Episode 15–Thriller

It was the biggest album of 1982, and the title track was the last Top Ten single to come from it. That's seven singles out of nine tracks total. Michael Jackson wanted to top not only the success, but the ambition of his previous album, Off The Wall, and I think we can all agree that he more than succeeded. Thriller remains the largest-selling album of all time. What! you say, bigger than Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? Bigger than Dark Side of the Moon? Bigger than Bat Out of Hell? Yes, indeed. As of this week, the top 15 all-time sellers are: Artist Album Title Year Sales (in millions) Michael Jackson Thriller 1982 66 AC/DC Back in Black 1980 50 Pink Floyd The Dark Side of the Moon 1973 45 Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell 1977 43 Whitney Houston / Various artists The Bodyguard Soundtrack 1992 42 Eagles Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) 1976 42 Bee Gees / Various artists Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack 1977 40 Fleetwood Mac Rumours 1977 40 Shania Twain Come On Over 1997 39 Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin IV 1971 37 Michael Jackson Bad 1987 35 Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill 1995 33 Celine Dion Falling into You 1996 32 The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 1967 32 Michael Jackson Dangerous 1991 32 That's THREE albums Jackson has in the all-time Top 15, and Off the Wall isn't even one of them. (It's way down the list, a spot or two below HIStory.) This was one of the pictures originally considered for the album's cover, which is why they used it for the Special Edition. Anyway. Today we're looking at the title track, a song that started as "Starlight" and ended with Quincy Jones' wife recruiting Vincent Price to do a little white-boy rap. Per our Standard Operating Procedure, if you've got a favorite podcatcher, you should be able to hear this week's show already, or you can just click the player below: And, as usual, if you were to go to iTunes or wherever you find your podcasts and leave a rating, and maybe even some feedback, well, that'd be nice too.