History Trivia / Thriller

* BreakthroughHit: A virtually-forgotten fact in the wake of ''Thriller'''s massive success. ''This'' is the album that established Michael Jackson as a solo artist with a fully-fledged career of his own. ''Music/OffTheWall'' came close to doing this, but like all his solo albums before it, it was still technically received as a side project, and given less public attention than the albums Jackson recorded with [[Music/TheJacksonFive his brothers.]] After ''Thriller'' became such a blockbuster hit, the tables turned––suddenly, the ''Jacksons'' became the "side" project. He would begrudgingly participate in one more Jacksons album and tour, 1984's ''Victory,'' before finally throwing in the towel at the end of that year and leaving the family group forever.

* BreakthroughHit: A virtually-forgotten fact in the wake of ''Thriller'''s massive success. '''This''' is the album that established Michael Jackson as a solo artist with a fully-fledged career of his own. ''Music/OffTheWall'' came close to doing this, but like all his solo albums before it, it was still technically received as a side project, and given less public attention than the albums Jackson recorded with [[Music/TheJacksonFive his brothers.]] After ''Thriller'' became such a blockbuster hit, the tables turned––suddenly, the ''Jacksons'' became the "side" project. He would begrudgingly participate in one more Jacksons album and tour, 1984's ''Victory,'' before finally throwing in the towel at the end of that year and leaving the family group forever.

* BreakthroughHit: A virtually-forgotten fact in the wake of ''Thriller'''s massive success. ''This'' is the album that established Michael Jackson as a solo artist with a fully-fledged career of his own. ''Music/OffTheWall'' came close to doing this, but like all his solo albums before it, it was still technically received as a side project, and given less public attention than the albums Jackson recorded with [[Music/TheJacksonFive his brothers.]] After ''Thriller'' became such a blockbuster hit, the tables turned––suddenly, the ''Jacksons'' became the "side" project. He would begrudgingly participate in one more Jacksons album and tour, 1984's ''Victory,'' before finally throwing in the towel at the end of that year and leaving the family group forever.

* BreakthroughHit: A virtually-forgotten fact in the wake of ''Thriller'''s massive success. ''This'' is the album that established Michael Jackson as a solo artist with a full-fledged career of his own. ''Music/OffTheWall'' came close to doing this, but like all his solo albums before it, it was still technically received as a side project, and given less public attention than the albums Jackson recorded with [[Music/TheJacksonFive his brothers.]] After ''Thriller'' became such a blockbuster hit, the tables turned––suddenly, the ''Jacksons'' became the "side" project. He would begrudgingly participate in one more Jacksons album and tour, 1984's ''Victory,'' before finally throwing in the towel at the end of that year and leaving the family group forever.

* BreakthroughHit: A virtually-forgotten fact in the wake of ''Thriller'''s massive success. ''This'' is the album that established Jackson as a solo artist with a full-fledged career of his own. ''Music/OffTheWall'' came close to doing this, but like all his solo albums before it, it was still technically received as a side project, and given less public attention than the albums Jackson recorded with [[Music/TheJacksonFive his brothers.]] After ''Thriller'' became such a blockbuster hit, the tables turned––suddenly, the ''Jacksons'' became the "side" project. He would begrudgingly participate in one more Jacksons album and tour, 1984's ''Victory,'' before finally throwing in the towel at the end of that year and leaving the family group forever.

* 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.

!! The [[Music/{{Thriller}} album]] and MusicVideo by Music/MichaelJackson:

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: 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.

* DamageControl: All parties involved in 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.]]

** "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 only an excerpt, but the full song has been leaked. Sembello's demo was leaked also.

** "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."
** A CoverVersion of [[Music/SolidStateSurvivor "Behind the Mask,"]] which was cut because of a disagreement about the royalties between Jackson's management and that of [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra the original writers]]. 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).
** "Got the Hots." Was completed, but left off of ''Thriller''. However, Siedah Garrett, who later worked with Jackson on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "Man in the Mirror," would record her own version of the song with completely different lyrics and a different title, "Baby's Got It Bad," for her album ''Kiss of Life''. The Japanese version of ''Thriller'''s [[MilestoneCelebration 25th anniversary reissue]] added the original demo as a bonus track.
** "She's Trouble." Also known as just "Trouble." Written specifically for Jackson but never made the cut. It would later be given to British reggae-pop group Musical Youth, who released their version as a single from their second album ''Different Style!''
** "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''.
** "Nite Line." Was rejected by Jackson, so writer Glen Ballard gave it to the Pointer Sisters instead.
** "Hot Street." Originally known as "Slapstick" early on, written by Rod Temperton. Jackson later claimed that he really liked this one.

