Thriller
The best selling album of all time
Michael started recording the Thriller album in April 1982. Originally to be called
Starlight, the album included 4 original songs by Michael, (“Billie Jean”, “Beat It” and
“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”, “The Girl Is Mine”). Michael’s original plan for the
album was to include 3 music videos or “short films” for “Billie Jean”, “Beat It” and
“Thriller”. “Billie Jean” was released as the album’s second single on January 22 1893.
The music video was given a budget of $250,000 and was directed by Steve Baron.
The concept came from both director and artist and proved to be very successful.
After 3 weeks, “Billie Jean” hit the number one spot in the U.S.
At this time, MTV rarely played black artists on their daily rotation. Michael Jackson
was one of the first to get played on the station and the first to get played several
times a day with the video for ‘Billie Jean”. The video for “Beat It” would follow this
trend. Thriller’s sales soared and it was the first time an album would be at number
one in the USA and the UK at the same time.
While “Billie Jean” was still at the top of the charts, the album’s third single was
released; “Beat It”, on March 5, 1983. The short film for “Beat It” was paid for and con-
ceptualised by Michael Jackson himself. It was directed by Bob Giraldi and co-choreo-
graphed by Michael Jackson and Michael Peters. The cast included 100 members of
real street gangs and cost an estimated $150,000. “Beat It” became number one the
week after its release and Michael Jackson became the first black artist to have the
number one album and single simultaneously in the US and the UK.
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