Thriller

Michael Jackson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000025RI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MiniDisc  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (658 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,643 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Michael Jackson's Thriller is the bestselling album of all time, with 45 million worldwide sales powered by seven Top 10 U.S. singles and eight Grammy Awards. The 1982 album was also a success from which the pop superstar never really recovered--subsequent albums seemed to have no other goal than to beat the records set by Thriller. The highly-polished sound of Quincy Jones's production sounds almost organic compared to Jackson's more recent work, and in the same regard, Thriller was significantly slicker than its predecessor, Off the Wall. Both albums established a Jackson style that aimed for the dance floor with songs built on a state-of-the-art bed of percussion and keyboards. Elements of milestone Thriller tracks like "Billie Jean" (arguably Jackson's best-ever performance) and "Beat It" (with its hard-rock solo by guitarist Eddie Van Halen) influenced not just Jackson's records, but those of the entire dance-pop world. On the song "Thriller," Jackson indulged his taste for the juvenile and invited Vincent Price to rap in a really scary voice. With Thriller the album, Jackson created a different kind of monster--a hit album of such magnitude that it would have an irrevocable impact not just on the singer's art, but on his altogether kooky life. --John Milward

Product Description

cd & case only, former library copy, non returnable....we ship quickly and are APO/FPO friendly

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 97 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Be Afraid Of Michael Jackson July 14, 2000

By Thomas Magnum HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

These days Michael Jackson seems to be more of a cartoon character than a recording artist. His exploits get more than attention than his music. Forget that his best friend is a chimpanzee and he lives at a place called Neverland and just listen to the music. The album crosses across all music genres and gives the listener a little bit of everything. There's pop, rock, r & b and dance rhythms; slow, fast and midtempo songs. "Wanna Be Startin' Something" gets the album moving. It's a disco inferno and builds up to a chanting crescendo. The next two songs slow things down after the frenzied opening. One of the two non-singles, "Baby Be Mine" is a nice mid-tempo song and then comes the superstar duet with Paul McCartney "The Girl Is Mine". The song shows off both the artist's vocal talents as they trade verses fighting over a girl's affection. You can almost see the song as a passing of the torch from the Beatles to Jackson as the world's biggest act. The humorous "Thriller" follows and it contains Vincent Price's debut as a "rapper". "Beat It" is the song that pushed the album into the cultural phenomenon that it was. By employing guitar god Eddie Van Halen on the song, Jackson was able to break out of the mold of an R & B artist and reach a vast white audience. Jackson showed he was able to transcend all labels and reach listeners of all colors and musical tastes. The first number one song on the album follows. It was a searing performance of the song, "Billie Jean", on the Motown 25th anniversary special that helped show Jackson's amazing dancing abilities and push album sales into the stratosphere.... It was also the first video by a black artist to gain major airplay on the predominately white MTV, setting the stage for other black artists like Prince to start reaching a more diverse audience. "Human Nature" is a pretty ballad and "P.Y.T." is has more of a a hard edge. His sister Janet sings back up on the tune. The album closes with another ballad "The Lady In My Life". This album went on to sell 25 million copies and for a long time was the biggest selling album in history. It almost single handily pulled the recording industry out of it late 70's, early 80's sales funk and made MTV into the marketing machine it is today. It takes a very special album to do that and this is exactly that. Read more ›

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential ... if you don't already have the original CD October 19, 2001

By R. Riis VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

The sound quality of the original CD release of "Thriller" was already pretty great (I remember it being used as a demo disc when I bought my first CD player in 1985), but it's been goosed and buffed up here a bit - mostly in the removal of background hiss, etc. The contents of the original album are well known enough to go without comment. The additions are not much of an attraction, however : 2 previously unreleased session songs and one home demo ("Billie Jean") that are interesting but don't shake the rafters. The rest are interviews (try listening to those twice) and the "missing" second verse of the "Thriller" rap by Vincent Price. Booklet does have some nice new notes, but if you have the original "Thriller" CD there really isn't much here to make this an essential purchase, just a luxury.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars what about those jazz musicians on this CD? August 26, 2006

