Thriller [Special Edition] by Sony, Michael Jackson

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Barnes & Noble - Michael Hill

There was a time when Michael Jackson wasn't merely the self-described King of Pop but the king of the world, in the James Cameron sense of the term. He had artistic acclaim and monumental commercial success, and nothing seemed beyond his reach: music, videos, live performances, movies. Thriller is his "Titanic": a big, bold, glossy, and gripping tour de force that consumed the pop world. It never failed to make you move, from the opening challenge of "Wanna Be Startin' Something," with its "Soul Makossa" groove, to the sleek beats of "Billy Jean" to the funked-up rock of "Beat It" (with a guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen, no less). More than a cavalcade of justly deserved hits, 1982's Thriller suggested that Jackson was only beginning to tap into his massive talent, and that was perhaps the most, well, thrilling aspect of it. Here was an album that, in an increasingly fractured culture, almost everyone could favorably agree on; it had a luxurious production sheen, courtesy of Quincy Jones, and the most expensive studio talent that money could buy, yet it never sounded manufactured or contrived. Michael Jackson really meant it, and Thriller remains both his masterwork and a decade-defining album of the '80s. It's a testimony to Jackson's incredible gifts, to what he was, and to what we hoped he could always be.

All Music Guide - Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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 helped him. This all would have made it a success (and its success, in turn, served as a new standard for success), but it stayed on the charts, turning out singles, for nearly two years because it was really, really good. True, it wasn't as tight as Off the Wall -- and the ridiculous, late-night house-of-horrors title track is the prime culprit, arriving in the middle of the record and sucking out its momentum -- but those one or two cuts don't detract from a phenomenal set of music. It's calculated, to be sure, but the chutzpah of those calculations (before this, nobody would even have thought to bring in metal virtuoso Eddie Van Halen to play on a disco cut) is outdone by their success. This is where a song as gentle and lovely as "Human Nature" coexists comfortably with the tough, scared "Beat It," the sweet schmaltz of the Paul McCartney duet "The Girl Is Mine," and the frizzy funk of "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)." And, although this is an undeniably fun record, the paranoia is already creeping in, manifesting itself in the record's two best songs: "Billie Jean," where a woman claims Michael is the father of her child, and the delirious "Wanna Be Startin' Something," the freshest funk on the album, but the most claustrophobic, scariest track Jackson ever recorded. These give the record its anchor, and are part of the reason why the record is more than just a phenomenon. The other reason, of course, is that much of this is just simply great music. [The 2001 reissue adds two bonus tracks (the unreleased "Someone in the Dark" and a demo of "Billy Jean,") the voice-over session for Vincent Price's cameo, interviews with producer Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton, and a new booklet]

Product Details

Release Date: 10/16/2001
Label: Sony
UPC: 074646607329
Catalog Number: 66073
Sales rank: 2,898

Tracks

Disc 1

1 Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (6:02)
2 Baby Be Mine (4:20)
3 The Girl Is Mine - Paul McCartney (3:42)
4 Thriller (5:57)
5 Beat It (4:17)
6 Billie Jean (4:53)
7 Human Nature (4:05)
8 P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) (3:58)
9 The Lady in My Life (4:59)
10 Interview with Quincy Jones (2:19)
11 Someone in the Dark (4:47)
12 Interview with Quincy Jones (2:04)
13 Billie Jean (2:20)
14 Interview with Quincy Jones (3:10)
15 Interview with Rod Temperton (4:03)
16 Interview with Quincy Jones (1:32)
17 Voice-Over Session from Thriller (2:52)
18 Interview with Rod Temperton (1:56)
19 Interview with Quincy Jones (2:01)
20 Carousel (1:49)
21 Interview with Quincy Jones (1:17)

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Michael Jackson	Primary Artist
Howard Hewett	Background Vocals
James Ingram	Background Vocals, Hand Clapping
Janet Jackson	Background Vocals, Track Performer
Paul McCartney	Track Performer
Bill Wolfer	Synthesizer, Keyboards
David Foster	Synthesizer
La Toya Jackson	Background Vocals, Track Performer
Vincent Price	Rap, Spoken Word
Bunny Hull	Background Vocals, Track Performer
Tom Bahler	Keyboards, Synclavier
Brian Banks	Synthesizer
Michael Boddicker	Synthesizer, Emulator, Vocoder
Leon "Ndugu" Chancler	Drums
Paulinho Da Costa	Percussion
Gary Grant	Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Nelson Hayes	Stomp Board
Jerry Hey	Trumpet, Conductor, Flugelhorn
Paul Jackson Jr.	Guitar
Louis Johnson	Bass, Hand Clapping
Becky Lopez	Background Vocals, Track Performer
Steve Lukather	Bass, Guitar, Electric Bass
David Paich	Synthesizer, Piano
Jeff Porcaro	Drums
Dean Parks	Guitar
Greg Phillinganes	Synthesizer, Keyboards, Hand Clapping, fender rhodes
Steve Porcaro	Synthesizer
Steven Ray	Hand Clapping, Stomp Board
Greg "Frosty" Smith	Synthesizer
Rod Temperton	Synthesizer
Eddie Van Halen	Guitar, Soloist
Gerald Vinci	Concert Master
Maxine Willard Waters	Background Vocals
Oren Waters	Background Vocals
Julia Waters	Background Vocals
William Frank "Bill" Reichenbach Jr.	Trombone
David E. Williams	Guitar
Larry Andrew Williams	Flute, Saxophone

Technical Credits

James Ingram	Arranger, Composer
Michael Jackson	Composer
Quincy Jones	Arranger, Composer, Producer, Vocal Arrangements, rhythm arrangement
Jeremy Lubbock	String Conductor
John Bettis	Composer
David Daoud Coleman	Art Direction
Matt Forger	Engineer
Humberto Gatica	Engineer
Bernie Grundman	Mastering, Remastering
Jerry Hey	Horn Arrangements, String Arrangements, String Conductor
Donn Landee	Engineer
Steve Lukather	Arranger
David Paich	Arranger, rhythm arrangement
Steve Porcaro	Arranger, Composer
Bruce Swedien	Engineer, Executive Producer
Rod Temperton	Arranger, Composer, Vocal Arrangements, rhythm arrangement, Synthesizer Arrangements
Andy Engel	Sleeve Design, Slipcover Concept
Nancy Donald	Art Direction
Lane	Art Direction

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Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Michael Hill

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Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

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Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Michael Hill

All Music Guide - Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Thriller [Special Edition]

Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Michael Hill

Pick Up In Store

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

More About This Product

Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble - Michael Hill

All Music Guide - Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Related Categories

Tracks

Disc 1

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Technical Credits

Customer Reviews

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Fantastic Rhythm on this Album!

Great CD

If only Michael Jackson stayed black

Thriller....Nuff Said

AN AWESOME, AWESOME ALBUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I WISH I COULD RATE IT INFINITY STARS!

Thriller [Bonus Tracks]

His best work ever!

Michael Strikes Again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael's Thriller

Thriller [Bonus Tracks]

Micheal Jackson is the greatest

this album is definitely a thriller !

#1 ARTIST : MICHAEL JACKSON

thrill me this