Album · 1982
Thriller
Thriller is a 1982 pop album by Michael Jackson. It runs 9 tracks across 42 minutes on Epic. It won the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Riffiter listeners rate it 4.1/5 from 274 ratings.
Your rating
- 4.1 /5
- 274 ratings
- 84 /100
- 7 critics
- 9
- Tracks
- 42 min
- Runtime
- 122 bpm
- Tempo
- A major
- Key
Ratings
274 ratings · avg 4.1
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Reviews
2 reviews
- 5.0
- 5.0
Still the gravitational center of pop music. Quincy Jones and Jackson engineered seven hits from nine songs — "Billie Jean"'s bassline alone has outlived genres — and the ambition (rock crossover, cinematic horror-funk, ballads) never dilutes the precision. Forty years on, every pop blockbuster is still negotiating with Thriller.
Critics
7 publications
- Melody Maker5/5
- The Village VoiceA−
- Greensboro Daily News4/5
- The Orlando Sentinel4/5
- Rolling Stone4/5
- Record Mirror4/5
- Smash Hits7.5/10
Scores collected from the English Wikipedia ratings box (CC BY-SA). Ratings belong to the publications; follow a link to read the review.
Tracklist
9 tracks · 42 min
Ranked head-to-head
1 vs 1
Stars say how much you like Thriller. They never settle which song on it you would defend. Pick between two at a time and the order builds itself.
Nobody has finished a run on this record yet. Rank Thriller's songs yourself →
Also released as
Every pressing below shares this page's rating and reviews — they are the same record.
Thriller (25th Anniversary) [Deluxe Edition]Anniversary edition · 1982 · 35 tracks
- 1Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
- 2Baby Be Mine
- 3The Girl Is Mine
- 4Thriller
- 5Beat It
- 6Billie Jean
- 7Human Nature
- 8P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
- 9The Lady In My Life
- 10Vincent Price Excerpt from "Thriller-Voice-Over-Session"
- 11The Girl Is Mine 2008 (Thriller 25th Anniversary Remix) [feat. will.i.am]
- 12P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) 2008 (Thriller 25th Anniversary Remix) [feat. willi.i.am]
- 13Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 2008 (Thriller 25th Anniversary Remix) [feat. Akon]
- 14Beat It 2008 (Thriller 25th Anniversary Remix) [feat. Fergie]
- 15Billie Jean 2008 (Thriller 25th Anniversary Remix) [feat. Kanye West]
- 16For All Time (Outtake from the Original "Thriller" Sessions)
- 17Billie Jean (Long Version)
- 18Voice-Over Intro / Quincy Jones Interview No. 1
- 19Someone In the Dark
- 20Voice-Over Intro / Quincy Jones Interview No. 2
- 21Billie Jean (1981 Home Demo)
- 22Quincy Jones Interview No. 3
- 23Voice-Over Intro / Rod Temperton Interview No. 1
- 24Quincy Jones Interview No. 4
- 25Voice-Over Intro / Voice-Over Session from "Thriller-Voice-Over-Session"
- 26Voice-Over Intro / Rod Temperton Interview No. 2
- 27Quincy Jones Interview No. 5
- 28Carousel
- 29Voice-Over Intro / Quincy Jones Interview No. 6
- 30Billie Jean (Underground Mix)
- 31Thriller (Instrumental)
- 32Billie Jean
- 33Beat It
- 34Thriller
- 35Billie Jean
Videos
4 videos
Ranked by listeners
top 5 · 7 rated tracks
According to Riffiter listeners, the best track on Thriller is Beat It — rated 4.4/5 by 238 listeners.
Awards
2 wins · via Wikidata
- 1984Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
- 1984Grammy Award for Album of the YearAll winners →
More like this
About
Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall. Thriller explores similar genres to those of Off the Wall, including pop, R&B, rock, post-disco and adult contemporary music. Recording sessions took place between April and November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a production budget of $750,000, assisted by producer Quincy Jones. Of the nine tracks on the album, four of them were written by Jackson himself. Seven singles were released from the album, all of which reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Three of the singles had music videos released. "Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady in My Life" were the only tracks that were not released as singles. In just over a year, Thriller became-and currently remains-the best-selling album of all time, with sales estimated by various sources as being between 65 and 110 million copies worldwide, and is also tied with Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) by the Eagles as the best-selling album in the United States.
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The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammys. Thriller enabled Jackson to break down racial barriers via his appearances on MTV and meeting with President of the United States Ronald Reagan at the White House. The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools-the videos for "Thriller", "Billie Jean" and "Beat It" all received regular rotation on MTV. In 2001, a special edition issue of the album was released, which contains additional audio interviews, a demo recording and the song "Someone In the Dark", which was a Grammy-winning track from the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial storybook. In 2008, the album was reissued again as Thriller 25, containing re-mixes that feature contemporary artists, a previously unreleased song and a DVD. Thriller ranked number 20 on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list in 2003, and was listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers at number three in its Definitive 200 Albums of All Time. The Thriller album was included in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry of culturally significant recordings, and the Thriller video was included in the National Film Preservation Board's National Film Registry of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films". In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #1 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".
In brief
- Is Thriller good?
- Riffiter listeners rate Thriller 4.1/5 from 274 ratings.
- What is the highest-rated track on Thriller?
- Beat It, rated 4.4/5 by 238 listeners on Riffiter.
- When was Thriller released?
- Thriller was released in 1982 on Epic.
- How many tracks are on Thriller?
- Thriller has 9 tracks, with a runtime of 42 minutes.
- What genre is Thriller?
- Thriller is catalogued under Pop.
- What BPM is Thriller?
- Thriller runs at a median tempo of 122 BPM across its tracks, most often in A major, measured from audio analysis.
- What albums are similar to Thriller?
- Listeners of Thriller also rate Greatest Hits by Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (the original soundtrack) by Queen, ABBA Gold by ABBA.
- Who produced Thriller?
- Thriller was produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson. Quincy Jones produced 8 of them.
Credits
- Produced by
- Mixed by
- Engineered by
- Played by
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Greg PhillinganesLouis JohnsonDavid WilliamsBill Reichenbach, Jr.Bill WolferGary GrantJeff PorcaroJerry HeyLarry WilliamsLeon Ndugu ChanclerMichael BoddickerPaul Jackson, Jr.Steve LukatherSteve PorcaroSteven RayBrian BanksDean ParksEdward Van HalenGerald VinciGreg SmithNelson HayesPaulinho da CostaRod TempertonTom Bahler- Vocals by
+7 moreShow fewer
Bunny HullHoward HewettJulia WatersLa Toya JacksonMaxine WatersOren WatersVincent Price
Credits and connections from Genius