** "Carousel." Written by Michael Sembello, with lyrics about a man who "lost [his] heart" to a "circus girl." Quincy Jones bumped it in favor of "Human Nature."

** "She's Trouble." Also known as just "Trouble." It was originally written with Jackson in focus, but was cut for unknown reasons. However, it would later be given to British reggae-pop group Musical Youth, where it would be released as a single from their second album, ''Different Style!''
** "State of Shock," a duet between MJ and [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]]. Wasn't completed in time for ''Thriller,'' and MJ wound up re-recording the song with [[Music/TheJacksonFive his brothers]] and Mick Jagger for the Jacksons album ''Victory''.

** "Hot Street." Originally known as "Slapstick" early on, written by Rod Temperton.

** "Carousel." Quincy Jones bumped it in favor of "Human Nature."

** "Carousel." Quincy Jones had it cut because he didn't want the record to have two novelty songs (the other being the title track).
** A CoverVersion of [[Music/SolidStateSurvivor "Behind the Mask"]], which was cut because of a disagreement about the royalties between Jackson's management and that of [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra the original writers]]. 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).
** "Got The Hots". Was completed, but left off of ''Thriller''. However, Siedah Garrett, who later worked with Jackson on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "Man in The Mirror", would record her own version of the song with completely different lyrics and a different title, "Baby's Got It Bad", for her album ''Kiss of Life''. The Japanese version of ''Thriller'''s [[MilestoneCelebration 25th anniversary reissue]] added the original demo as a bonus track.
** "She's Trouble". Also know as just "Trouble". It was originally written with Jackson in focus, but was cut for unknown reasons. However, it would later be given to British reggae-pop group Musical Youth, where it would be released as a single from their second album, ''Different Style!''
** "State of Shock", a duet between MJ and [[Music/{{Queen}} Freddie Mercury]]. Wasn't completed in time for ''Thriller'', and MJ wound up re-recording the song with [[Music/TheJacksonFive his brothers]] and Mick Jagger for the Jacksons album ''Victory''.
** "Nite Line". Was rejected by Jackson, so Glen Ballard gave it to the Pointer Sisters instead.
** "Hot Street". Originally known as Slapstick early on and was written by Rod Temperton.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: "Billie Jean" was based on an actual woman who stalked Michael Jackson, claiming that Jackson was the father of one of her twins[[note]][[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfecundation this is possible]], but rare and in this circumstance was obviously BlatantLies.[[/note]].

** 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 cried when having 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.

** "Got The Hots". Was completed, but left off of ''Thriller''. However, Siedah Garrett, who later worked with Jackson on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "Man in The Mirror", would later record the song with different lyrics and a different title, "Baby's Got It Bad", for her album ''Kiss of Life''. The Japanese version of ''Thriller'''s [[MilestoneCelebration 25th anniversary reissue]] added the original demo as a bonus track.

** A CoverVersion of [[Music/SolidStateSurvivor "Behind the Mask"]], which was cut because of a disagreement about the royalties between Jackson's management and that of [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra the original writers]]. 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}}).

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

** A CoverVersion of [[Music/SolidStateSurvivor "Behind the Mask"]], which was cut because of a disagreement about the royalties between Jackson's management and that of [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra the original writers]]. It did get released in 2010's ''Music/{{Michael}}'', albeit in a somewhat remixed form.

** "Behind the Mask", which was cut because of a disagreement about the royalties between Jackson and [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra the original writers]]. It did get released in 2010's ''Michael'', albeit in a somewhat remixed form.

---> '''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."

** Music/RunDMC's song "King Of Rock" from their album ''Music/KingOfRock'' has the line "It's not Music/MichaelJackson and this is not 'Music/{{Thriller}}'. Funny enough, Jackson himself would sample from this Run-DMC song on his own single "2Bad" from ''Music/HistoryPastPresentAndFutureBookI'' (1995).

** "Got The Hots". Was completed, but left off of ''Thriller''. However, Siedah Garrett, who later worked with Jackson on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "Man in The Mirror", would later record the song with different lyrics and a different title, "Baby's Got It Bad", on her album ''Kiss of Life''. The Japanese version of ''Thriller'''s [[MilestoneCelebration 25th anniversary reissue]] added the original demo as a bonus track.

** "Got The Hots". Was completed, but left off of ''Thriller''. However, Siedah Garrett, who worked with Jackson on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "Man in The Mirror", would later record the song with different lyrics and a different title, "Baby's Got It Bad", on her album ''Kiss of Life''. The Japanese version of ''Thriller'''s [[MilestoneCelebration 25th anniversary reissue]] added the original demo as a bonus track.