News + Trends

Retro news: Michael Jackson's "Thriller" - the most successful album of all time

30.11.2023

Translation: machine translated

Michael Jackson made music history 41 years ago with his album "Thriller". The record is said to have sold more than 100 million copies.

A milestone in music history: Michael Jackson was finally crowned King of Pop with the album "Thriller" - even though he only received this nickname at the end of the 1980s. His sixth album was released 41 years ago today on 30 November 1982, although sales were initially slow. The first single release "The Girl Is Mine", a duet with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, did not convince the critics in particular.

The album received a sales boost from MTV in particular. The special-interest channel, which only broadcast music videos at the time, had only gone on air a year earlier. The second single from the album, "Billie Jean", also became a hit thanks to the channel and the music video. The song "Beat It" was also a success.

The 500 thousand dollar video

From February 1983, the album "Thriller" was number 1 in the American album charts. The 14-minute music video for the title track remains a highlight to this day. It was released around a year after the album was released. Jackson hired director John Landis for the video, who designed it as a kind of short film and based it on his earlier film "American Werewolf in London". With production costs of 500,000 dollars, it was the most expensive music video to date.

With his elaborate music videos, Michael Jackson did pioneering work and also had a major influence on the music world in this area. He was also the door opener for African-American artists at MTV.

An impressive range

The album is characterised then as now by its wide stylistic range: a mixture of pop, soul, funk, disco and rock. Jackson worked with many other artists. Hardly anyone who has heard Eddie van Halens' guitar solo will be able to get it out of their head. To this day, this album is the most successful album of all time. Depending on the source, "Thriller" is estimated to have sold between 65 and 110 million copies.

A record that was not broken for almost 40 years

The album set new standards for the music industry. Of the nine songs on "Thriller", seven became top 10 hits - a record that was only broken in the 2020s by Taylor Swift and Drake. The track list of the album at a glance (songwriter's name in brackets):

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (Michael Jackson) - 6:03
Baby Be Mine (Rod Temperton) - 4:20
The Girl Is Mine (duet with Paul McCartney) (Michael Jackson) - 3:42
Thriller (Rod Temperton) - 5:57
Beat It (Michael Jackson) - 4:18
Billie Jean (Michael Jackson) - 4:54
Human Nature (Steve Porcaro, John Bettis) - 4:06
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (James Ingram, Quincy Jones) - 3:59
The Lady in My Life (Rod Temperton) - 5:00

Michael Jackson was also controversial as a person. Various allegations of child abuse, numerous lawsuits and bankruptcy rumours accompanied him throughout his career. There is a lot more to write about his person, but unfortunately there is no space for that here. Nevertheless, this chapter of his life should not be completely ignored. In the end, Michael Jackson died of heart failure at the age of just 50. If you are more interested in the King of Pop, you can read about him in non-fiction books. Unfortunately, not all books are available in all our country shops.