Michael Jackson Thriller CD

The finest example of perfect disco pop, and a record that should be prescribed to musical snobs and manic depressives. The album is a true ambassador of what pop music can be. Jackson whoops and dances through a suite of unforgettable melodies that should be danced to with a smile on your face. Each track offers at least one musical hook, whether it is the beauty of 'Human Nature' (who can resist the 'dada dada da da da') or the 'whoo whoo' of 'Billie Jean'. It's all too good.

Off the Wall was a massive success, spawning four Top Ten hits (two of them number ones), but nothing could have prepared Michael Jackson for Thriller. Nobody could have prepared anybody for the success of Thriller, since the magnitude of its success was simply unimaginable -- an album that sold 40 million copies in its initial chart run, with seven of its nine tracks reaching the Top Ten (for the record, the terrific "Baby Be Mine" and the pretty good ballad "The Lady in My Life" are not like the others). This was a record that had something for everybody, building on the basic blueprint of Off the Wall by adding harder funk, hard rock, softer ballads, and smoother soul -- expanding the approach to have something for every audience. That alone would have given the album a good shot at a huge audience, but it also arrived precisely when MTV was reaching its ascendancy, and Jackson helped the network by being not just its first superstar, but first black star as much as the network he

Principally recorded at Westlake Audio, Los Angeles, California.

Additional Tracks

Personnel: Vincent Price (rap vocals, spoken vocals); Steve Lukather (guitar, electric bass); Dean Parks, Eddie Van Halen, Paul Jackson, Jr. , David E. Williams (guitar); Larry Andrew Williams (flute, saxophone); Gary Grant, Jerry Hey (trumpet, flugelhorn); Bill Reichenbach Jr. (trombone); David Paich (piano, synthesizer); Greg Phillinganes (Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards, synthesizer, hand claps); Bill Wolfer (keyboards, synthesizer); Tom Bahler (keyboards, Synclavier); Michael Boddicker (synthesizer, vocoder); Greg "Frosty" Smith, Rod Temperton, Steve Porcaro, David Foster, Brian Banks (synthesizer); Jeff Porcaro, Leon "Ndugu" Chancler (drums); James Ingram (hand claps, background vocals); Louis Johnson, Steven Ray (hand claps); Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); Becky Lopez, Howard Hewett, Janet Jackson, Julia Waters, LaToya Jackson, Maxine Willard Waters, Oren Waters, Bunny Hull (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Bruce Swedien.

Audio Remasterer: Bernie Grundman.

Recording information: Westlake studios.

Editor: Stuart Brawley.

Photographers: Stephen Vaughan; Dick Zimmerman; Sam Emerson; Ralph Nelson; Lester Cohen.

Arrangers: David Paich; James Ingram ; Quincy Jones; Rod Temperton; Steve Lukather; Steve Porcaro.

Personnel includes: Michael Jackson (vocals, percussion); Paul McCartney (vocals); Vincent Price (spoken vocals); Steve Lukather (guitar, bass); Eddie Van Halen, Dean Parks, Paul Jackson (guitar); Larry Williams (flute, saxophone); Jerry Hey (trumpet, flugelhorn); Bill Reichenbach (trombone); David Paich (piano, synthesizer); Greg Phillinganes (Fender Rhodes piano, synthesizer, programming); Steve Porcaro (synthesizer, programming); David Foster, Rod Temperton (synthesizer); Tom Bahler (Synclavier); Louis Johnson (bass); Ndugu Chancler, Jeff Porcaro (drums); Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); Brian Banks (programming); LaToya Jackson, Julia Waters, Maxine Waters, Oren Waters, Becky Lopez, Janet Jackson (background vocals).

Rolling Stone (pp.67-68) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "THRILLER was MJ at his breathiest and most salacious, and his most beautifully fragile....[A] work of genius."
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.98) - Ranked #20 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...There was a time when he was truly the King of Pop. This is it..."
Rolling Stone (11/89) - Ranked #7 in Rolling Stone's "100 Best Albums Of The 80s" survey.
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.98) - Ranked #20 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...There was a time when he was truly the King of Pop. This is it..."
Rolling Stone (11/89) - Ranked #7 in Rolling Stone's "100 Best Albums Of The 80s" survey.
Entertainment Weekly (p.64) - "[A] masterpiece....THRILLER was a collection of songs that cohered as the statement of a young artist proclaiming his freedom..."
Q (1/03, p.56) - Included in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever"
Q (1/00, p.138) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...The music stands undimmed by time....delivers some of the greatest ever pop-soul-dance-whatever...hardly a weak moment, and still no one goes 'aow' quite like Michael Jackson."
Q (1/03, p.56) - Included in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums Ever"
Q (1/00, p.138) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...The music stands undimmed by time....delivers some of the greatest ever pop-soul-dance-whatever...hardly a weak moment, and still no one goes 'aow' quite like Michael Jackson."
Uncut (p.90) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]racks like 'Wanna Be Starting Something' remain slabs of total pop, whose genius should never by obscured by a blizzard of sales stats."
Vibe (12/99, p.164) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
Vibe (12/99, p.164) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century
Blender (Magazine) (p.86) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's genius....This is a profoundly quirky and omnivorous R&B mash-up, making room for hard-rock guitar and soft-serve balladry."
The Word (magazine) (p.113) - "[A] magnificent helping of pop history, due in no small part to Quincy Jones's immaculate production."