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Thriller 40th Anniversary

MJ5 said:
It includes Stevie's Superstition and The Weeknd's Blinding Lights as Halloween Songs... Strange list
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though I’m unfamiliar with a large majority of the list, I think some of them ‘blinding lights’ may have been judged based on their videos.
 
🤨

"The legacy of Michael Jackson’s short film “Thriller” continues to grow: in 2009, it became the 1st music video to be entered into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry ..."

https://twitter.com/x/status/1852017689075581326


"Thriller" in the Library of Congress: 2007 National Recording Registry ..."​


"Thriller" in the Library of Congress: 2007 National Recording Registry Announced

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named 25 additions to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress as part of its efforts to preserve the nation’s aural history.
www.loc.gov
 
83magic said:
I’ve never heard this story before. I’ll have to look up her voiceover work 🤔
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I didn't know about this, either. The video that @Skylover posted inspired me to go looking. I found this:

bloody-disgusting.com

Writer of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ Wanted Elvira to Voice the Narrator

“Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour is close at hand.” It’s always been kind of a bummer to me that writers often get left out in the cold, and the iconic song Thriller is a great example of what I mean. You know that it’s a Michael Jackson song, you know that John […]
bloody-disgusting.com bloody-disgusting.com

Published 7 years ago on August 23, 2017
By John Squires


"It’s always been kind of a bummer to me that writers often get left out in the cold, and the iconic song Thriller is a great example of what I mean. You know that it’s a Michael Jackson song, you know that John Landis directed the music video, and you probably even know that Rick Baker did the makeup effects for that video.

But do you know who wrote Thriller? That’d be Rod Temperton, who passed away just last year. Temperton wrote three songs on Jackson’s Thriller album, including the title track; his life and career are the subject of Jed Pitman’s forthcoming book The Invisible Man: The Story of Rod Temperton, being released on September 1.

Promoting the book, New York Post published a few quotes from Pitman today, revealing a really interesting little fun fact about Thriller. Of course, Vincent Price provided the voice-over narration for Thriller, but what you definitely did not know is that Temperton’s personal choice was Elvira, Mistress of the Dark!

From the site…

“During his research, Pitman found that Temperton was usually meticulous about his work. “He had all the parts in his head,” Pitman told The Post. “He knew exactly what he wanted, and how to get there.” But recording the iconic “Thriller” monologue was unusually slapdash.”

“Working with Quincy Jones, Temperton initially suggested Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (of the TV show “Fright Night,” originally), to record the spooky spoken-word part. But Jones suggested Price, who was a friend of his wife’s.”
Price proved to be the perfect person for the job, nailing it in just two takes.

And the rest is history."
 
zinniabooklover said:
I didn't know about this, either. The video that @Skylover posted inspired me to go looking. I found this:

bloody-disgusting.com

Writer of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ Wanted Elvira to Voice the Narrator

“Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour is close at hand.” It’s always been kind of a bummer to me that writers often get left out in the cold, and the iconic song Thriller is a great example of what I mean. You know that it’s a Michael Jackson song, you know that John […]
bloody-disgusting.com bloody-disgusting.com

Published 7 years ago on August 23, 2017
By John Squires


"It’s always been kind of a bummer to me that writers often get left out in the cold, and the iconic song Thriller is a great example of what I mean. You know that it’s a Michael Jackson song, you know that John Landis directed the music video, and you probably even know that Rick Baker did the makeup effects for that video.

But do you know who wrote Thriller? That’d be Rod Temperton, who passed away just last year. Temperton wrote three songs on Jackson’s Thriller album, including the title track; his life and career are the subject of Jed Pitman’s forthcoming book The Invisible Man: The Story of Rod Temperton, being released on September 1.

Promoting the book, New York Post published a few quotes from Pitman today, revealing a really interesting little fun fact about Thriller. Of course, Vincent Price provided the voice-over narration for Thriller, but what you definitely did not know is that Temperton’s personal choice was Elvira, Mistress of the Dark!

From the site…

“During his research, Pitman found that Temperton was usually meticulous about his work. “He had all the parts in his head,” Pitman told The Post. “He knew exactly what he wanted, and how to get there.” But recording the iconic “Thriller” monologue was unusually slapdash.”

“Working with Quincy Jones, Temperton initially suggested Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (of the TV show “Fright Night,” originally), to record the spooky spoken-word part. But Jones suggested Price, who was a friend of his wife’s.”
Price proved to be the perfect person for the job, nailing it in just two takes.

And the rest is history."
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everybody knows that rod temperton wrote the song ‘thriller’. he’s literally credited. he’s given interviews, and was even featured on the special edition album from 2001. I read past the opening paragraph, thinking that the article would reveal some secret songwriter other than rod. I don’t like that this was written after his death. it’s as though they’re putting words into his mouth. this sounds like another bitter attempt to detract from michael.
 
83magic said:
everybody knows that rod temperton wrote the song ‘thriller’. he’s literally credited. he’s given interviews, and was even featured on the special edition album from 2001. I read past the opening paragraph, thinking that the article would reveal some secret songwriter other than rod. I don’t like that this was written after his death. it’s as though they’re putting words into his mouth. this sounds like another bitter attempt to detract from michael.
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Sorry, 83, but I disagree. I think amongst the general public there are probably lots of people who don't know that Rod wrote Thriller. Sure, Rod did some interviews but most general music fans won't have seen those. You have to specifically search for them, they don't pop up easily as I found myself when I wanted to find out more about him. And there's not that many interviews, only a handful. I know bc I wanted to post them all on the board for an appreciation thread. I'm sure there are lots of younger people who know Thriller from joining in a Thriller flash mob on Oct 31. I'd be surprised if every single one of them knew the song was written by Rod.

