[Instrumental break]***

***[Monologue 2: Vincent Price]***

*The demons squeal in sheer delight*

*It's you they spy, so plump, so ripe*

*For although the groove is hard to beat*

*It's still you stand with frozen feet*

*You try to run, you try to scream*

*But no more sun you'll ever see*

*For evil reached from the crypt*

*To crush you in it's icy grip*

***[Monologue 3: Vincent Price & Michael Jackson]***

*I'm gonna thrill you tonight*

*Thriller, ooh, babe* (*Thriller*)

*I'm gonna thrill you tonight* (*Thriller night*)

*Thriller, oh, darling* (*Oh, baby*)

*I'm gonna thrill you tonight* (*Thriller*)

*Ooh, babe* (*Thriller night*)

*I'm gonna thrill you tonight* (*Thriller*)

*Oh, darling* (*Oh, baby*)

*Thriller night, babe* (*Thriller night, babe*)

*Ooh*

*The foulest stench is in the air*

*The funk of forty thousand years (Thriller night, thriller)*

*And grisly ghouls from every tomb*

*Are closing in to seal your doom*

*And though you fight to stay alive*

*Your body starts to shiver (I'm gonna thrill you tonight)*

*For no mere mortal can resist*

*The evil of the thriller*

***[Instrumental break]***

*Can you dig it?*

***[Instrumental solo, followed by an echoed verse from Price]***

*Thriller, thriller, thriller... (echoed)*

***[Instrumental solo]***

***[Chorus]***

*That this is thriller, thriller night*

*'Cause I can thrill you more*

*Than any ghoul would ever dare try*

*Thriller (Ooh), thriller night*

*So let me hold you tight*

*And share a killer, thriller, chiller*

*Thriller, here tonight*

*'Cause this is thriller, thriller night*

*Girl, I can thrill you more*

*Than any ghoul would ever dare try*

*Thriller (Ooh), thriller night*

*So let me hold you tight*

*And share a killer, thriller (Ow)*

***[Laughter from Vincent Price]***

## Writing

"Thriller" was written by the English songwriter Rod Temperton, who had previously written "Rock with You" and "Off the Wall" for Jackson's 1979 album *Off the Wall.* Temperton wanted to write something theatrical to suit Jackson's love of film. He improvised with bass and drum patterns until he developed the bassline that runs through the song, then wrote a chord progression that built to a climax. He recalled: "I wanted it to build and build – a bit like stretching an elastic band throughout the tune to heighten suspense."

Temperton's first version was titled "Starlight" (which would eventually end up as the backside for Thriller itself), with the chorus lyric: "Give me some starlight / Starlight sun". The production team, led by Quincy Jones, felt the song should be the title track, but that "Starlight" was not a strong album title. Instead, they wanted something "mysterious" to match Jackson's "evolving persona". Temperton considered several titles, including "Midnight Man", which Jones felt was "going in the right direction". Finally, he conceived "Thriller", but worried that it was "a crap word to sing ... It sounded terrible! However, we got Michael to spit it into the microphone a few times and it worked."
With the title decided, Temperton wrote lyrics within "a couple of hours". He envisioned a spoken-word sequence for the ending, but did not know what form it should take. It was decided to have a famous voice from the horror genre perform it, and Jones' then-wife, Peggy Lipton, suggested her friend Vincent Price. Temperton composed the words for Price's part in a taxi on the way to the studio on the day of recording.

## Recording

Along with the rest of the album, "Thriller" was recorded over eight weeks in 1982. It was recorded at Westlake Recording Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The engineer Bruce Swedien had Jackson record his vocals in different approaches, doubling takes and recording at different distances from the microphone. Some background vocals were recorded in the Westlake shower stall.

The bassline was performed on an ARP 2600 synthesizer, and the verse pads were performed on a Roland Jupiter-8 and a Yamaha CS-80. The percussion was created with a LinnDrum drum machine modified with sound chips from two other drum machines: a snare and hi-hat from an LM-1 snare, and a clap from a TR-808. "Thriller" also features Rhodes piano performed by Greg Phillinganes and guitar performed by David Williams.

To record the wolf howls, Swedien set up tape recorders up around his Great Dane in a barn overnight, but the dog never howled. Instead, Jackson recorded the howls himself. For the creaking doors, Swedien rented doors designed for sound effects from the Universal Studios Lot and recorded the hinges. Price recorded his part in two takes; Jones, acknowledging that doing a voice-over for a song is difficult, praised Price and described his takes as "fabulous".

## Release

The album *Thriller* was released in November 1982 on Epic Records and spent months at the top of the *Billboard* 200. "Thriller" was not initially planned for release as a single, as Epic saw it as a novelty song. the Epic executive Walter Yetnikoff asked: "Who wants a single about monsters?" By mid-1983, sales of the album had begun to decline. Jackson, who was "obsessive" about his sales figures, urged Yetnikoff and another Epic executive, Larry Stessel, to help conceive a plan to return the album to the top of the charts. Jackson's manager Frank DiLeo suggested releasing "Thriller", backed by a new music video. It was the final single from the album, released in the US and UK in November 1983 and in the USSR in January 1984.

