Thriller

“Thriller,” known for having what is arguably the most significant music video (and dance moves) in pop culture, is the seventh and final single from Michael Jackson’s Thriller album.

The original name for “Thriller,” composed by songwriter Rod Temperton, was “Starlight.” It was changed to “Thriller,” and the lyrics were rewritten shortly before re-recording. Rod had originally offered the song to his band, Heatwave, but they turned it down.

Originally, when I did my ‘Thriller’ demo, I called it ‘Starlight.’ Quincy said to me, ‘You managed to come up with a title for the last album, see what you can do for this album.’ I said, ‘Oh great,’ so I went back to the hotel, wrote two or three hundred titles, and came up with the title ‘Midnight Man.’ The next morning, I woke up, and I just said this word… Something in my head just said this is the title. You could visualize it on the top of the Billboard charts. You could see the merchandising for this one word, how it jumped off the page as ‘Thriller.’

“Thriller” was another international hit, topping the pop charts in Belgium, France, Portugal, and Spain, while peaking at #4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the R&B chart. The single is certified Diamond in the US with more than 10 million sales, and it also achieved multi-platinum status in Australia and Mexico. The trailblazing music video for “Thriller” was named by MTV as the Greatest Music Video Ever Made and it was inducted into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 2009.

“Thriller” is the song most strongly associated with the holiday of Halloween and often re-enters the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart annually during that time of year. It is one of only two songs to chart every year because of a holiday, the other being Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You”