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.
I’ll admit, this is a great album, but you’re just being foolish if you sit around and say this is the greatest album of all time. My favorite song on here is “Billie Jean”. It just as cool lyrics and a really cool video(especially considering it was made in like 1983). I like the song “Beat It” almost as much as “Billie Jean”. I think the video for it is corny though. “The Girl is Mine” feat. Paul McCartney is a cool ballad, but I’ve actually never seen the video for it. I’m not a huge fan of the song “Thriller”, but the video is so cool that you have to like it. “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” has cool lyrics about Michael’s life. I also like the song “PYT”, which has Janet singing background vocals. My only complaint about this album is that it only has 9 songs on it. The 9 songs are pretty much perfect though, so you have to buy this album. I know that Michael’s recently released Invincible, but I think his new music stinks, so if you want the good stuff, buy this and his other album that’s almost as good, Off The Wall.
1 Michael Jackson: Thriller 1982 1 Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1976 3 Pink Floyd: The Wall 1979 4 Led Zeppelin: Untitled (IV) 1971 5 Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Volume I & II 1985 6 Fleetwood Mac: Rumours 1977 7 The Beatles: The Beatles [White Album] 1968 8 Shania Twain: Come on Over 1997 9 Whitney Houston Various Artists: The Bodyguard 1992 10 Boston: Boston 1976
One of only THREE albums in history to generate 7 top ten singles:
THRILLER w Michael Jackson, 1982 The Girl Is Mine [ Nr. 2 ] Billie Jean [ 1 ] Beat It [ 1 ] Wanna Be Startin’ Something [ 5 ] Human Nature [ 7 ] P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) [ 10 ] Thriller [ 4 ]
the others with 7 top ten singles: BORN IN THE U.S.A. w Bruce Springsteen, 1984 RHYTHM NATION 1814 w Janet Jackson, 1989
This is a fantastic album…I don’t need to say anymore about it. As for the SACD, it is very well done. I wish it had been in multichannel, but oh well. The high sounds are much clearer, without that digital sheen; the drum intro to Billie Jean actually startled me with its harsh sound. This is a result of the original eq, not the SACD. The sacd is much more “present” than the cd, somehow the soundstage is better although the mix is identical to the cd. I have to counter an earlier review: very few of the sounds on this album are digital, only sounds from the two digital synthesizers used (like the intro to Beat It). Most of the sounds are analog synths. By ‘digital’ the review may have meant synthesized. But hey, it was the 80s. The only downside to the SACD is that it brings out the flaws and harshness of old 80s signal processing, like the reverbs and such. Oh well, a great album and good SACD.
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.
It is absolutely no wonder why Michael Jackson is so well known once you listen to this album. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, THE ultimate album. Once you listen to this album, you’ll also have no questions about how it is the top selling albums of all time.
Of course, people have been saying “The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits” have topped Thriller. After having a hell of a time searching for the worldwide sales of Eagles: Their Greatest Hits, I discovered that no, the Eagles album DID NOT top Thriller. Thriller sold 55 million worldwide, the Eagles: Their Greatest Hits sold 42 million. It turns out many people are saying the Eagles top MJ because they got the best sales in America. Apparently, all you need to do to get the title of “Best Selling Album of All Time” is to get the top sales in America (yes, this is sarcasm, people).
Anyway, concerning the album’s music, I will say this: The ONLY album I’ve ever known which has ALL good songs. Even Mike’s other albums did not top this, unfortunately (for him and for fans). This album is so good that it completely overshadowed his future albums. His future records had to live in the shadow of this incredible album.