## Music video

The music video for "Thriller" references numerous horror films, and stars Jackson performing a dance routine with a horde of the undead. It was directed by the horror director John Landis and written by Landis and Jackson. Jackson contacted Landis after seeing his film *An American Werewolf in London.* The pair conceived a 13-minute short film with a budget much larger than previous music videos. Jackson's record company refused to finance it, believing *Thriller* had peaked, so a making-of documentary, *Making Michael Jackson's Thriller,* was produced to receive financing from television networks.

*Michael Jackson's Thriller* premiered on MTV on December 2, 1983. It was launched to great anticipation and played regularly on MTV. It doubled sales of *Thriller*, and the documentary sold over a million copies, becoming the bestselling videotape at the time. It is credited for transforming music videos into a serious art form, breaking down racial barriers in popular entertainment, and popularizing the making-of documentary format.
Many elements have had a lasting impact on popular culture, such as the zombie dance and Jackson's red jacket, designed by Landis's wife Deborah Nadoolman. Fans worldwide re-enact its zombie dance and it remains popular on YouTube. The Library of Congress described it as "the most famous music video of all time". In 2009, it became the first music video inducted into the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant.

## Chart performance

"Thriller" entered the *Billboard* Hot 100 charts at number 20. It reached number seven the following week, number five the next, and peaked the next week at number four, where it stayed for two weeks. It finished as the #78 single on Billboard's Hot 100 for the 1984.
"Thriller" charted at number 19 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Chart. On March 10, 1984, it reached its peak at number 3. "Thriller" debuted on the UK Singles Chart on November 19, 1983, at number 24, and the following week peaked at number ten; it appeared on the chart for 52 weeks. Beginning on February 5, 1984, "Thriller" peaked on the French Singles Chart at number one and topped the chart for four consecutive weeks. "Thriller" also topped the Belgian VRT Top 30 Chart for two weeks in January 1984.
Following Jackson's "*This Is It"* tour in 2009, his music surged in popularity. In the week of the conclusion of the tour, "Thriller" was Jackson's best-selling track in the US, with sales of 167,000 copies on the *Billboard* Hot Digital Singles Chart. On July 11, 2009, "Thriller" charted on the *Billboard* Hot Digital Singles Chart at number two (its peak), and the song remained in the charts' top ten for three consecutive weeks. In the United Kingdom, the song charted at number 23. The following week, the song reached its peak at number 12 on the UK Single Chart. "Thriller" reached at number three on the Australian ARIA Chart and Swiss Singles Chart. The song also placed within the top ten on the West German Singles Chart and Norwegian Singles Chart at number nine and number seven respectively. "Thriller" also landed at number 25 on the Danish Singles Chart. In the third week of July "Thriller" peaked at number 11 in Finland.

The song has returned to the Billboard Hot 100 chart multiple times since its initial release due to its popularity around the time of Halloween. "Thriller" re-entered the *Billboard* Hot 100 in October 2013 at number 42, number 31 in November 2018, and number 19 in November 2021, marking its highest placement since its original chart run in 1984. This accomplishment means Jackson now has at least one Top 20 hit across 7 consecutive decades from 1969 to 2021 in the Billboard Hot 100.
The song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on December 4, 1989, for sales of over one million physical units in the U.S. As of August 2016, the song had sold 4,024,398 copies in the US. By August 2022, it had sold a further 10 million download copies in the US.

## Critical reception

Jon Pareles of *The New York Times* noted that "'Billie Jean', 'Beat It', 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' ' and "the movie in the song 'Thriller'", were the songs, unlike the "fluff" "P.Y.T.", that were "the hits that made *Thriller* a world-beater; along with Mr. Jackson's stage and video presence, listeners must have identified with his willingness to admit terror." Ann Powers of the *Los Angeles Times* described "Thriller" as "adequately groovy" with a "funked-out beat" and lyrics "seemingly lifted from some little kid's 'scary storybook'".

## Personnel

* Written and composed by Rod Temperton
* Produced by Quincy Jones
* Michael Jackson: lead and background vocals, LinnDrum drum machine
	+ Featuring: Narration by Vincent Price
* Rod Temperton and Brian Banks: synthesizers
* Greg Phillinganes: synthesizers, Rhodes piano
* Anthony Marinelli: synthesizer programming
* David Williams: guitar

* Jerry Hey, Gary Grant: trumpets, flugelhorns
* Larry Williams: saxophone, flute
* Bill Reichenbach: trombone
* Vocal, rhythm and synthesizer arrangement by Rod Temperton
* Horn arrangement by Jerry Hey
* Effects by Bruce Cannon and Bruce Swedien