The article was written after Rod's death bc of the biography that someone had written. It's just a normal bit of promotion.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I think it's a decent piece of journalism.
 
zinniabooklover said:
Sorry, 83, but I disagree. I think amongst the general public there are probably lots of people who don't know that Rod wrote Thriller. Sure, Rod did some interviews but most general music fans won't have seen those. You have to specifically search for them, they don't pop up easily as I found myself when I wanted to find out more about him. And there's not that many interviews, only a handful. I know bc I wanted to post them all on the board for an appreciation thread. I'm sure there are lots of younger people who know Thriller from joining in a Thriller flash mob on Oct 31. I'd be surprised if every single one of them knew the song was written by Rod.

The article was written after Rod's death bc of the biography that someone had written. It's just a normal bit of promotion.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I think it's a decent piece of journalism.
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but he's not the main singer, i dont think of that new cover of thriller from sing being a "Temperton" cover, nor do i think covers of hound dog being a Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller cover. whoever popularised the song is going to be the one attributed to it, such as Michael with Thriller and Elvis with hound dog.
 
Beano Wild said:
but he's not the main singer, i dont think of that new cover of thriller from sing being a "Temperton" cover, nor do i think covers of hound dog being a Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller cover. whoever popularised the song is going to be the one attributed to it, such as Michael with Thriller and Elvis with hound dog.
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Beano, you've confused me. I'm saying the same thing as you. I'm saying that many people in Michael's fanbase know that Thriller was written by Rod but the general public - who might absolutely love Thriller as a song and might know it very well - most likely won't know about Rod. They associate the song with Michael. Rod has definitely had the respect and the critical acclaim that he deserves but the general public won't know anything about him, imo. For many people Thriller = Michael.

Did you mean to reply to 83magic?
 
zinniabooklover said:
Beano, you've confused me. I'm saying the same thing as you. I'm saying that many people in Michael's fanbase know that Thriller was written by Rod but the general public - who might absolutely love Thriller as a song and might know it very well - most likely won't know about Rod. They associate the song with Michael. Rod has definitely had the respect and the critical acclaim that he deserves but the general public won't know anything about him, imo. For many people Thriller = Michael.

Did you mean to reply to 83magic?
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i think so :ROFLMAO:
 
I'm still horrified about the not good Thriller40 Doku without effort songs were left out didn't even give a blue ray release because the estate it itself knows was bad
 
Turning to “Beat It,” Lukather recalled: "We did it backwards: Michael’s lead vocal and the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo were done with a couple of small overdubs but no click track. Jeff made a click track and then a drum part, and I played a bunch of really wild guitar parts, because I knew Eddie’s solo was on it – I was doing real hard rock, a quadruple-track riff.

“Quincy wasn’t even there; he was at Westlake [Recording Studios] doing overdubs on ‘Billie Jean’ while we were fixing ‘Beat It’ — so we’d be on the phone and he goes: ‘It’s too metal, you gotta calm down. I gotta get it on pop radio! Use the small amp, not so much distortion.’”

The results spoke for themselves. "Beat It" became a chart-topping smash and won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 1984. Lukather credited Jones for his vision on that song and many others.
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ultimateclassicrock.com

Quincy Jones Stopped Steve Lukather From Going Metal on 'Beat It'

Steve Lukather reflected on playing on Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' as he paid tribute to Quincy Jones in a November 2024 interview.
ultimateclassicrock.com ultimateclassicrock.com
 
“I promise you in 50, 75, 100 years, what will be remembered is the music,” he wrote. “It’s no accident that almost three decades later, no matter where I go in the world, in every club and karaoke bar, like clockwork, you hear ‘Billie Jean,’ ‘Beat It,’ ‘Wanna Be Starting Something,’ ‘Rock With You,’ and ‘Thriller.’ In every language on the planet, from prison yards in the Philippines to Thrilltheworld.com, that will be the beautiful, grand legacy of Michael Jackson.”

Quincy Jones

www.cheatsheet.com

Michael Jackson 'Hated' That He Had to Cut 1 of His Favorite Parts of 'Billie Jean'

Michael Jackson had to make changes to 'Billie Jean' before putting out 'Thriller.' He was not happy with what he had to do.
www.cheatsheet.com www.cheatsheet.com

Michael-Jackson-Billie-Jean.webp
 
Hot_Street said:
Turning to “Beat It,” Lukather recalled: "We did it backwards: Michael’s lead vocal and the Eddie Van Halen guitar solo were done with a couple of small overdubs but no click track. Jeff made a click track and then a drum part, and I played a bunch of really wild guitar parts, because I knew Eddie’s solo was on it – I was doing real hard rock, a quadruple-track riff.

“Quincy wasn’t even there; he was at Westlake [Recording Studios] doing overdubs on ‘Billie Jean’ while we were fixing ‘Beat It’ — so we’d be on the phone and he goes: ‘It’s too metal, you gotta calm down. I gotta get it on pop radio! Use the small amp, not so much distortion.’”

The results spoke for themselves. "Beat It" became a chart-topping smash and won Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in 1984. Lukather credited Jones for his vision on that song and many others.
ultimateclassicrock.com

Quincy Jones Stopped Steve Lukather From Going Metal on 'Beat It'

Steve Lukather reflected on playing on Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' as he paid tribute to Quincy Jones in a November 2024 interview.
ultimateclassicrock.com ultimateclassicrock.com
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I'd love to hear that metal version!
 
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