Thriller

Michael Jackson walked into Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles on April 14, 1982, with a budget of $750,000 and a collaborator he trusted: Quincy Jones. The sessions stretched over seven months, yielding nine tracks that would become the best-selling album of all time. Jackson wrote four of them himself, including the paranoid funk of Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' and the vengeful groove of Billie Jean. Rod Temperton contributed the title track and Baby Be Mine, while Paul McCartney joined for the duet The Girl Is Mine, the first credited featured artist on a Jackson album.

Released on November 30, 1982, through Epic Records, Thriller spent 37 non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, a record that still stands. Seven of its nine tracks reached the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, another record at the time. The album's music videos, especially the 14-minute horror short for Thriller directed by John Landis, turned MTV into a cultural force and broke racial barriers on the channel. Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo on Beat It and Vincent Price's spoken word coda on the title track became instantly iconic.

By 2021, the RIAA certified Thriller 34× Platinum in the United States, tying the Eagles' greatest hits compilation for the highest certification ever. Worldwide, estimates range from 66 to 70 million copies sold. At the 26th Grammy Awards in 1984, the album won eight Grammys, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year for Beat It, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for Thriller. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008 and holds a Guinness World Record as the best-selling album of all time. [edit]