Concerning individual songs:
1. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ – Great track, espcially the neat ending 10/10
2. Baby Be Mine – A soft track that is pretty good 8/10
3. The Girl Is Mine – Another soft track with Paul McCarthy that is really good 9/10
4. Thriller – It would be a sad, sad thing if you did not know this track 10/10
5. Beat It – The music is good, the lyrics are addictive, and the video is not bad 10/10
6. Billie Jean – Many considers this to be the best dance song of all time and for good reasons 10/10
7. Human Nature – A highly addictive soft track 10/10
8. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) – A half soft/fast track that sticks in your head 8/10
9. The Lady In My Life – Another soft song, but somewhat better than the others, in my opinion 9/10
Jesus Christ, can you believe that? A whole album where the lowest grade a song gets is an 8! That is simply incredible, especially for me. Nowadays, I consider an album a good buy if it has 4 good songs, but this album has 9 good songs!
There’s a number of people out there who don’t listen to Michael Jackson because they say he’s a child molester. I personally ask some of these anti-MJ people if they like R. Kelly and they told me yes. I’ll leave you guys to judge for yourself.
Anyway, whether you’re an MJ fan or not, you simply can not doubt the quality of this album. All fans of music should own this album! For me, I give it every recommendation in my book. Once again, I reiterate, BEST ALBUM EVER!
I don’t know how to classify “Thriller.” Sure, it’s an album, but it’s really more of a legend. Michael Jackson created history when he released it. It became the biggest-selling album in the world; practically every track was a chart-topper. And, even now in 2005, it still sounds excellent.
Of course, the title track is the most famous, most notably for the groundbreaking music video that went along with it. However, my favorite track is “Beat It,” a semi-rock song with an amazing guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen. “Billie Jean” is a great dance song. As a matter of fact, every track was good–and that’s rare.
“Thriller” is probably in my top 10 favorite albums. It was so revolutionary when it came out in 1982, and twenty-three years later, it hasn’t lost its edge.
1. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’: great beat. 10/10
2. Baby Be Mine: catchy but forgettable 8/10
3. The Girl is Mine: duet with Paul McCartnet. Great. 10/10
4. Thriller: CLASSIC. 10/10
5. Beat It: best track on the album. 10/10
6. Billie Jean: one of the greatest dance songs. 10/10
7. Human Nature: another Top 10 hit. Pretty Good. 9/10
Jazz, R&B, Rock, Soul, Funk, and Pop music had all existed before 1982, but when this album came out, it literally combined all the elements and paved the way for what music is today. From recordings to performances to worldwide sales and recognition, Jackson set the standards for it all. Hundreds of years from now, this will still be looked back on as quite possibly one of the finest albums ever recorded.
While Quincy maintained his masterful touch on all the recordings, Jackson lent his to the timeless compositions of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”, “Beat It”, and “Billie Jean”, songs that have literally become signature songs of the 1980s, and showed the world just how musical Michael could be. Aside from those recordings, master songwriter Rod Temperton (“Rock with You”, “Off the Wall”, “Always and Forever”) and R&B soulman James Ingram contributed their own unique tracks, as well. From “Thriller” to “P.Y.T.”, every song here literally changed the course of music as a whole.
While some have maintained that there are far better albums in music history’s catalogue, I have yet to come across any with as much quality, energy, diversity, and versatility as this one. A masterpiece.
What more can be said about this album? Every song is worth hearing so many times that it’s just nearly impossible to get tired of it. SEVEN of its 9 songs charted at number 10 or better, and even “Baby Be Mine” was getting a fair amount of airplay well over a year after the album was released. Personally, though, my favorite song from the album is “PYT” even though songs like “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” were more successful. Even if he comes to be regarded as the strangest person ever to walk the earth, this album should still be treated like royalty.
Rating
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.
Rating
Stop giving Michael Jackson’s albums bad reviews because of his trial. Review it because of the music.
Anyway back to the album.
Wanna Be Startin’ Something- Has a great sound. A classic. 5/5
Baby Be Mine- A good song. 5/5
The Girl is Mine- another okay song. 4/5
Thriller- the best song with an even better video. The grand daddy of them all. A true MJ classic. 5/5
Beat It- Another MJ classic. The Guitar solo is awesome! 5/5
Billie Jean- The other MJ classic. Shows his true talent. Especially at Motown 25 with his first moonwalk. 5/5
Human Nature- A nice slow ballad. 5/5
P.Y.T- a catchy beat. I love it!- 5/5
Lady in my Life- A nice slow way to end the album. 5/5
The #1 selling album is also the greatest. Buy this and you won’t regret it!!!!