By Spike Spiegel

Format:Audio CD

most reviews on this board missed out one important item. the musicianship on this CD under QJ is tremendous. any jazz fan will easily recognise some of the names on the credit list. Jerry Hay on trumpet (this cat has long experience leading big bands and you can hear jerry from Chuck Mangione all the way to Dave Grusin's big band), Greg Phillanganes, another superb expert on synthesizer, Larry Williams on sax. Williams, in his own right is a fantastic tenor sax guy and you hear him very often on the GRP jazz label and then you have George Duke, man alive, here is a master of jazz who migrated through four generations from main stream jazz to fusion (rock) jazz and then collaborated a few funky jazz CD with bassist Stanley Clark.. then you have Paulinho da Costa, the famed Brazilian/American percussionist providing the beat, subtle but substantial. you can hear Paulinho from Dave Grusin to George Benson... in fact, Paulinho played with Jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Petersen...... with all these great cats. finally, what am i talking here, Quincy Jones HIMSELF was/is a jazz artist. those follow jazz will remember his days playing trumpet in the 60s and even 70s. QJ himself later was heavily involved with Duke Ellington and Count Basie in arranging the music. it is not surprising that he brought in the "musicians' musicians" to add some serious musicianship to this endeavor.

i regret that no reviewer has paid any attention on this fantastic line up of musicians behind this CD.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The biggest selling album in HIStory just got better October 16, 2001

By Oded Shopen

Format:Audio CD

The re-issued package includes a gold-pressed CD, a new booklet, and alot of bonus material:
1. interviews with co-producer quincy jones.
2. ***DEMO OF BILLIE JEAN***! AMAZING STUFF! you gotta hear it to belive it, there weren't any lyrics yet to the song, so MJ just hums and makes up words along the way! a classic!
3. a demo of Michael with Vincent Price, for the rap part of "Thriller". you can hear an entire new verse from the rap, never before released.
4. brand new song from the thriller era that was originally recorded for the album but was taken out (vinyl's time limitations, i guess). the song's called "Carousel". it very beautiful, although i'm a bit disappointed it wasn't the entire song (only 1:50 minutes).

In short? a must have. needless to say, all the wonderful tracks have been remastered by engineer Bruce Sweiden, under the direction of Michael himself.
Enjoy the King of Pop!
Oded S.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The album to thrill the generations. June 1, 2002

By Distant Voyageur

Format:Audio CD

Thriller is absolutely a trmendously creative album in MJs catalog. No wonder it became the biggest selling album of all time selling 47 million copies worldwide!

Noone will ever forget the incredible title track with the Vincent Price narration and the timeless video. The same goes for the tile glowing video 'Billie Jean' or the angsty 'Beat It'. MJ really expresses a "don't mess with me" attitude with class. Beat It will last forever.

Most of the rest of Thriller to me is similar to Quincy Jones' 'The Dude' LP.

In fact I often enjoy the lesser known songs on Thriller a bit more. Human Nature is absolutely a lovely song and is almost opposite to Thriller. I consider this one of my favorite love songs of my lifetime. Lady In My Life is my other favorite song on Thriller. Sorry dudes but while the whole album is great, The Lady In My Life and Human Nature share the crown as my top favorite songs.

The remastered edition includes new liner notes, interviews about the albums making, and a few bonus songs. Someone In The Dark is a very beautiful song although the E.T. singing was a bit jarring. There is a demo version of the huge hit 'Billie Jean' that was recorded before the regular version was eventually made. The last bonus track Carasoul is a bit dissapointing. It's only one and a half minutes long. The song should have been at least three and a half minutes long. Oh Well.

At least there are great new liner notes, and great photo stills taken from the video and behind the scenes.

Although the remastered edition could have been better this CD is absolutely incredible.

It's a shame that so many people my age completely missed this album during it's heyday although it's still immensely popular.... I was only about 4 weeks old when it came out but it is one of the earliest memories I have of listening to music.

Thriller I bet will more than likely be still available in 2082, 100 years after it's release. It's that good. This CD is timeless. Read more ›