History Trivia / Thriller

** Enough material was recorded for the album to potentially release it as a double-LP, and Jackson initially wished to release it as such once recording sessions had finished. Producer Quincy Jones talked Jackson into making it a one-disc release to increase its commercial viability, and when the musician's proposed configuration proved infeasible, he had to be further talked into cutting down some of the remaining songs. Jackson, a notorious [[ThePerfectionist perfectionist]], was reportedly upset when he had to cut out an entire record's worth of material in post-production. Much of the scrapped songs would later resurface in leaks and officially as both bonus content on reissues and remixed tracks for posthumous studio albums.

* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: Owing to a scheduling snafu which wouldn't allow him to write it earlier that morning, Rod Temperton was forced to write Vincent Price's spoken-work portion of "Thriller" while waiting for his car to drive him to the recording session.

** "State of Shock," a duet between Jackson and [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]]. Wasn't completed in time for ''Thriller,'' and Jackson wound up re-recording the song with [[Music/TheJacksonFive his brothers]] and Music/MickJagger for the Jacksons' album ''Victory''. The original Jackson/Mercury version would later resurface via leaks.
** "Nite Line." Cut from the album, so writer Glen Ballard gave it to the Pointer Sisters instead. Has been leaked. Ballard's demo was leaked as well.

** A CoverVersion of Music/YellowMagicOrchestra's 1979 song [[Music/SolidStateSurvivor "Behind the Mask"]]. According to original songwriter Music/RyuichiSakamoto, he had requested to hear Jackson's version, only for Creator/EpicRecords (Sakamoto's US label at the time and Jackson's worldwide label) to state that they couldn't send him it, leading him to deny permission to release the song. Sakamoto joked in 2013 that if he ''did'' give permission, he'd "have ten different houses all over the world." Jackson's cover would become the go-to template for other artists' renditions (including a solo version by Sakamoto himself) before a remix was ultimately included on ''Music/{{Michael}}'' in 2010.

** "Carousel." Written by Michael Sembello, with lyrics about a man who "lost [his] heart, on the carousel, to a circus girl." Quincy Jones bumped it in favor of "Human Nature." The 2001 remaster of ''Thriller'' contains an excerpt as a bonus track, but the full song has been leaked. Sembello's demo was leaked also.

* FollowTheLeader: ''Thriller'' changed the music industry in many ways. By becoming the best-selling record of all time, all pop musicians, including Michael himself, tried in vain to surpass it. The use of innovative and amazing music videos to promote the singles also set a trend that is still felt in pop music today. If an artist wants his hit single to be commercially successful he is forced to make a music video for it. Of course, this has led many people to be far more interested in the visuals than the actual music, an evolution many musicians and music fans regret.
* LoonyFan: Quincy Jones claims that one source of inspiration for "Billie Jean" was a woman who approached Jackson, and accused him of fathering ''one'' of her twins.

** Quincy Jones's wife was friends with Vincent Price's wife, which is how Vincent came to be included on "Thriller". According to Creator/CassandraPeterson, Michael originally wanted her voice as Elvira.

** Enough material was recorded for the album to potentially release it as a double-LP, and Jackson initially wished to release it as such once recording sessions had finished. Producer Quincy Jones talked Jackson into making it a one-disc release to increase its commercial viability, and when the musician's proposed configuration proved infeasible, he had to be further talked into cutting down and some of the remaining songs. Jackson, a notorious [[ThePerfectionist perfectionist]], was reportedly upset when he had to cut out an entire record's worth of material in post-production. Much of the scrapped songs would later resurface in leaks and officially as both bonus content on reissues and remixed tracks for posthumous studio albums.

** A CoverVersion of Music/YellowMagicOrchestra's 1979 song [[Music/SolidStateSurvivor "Behind the Mask"]]. According to original songwriter Music/RyuichiSakamoto, he had requested to hear Jackson's version, only for Creator/EpicRecords (Sakamoto's US label at the time and Jackson's worldwide label) to state that they couldn't send him it, leading him to deny permission to release the song. Sakamoto joked in 2013 that if he ''did'' give permission, he'd "have ten different houses all over the world." A remix of Jackson's cover was ultimately included on 2010's ''Music/{{Michael}}''.

