Celebrate Halloween with Michael Jackson's Horrifically Entertaining "Thriller" Music Video-and a Behind-the-Scenes Documentary

"Michael Jack­son's Thriller is the best-sell­ing album of all time, and not by a par­tic­u­lar­ly slim mar­gin. The most recent fig­ures have it reg­is­tered at 51.3 mil­lion copies, as against the 31.2 mil­lion notched by the run­ner up, AC/DC's Back in Black. But it would sure­ly be a clos­er call with­out the title song's cel­e­brat­ed music video, thir­teen John Lan­dis-direct­ed min­utes full of not just singing and danc­ing, but also clas­sic-style Hol­ly­wood mon­sters, some of them doing that singing and danc­ing them­selves."

"Younger fans may not know that "Thriller" was­n't even released as a sin­gle until Novem­ber of 1983: about a year after the album itself, which had already spun off six songs, includ­ing enor­mous hits like "Bil­lie Jean" and "Beat It." In fact, Jack­son's unprece­dent­ed vision for the album had been that every song could be a hit, with no filler in between. The high­er-ups at Epic Records felt that its pop­u­lar­i­ty, how­ev­er sen­sa­tion­al to that point, had just about run its course."

Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with 51.3 million copies registered versus Back in Black's 31.2 million. The title song's celebrated John Landis-directed thirteen-minute music video featured singing, dancing, and classic Hollywood monsters and substantially boosted the album's appeal. Halloween is a suggested time to revisit Thriller and the Making Michael Jackson's Thriller behind-the-scenes documentary. "Thriller" was not released as a single until November 1983, about a year after the album, which had already produced six songs including Billie Jean and Beat It. Jackson envisioned every song as a potential hit with no filler. Epic Records initially resisted releasing "Thriller" because they felt Jackson's popularity might have peaked and because of the song's campy horror elements and Vincent Price's "rap." A similar spooky atmosphere had appeared earlier in "This Place Hotel," created with Jackson's siblings.

Read at Open Culture