When Michael Jackson released "Off the Wall", it was an instant success, no album before it had ever achieved four top 10 singles, two of those topping the charts. That was his emergance into super stardom, and "Thriller" was his emergance into mega stardom. "Thriller" debuted at a modest #11 in the U.S. pop album catalogue, and slowly started to work it's way up to #1, and stayed there for a record breaking non-consecutive 37 weeks. It gained sales boosts with Michael's shattering performance of his biggest hit "Billie Jean" at Motown's 25th anniversary special, and also, later that year with the video release of the title track, and even when it later won a record breaking 8 grammy awards. At that point there were no more questions. Everybody had to have "Thriller", it was quintessential. Selling over 60 million copies worldwide, "Thriller" is the undisputable highest grossing album to this day, and it's still selling like a hoot. This album is what made Michael the man of the 80's (although 'Off the Wall" and "Bad" helped him maintain this title). Phenomenon doesn't do this record half the justice it deserves.
"Thriller" was the first of Michael's albums I digged up. Back then, I thought of Michael as any average thirteen year old did -- as a child molester. But after a bit of reseraching and watching the "Smooth Criminal" video, I decided to give it a shot, and man was I ever humbled. There is no bad song on the album. You can dance to it, excercise to it, make love to it, sing along to it and eat to it. Basically the only thing you can't do with "Thriller" playing in the background is sit still to it. I love the harmony in his voice on all 9 tracks. It was so innocent, but tough at the same time. One of my favourite things about "Thriller" was, perhaps the production. Quincy Jones gave it a strong, modern, funky jazz feel to it. The album is sheer perfectio