Rating
I’ll admit, this is a great album, but you’re just being foolish if you sit around and say this is the greatest album of all time. My favorite song on here is “Billie Jean”. It just as cool lyrics and a really cool video(especially considering it was made in like 1983). I like the song “Beat It” almost as much as “Billie Jean”. I think the video for it is corny though. “The Girl is Mine” feat. Paul McCartney is a cool ballad, but I’ve actually never seen the video for it. I’m not a huge fan of the song “Thriller”, but the video is so cool that you have to like it. “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” has cool lyrics about Michael’s life. I also like the song “PYT”, which has Janet singing background vocals. My only complaint about this album is that it only has 9 songs on it. The 9 songs are pretty much perfect though, so you have to buy this album. I know that Michael’s recently released Invincible, but I think his new music stinks, so if you want the good stuff, buy this and his other album that’s almost as good, Off The Wall.
Rating
Best Selling Album EVER!:
1 Michael Jackson: Thriller 1982
1 Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1976
3 Pink Floyd: The Wall 1979
4 Led Zeppelin: Untitled (IV) 1971
5 Billy Joel: Greatest Hits Volume I & II 1985
6 Fleetwood Mac: Rumours 1977
7 The Beatles: The Beatles [White Album] 1968
8 Shania Twain: Come on Over 1997
9 Whitney Houston Various Artists: The Bodyguard 1992
10 Boston: Boston 1976
One of only THREE albums in history to generate 7 top ten singles:
THRILLER w Michael Jackson, 1982
The Girl Is Mine [ Nr. 2 ]
Billie Jean [ 1 ]
Beat It [ 1 ]
Wanna Be Startin’ Something [ 5 ]
Human Nature [ 7 ]
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) [ 10 ]
Thriller [ 4 ]
the others with 7 top ten singles:
BORN IN THE U.S.A. w Bruce Springsteen, 1984
RHYTHM NATION 1814 w Janet Jackson, 1989
Rating
This is a fantastic album…I don’t need to say anymore about it. As for the SACD, it is very well done. I wish it had been in multichannel, but oh well. The high sounds are much clearer, without that digital sheen; the drum intro to Billie Jean actually startled me with its harsh sound. This is a result of the original eq, not the SACD. The sacd is much more “present” than the cd, somehow the soundstage is better although the mix is identical to the cd. I have to counter an earlier review: very few of the sounds on this album are digital, only sounds from the two digital synthesizers used (like the intro to Beat It). Most of the sounds are analog synths. By ‘digital’ the review may have meant synthesized. But hey, it was the 80s. The only downside to the SACD is that it brings out the flaws and harshness of old 80s signal processing, like the reverbs and such. Oh well, a great album and good SACD.
Rating
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.
Rating
It is absolutely no wonder why Michael Jackson is so well known once you listen to this album. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, THE ultimate album. Once you listen to this album, you’ll also have no questions about how it is the top selling albums of all time.
Of course, people have been saying “The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits” have topped Thriller. After having a hell of a time searching for the worldwide sales of Eagles: Their Greatest Hits, I discovered that no, the Eagles album DID NOT top Thriller. Thriller sold 55 million worldwide, the Eagles: Their Greatest Hits sold 42 million. It turns out many people are saying the Eagles top MJ because they got the best sales in America. Apparently, all you need to do to get the title of “Best Selling Album of All Time” is to get the top sales in America (yes, this is sarcasm, people).
Anyway, concerning the album’s music, I will say this: The ONLY album I’ve ever known which has ALL good songs. Even Mike’s other albums did not top this, unfortunately (for him and for fans). This album is so good that it completely overshadowed his future albums. His future records had to live in the shadow of this incredible album.