** A CoverVersion of [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra YMO]]'s [[Music/SolidStateSurvivor "Behind the Mask"]]. According to original songwriter Music/RyuichiSakamoto, he had requested to hear Jackson's version, only for Creator/EpicRecords to state that they couldn't send him it, leading him to deny permission to release the song. Sakamoto joked in 2013 that if he ''did'' give permission, he'd "have ten different houses all over the world." A remix of Jackson's cover was ultimately included on 2010's ''Music/{{Michael}}''.

** "State of Shock," a duet between Jackson and [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]]. Wasn't completed in time for ''Thriller,'' and Jackson wound up re-recording the song with [[Music/TheJacksonFive his brothers]] and Mick Jagger for the Jacksons' album ''Victory''. The original Jackson/Mercury version has been leaked.

* DamageControl: All parties involved with making the album testified that, upon playing it back after its completion, it was a supreme disappointment. Jackson was in tears. Jones felt it was "unreleasable." Bruce Swedien, the recording and mixing engineer, thought it sounded like "dog doo." Not only were the mixes unsatisfactory, but the songs themselves were too long to fit comfortably on an LP, decimating the sound quality. The decision was made to [[MidairRepair delay the album by a week, remix all of the songs, and shorten them as much as possible.]]
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The final track list had some radically different changes made before their final mixes:
** "Billie Jean" originally had a rather shocking drum machine/synth bass rhythm section, instead of the raw, crisp live drums/bass guitar on the final song.
** "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" was a completely different song altogether, with nothing in common with the album version besides the title. It was originally a mellow, Stevie Wonder-flavored groove, instead of the pop funk of the album version.

---> '''Walter Yetnikoff:''' "I'm pulling everything we have off the air [...] I'm not going to give you any more videos. And I'm going to go public and fucking tell them about the fact you don't want to play music by a black guy."
* FollowTheLeader: "Thriller" changed the music industry in many ways. By becoming the best-selling record of all time, all pop musicians, including Michael himself, tried in vain to surpass it. The use of innovative and amazing music videos to promote the singles also set a trend that is still felt in pop music today. If an artist wants his hit single to be commercially successful he is forced to make a music video for it. Of course, this has led many people to be far more interested in the visuals than the actual music, an evolution many musicians and music fans regret.

** Music/WeirdAlYankovic spoofed "Beat It" and its music video as "Eat It".

** Jackson sang some duets with [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury from Queen]], but they were kept from the album.
** His cover of [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra "Behind the Mask"]] was recorded in the album's sessions, but was ScrewedByTheLawyers from putting onto the album.
** Long as the video is, it could've been even ''longer''. As played on a re-release CD bonus, there was a second verse of Creator/VincentPrice's rap, ending in "[[Film/TheWarriors Can you dig it?]]"

** Enough material was recorded for the album to potentially release it as a double-LP, and Jackson initially wished to release it as such once recording sessions had finished. However, producer Quincy Jones convinced Jackson to trim it down to a single disc, aware of the commercial unviability of double-albums in the wake of Music/FleetwoodMac's 1979 double-LP ''Music/{{Tusk}}'' underselling compared to [[Music/{{Rumours}} its wildly successful predecessor]]; Jackson, a notorious [[ThePerfectionist perfectionist]], reportedly upset when he had to cut out an entire record's worth of material in post-production. Much of the scrapped songs would later resurface in leaks and officially as both bonus content on reissues and remixed tracks for posthumous studio albums.

** A CoverVersion of [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra YMO]]'s [[Music/SolidStateSurvivor "Behind the Mask,"]] which was cut because of a disagreement about the royalties between Jackson's management and the original songwriters. It did get released in 2010's ''Music/{{Michael}}'', albeit in a somewhat remixed form, in part thanks to both the YMO and Jackson back-catalogs being owned by Creator/SonyMusic (YMO through Alfa Records, Jackson through Creator/{{Epic|Records}}, the latter of whom also owns the international rights to the YMO catalog).