Thriller is the sixth studio album and second Epic Records album by the American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records, as the follow-up to Jackson’s critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall. Thriller explores similar genres to those of Off the Wall, including pop, R&B, rock, post-disco, funk, and adult contemporary music. Seven singles were released from the album, all of which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Baby Be Mine” and “The Lady in My Life” were the only tracks that were not released as singles. In just over a year, Thriller became—and currently remains—the best-selling album of all time, with estimate sales of 65 million copies worldwide according to various sources. The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in 1984, including for Album of the Year. (More from Wikipedia)
One fine day around 30 years ago, I came upon a copy of the 1980 comeback album by the Ugly Ducklings, Off the Wall. By the way, the Michael Jackson album by the same name, Off the Wall – whose excellence, I fear, has been overwhelmed by the tsunami of Jackson’s next album, Thriller – came out the previous August, but I wonder whether the Ugly Ducklings knew about that record.
(April 2013)
* * *
Lesley Gore’s first two albums, I’ll Cry If I Want To and Lesley Gore Sings of Mixed-Up Hearts were produced by Quincy Jones, one of the best in the business – Michael Jackson’s Thriller is only the best-known of his production efforts – and a talented jazz artist and bandleader in his own right with a Renaissance-man career that dates back to the early 1950’s.
(January 2014)
* * *