Concerning individual songs:
1. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ – Great track, espcially the neat ending 10/10
2. Baby Be Mine – A soft track that is pretty good 8/10
3. The Girl Is Mine – Another soft track with Paul McCarthy that is really good 9/10
4. Thriller – It would be a sad, sad thing if you did not know this track 10/10
5. Beat It – The music is good, the lyrics are addictive, and the video is not bad 10/10
6. Billie Jean – Many considers this to be the best dance song of all time and for good reasons 10/10
7. Human Nature – A highly addictive soft track 10/10
8. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) – A half soft/fast track that sticks in your head 8/10
9. The Lady In My Life – Another soft song, but somewhat better than the others, in my opinion 9/10
Jesus Christ, can you believe that? A whole album where the lowest grade a song gets is an 8! That is simply incredible, especially for me. Nowadays, I consider an album a good buy if it has 4 good songs, but this album has 9 good songs!
There’s a number of people out there who don’t listen to Michael Jackson because they say he’s a child molester. I personally ask some of these anti-MJ people if they like R. Kelly and they told me yes. I’ll leave you guys to judge for yourself.
Anyway, whether you’re an MJ fan or not, you simply can not doubt the quality of this album. All fans of music should own this album! For me, I give it every recommendation in my book. Once again, I reiterate, BEST ALBUM EVER!
Rating
I don’t know how to classify “Thriller.” Sure, it’s an album, but it’s really more of a legend. Michael Jackson created history when he released it. It became the biggest-selling album in the world; practically every track was a chart-topper. And, even now in 2005, it still sounds excellent.
Of course, the title track is the most famous, most notably for the groundbreaking music video that went along with it. However, my favorite track is “Beat It,” a semi-rock song with an amazing guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen. “Billie Jean” is a great dance song. As a matter of fact, every track was good–and that’s rare.
“Thriller” is probably in my top 10 favorite albums. It was so revolutionary when it came out in 1982, and twenty-three years later, it hasn’t lost its edge.
1. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’: great beat. 10/10
2. Baby Be Mine: catchy but forgettable 8/10
3. The Girl is Mine: duet with Paul McCartnet. Great. 10/10
4. Thriller: CLASSIC. 10/10
5. Beat It: best track on the album. 10/10
6. Billie Jean: one of the greatest dance songs. 10/10
7. Human Nature: another Top 10 hit. Pretty Good. 9/10
8. PYT: Uhh, good but not too memorable. 8/10
9. The Lady in My Life: nice ballad. 10/10
Rating
Jazz, R&B, Rock, Soul, Funk, and Pop music had all existed before 1982, but when this album came out, it literally combined all the elements and paved the way for what music is today. From recordings to performances to worldwide sales and recognition, Jackson set the standards for it all. Hundreds of years from now, this will still be looked back on as quite possibly one of the finest albums ever recorded.
While Quincy maintained his masterful touch on all the recordings, Jackson lent his to the timeless compositions of “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”, “Beat It”, and “Billie Jean”, songs that have literally become signature songs of the 1980s, and showed the world just how musical Michael could be. Aside from those recordings, master songwriter Rod Temperton (“Rock with You”, “Off the Wall”, “Always and Forever”) and R&B soulman James Ingram contributed their own unique tracks, as well. From “Thriller” to “P.Y.T.”, every song here literally changed the course of music as a whole.
While some have maintained that there are far better albums in music history’s catalogue, I have yet to come across any with as much quality, energy, diversity, and versatility as this one. A masterpiece.
Rating
The Greatest Album in the World from the World’s Greatest Singer. Full Stop.
Rating
What more can be said about this album? Every song is worth hearing so many times that it’s just nearly impossible to get tired of it. SEVEN of its 9 songs charted at number 10 or better, and even “Baby Be Mine” was getting a fair amount of airplay well over a year after the album was released. Personally, though, my favorite song from the album is “PYT” even though songs like “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” were more successful. Even if he comes to be regarded as the strangest person ever to walk the earth, this album should still be treated like royalty.