Thriller: without a doubt the most important song in the history of music videos. But few know the serious problems that Michael Jackson faced because of this song, to the point where he tried to destroy all the footage from the video. Today I'm going to reveal to you the story behind Michael Jackson's Thriller.
I'm Guilherme, and you're at DecifraHITS. Do you know who Michael Jackson is? This question seems pretty stupid today, but that's exactly what the director of the Thriller music video asked his makeup artist when starting an important conversation that would forever change the history of music.
The makeup artist just replied what many people in 1982 would have said: "Michael? Isn't that that boy from the Jackson 5? Yeah, I know.
" That year, the legend we know today as the king of pop had not yet achieved that title, and despite His undeniable talent and fame were recognized since his childhood in the group Jackson 5, the first album of his adulthood, Off The Wall, had greatly frustrated his expectations. Even bringing hits like "Rock With You" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and even though it was very successful with the public and received critical acclaim, Off The Wall did not win the Grammy category that Michael most wanted: “It was completely unfair not to be chosen for album of the year, that can never happen again” said Michael Jackson to his manager. In addition to being brilliant and talented, Michael was quite a perfectionist and ambitious: everything he imagined, he worked on until it became reality.
And it was from these words that he began to envision the creation of the album that would change his career. Michael declared: “I want to make an album where every song is a hit, my dream is for it to be the best-selling album of all time. ” And as always, his wish came true: with more than 70 million copies sold around the world, Thriller remains the best-selling album on the planet today, an incredible 41 years after its release.
But taking the album to that level wasn't as easy as you might imagine. The song Thriller went through serious problems after its release, and even Michael Jackson himself almost destroyed the video footage. The problems started right away with the title of the theme track.
Quincy Jones, Michael's manager, was looking for the perfect title, and for that he called Rod Temperton, the composer who had written and titled tracks on the previous album such as Rock With You and Off The Wall. Rod knew Michael's passion for films, so he decided to write a song that would give a story worthy of cinema. The result was the song Starlight, which Quincy didn't like very much.
With a title that means starlight, the song had a spacey, futuristic feel. Jackson and Quincy liked the melody, but wanted a more mysterious title that matched Michael Jackson's evolution. Eventually Rod thought of the title Midnight Man.
Quincy responded: “It’s on the right track, but it’s still not what we need. ” Until one morning, Rod Temperton woke up with a word in his head: Thriller, which means something like “suspense” or “mystery”. Temperton said he could see this word plastered across the city's billboards, and all the merchandising around it.
In a few hours, he rewrote the entire lyrics of Thriller, bringing the narrative of a young Michael Jackson who uses his wit to convince a beautiful girl to be protected by him during a night of terror: "It's close to midnight, and something evil's lurkin' in the dark You try to scream, but terror takes the sound before you make it Now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together All through the night, I'll save you from the terror on the screen, I'll make you see. " According to audio engineer Bruce Swedien, to achieve a unique sound in the vocals, Michael recorded all the backing voices at different distances from the microphone, and in different rooms, even in the studio bathroom. And the result was this: Let's face it, the result was magnificent.
As it was a horror lyric, Temperton suggested including the sound of a wolf howling in the song. In an era with less technology, the best way to do this was to record another similar sound. It was then that the audio engineer remembered his Great Dane Max.
He installed a recorder in the barn where the dog slept to capture the howls that the animal always made to the coyotes in the region. But it seems that Max wasn't too keen on doing a feat with Michael Jackson. During the entire morning, the dog didn't even howl.
And in the absence of a wolf or Great Dane, Michael Jackson recorded the howls with his own voice. And to increase the dark atmosphere, Temperton thought of including a scary poem at the end of the song. He still didn't know what this poem would be like, but he knew it needed to be by some classic voice from American horror films.
It was there that Peggy Lipton, wife of Quincy Jones, got in touch with her friend Vincent Price, known for acting in more than 100 horror films since the 1930s. Price accepted the invitation, but the problem is that, as he had many appointments in his diary, he would only be available to record his voice at that exact moment. Peggy warned Temperton, who was on her way to the studio, and had to improvise by writing a poem right there, still inside the taxi.
He asked the driver to take him to Vincent, gave him a copy of the text, and the actor recorded his part majestically in just two takes. "Darkness falls across the land The midnight hour is close at hand Creatures crawl in search of blood To terrorize y'all's neighborhood And whosoever shall be found Without the soul for getting down For no mortal can resist the evil from Thriller", recites Vincent. Although he immortalized his voice in this classic, Vincent had no idea how successful the song would be.
And when offered a choice between $20,000 or a percentage of future sales profits, he chose to keep $20,000, a decision he obviously regretted a few years later. But there is a detail that few people know: the track Thriller was not planned to be a single, much less was it supposed to have a music video. “Who wants to hear a single about monsters?
” said Walter Yetnikoff, president of CBS at the time. Although the Thriller album was released at the end of '82, by the beginning of the following year they had only planned music videos for two songs on the album: "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" which also has an incredible story, and which we have already deciphered here on the channel. However, some problems began to threaten the album's sales and success.
In June '83, after 4 months at the top of the Billboard 200, Thriller was displaced from the top by the Flashdance album, which featured the soundtrack to the film of the same name, the most popular at the time. Michael's album still managed to regain the top spot in July, but fell again in the same month, after the release of the album Synchronicity by the band The Police, which featured the hit "Every Breath You Take". Jackson was very frustrated, and seeing his dream of having the best-selling album in the world slipping further and further away, he became desperate and called the president of CBS in the middle of the night: “Walter, our album is no longer number 1!
What are we going to do now? ! ”, shouted Jackson.
And at that, Walter replied: “Now? Now we’ll go back to sleep, and we’ll think about it tomorrow. ” As a good perfectionist and a good anxious person, Michael didn't wait and called the vice president of Epic Records, Frank DiLeo.
Until DiLeo suggested a solution: “Michael, let’s make a music video for the album’s title track. It’s simple, all you have to do is dance, sing and make it look scary. ” Due to his childhood traumas, Where his father scared him with macabre masks so he wouldn't forget to close the windows in his room, Michael wasn't in favor of anything extremely scary.
He wanted to make a slightly comical horror, something in the Disney style, that would entertain more than scare. It was then that he remembered a film with exactly these characteristics that he had watched and really liked: “An American Werewolf in London” from 1981. Michael had fallen in love with the quality of the visual effects in that film, and decided that he would also become a monster.
He got the phone number of the director of that film, John Landis, and called him at 2 am. Landis had never heard of the song Thriller, just as Michael didn't know almost any of Landis' films, but this contact was so random and unexpected that the director decided to give the poor, eager boy a chance. At that time it was not very common for film directors to direct music videos, which tended to be very simple productions, but Landis accepted on one condition: the result had to be something worthy of showing in a cinema.
It's logical that Michael couldn't be happier, he always dreamed of making films. Landis then called his makeup artist Rick Baker, who had won an Oscar for his work on “An American Werewolf in London”, and invited him to take part in the production of the Thriller video. The problem is that in addition to the short time to produce the clip, they estimated a budget that was between $500 and $900 thousand dollars, almost 10 times more than the most expensive music videos at the time.
Following the logic of “we already don't have it”, Michael Jackson called the president of CBS again, to ask him to release this budget for production. But knowing how stressed the man was, Michael only talked about the idea for the clip and then handed the phone to John Landis, asking him to tell him about the budget. According to the director, upon hearing the amount, the president shouted an expletive so loud that Landis had to turn his ear away from the phone.
Michael got the message, really the no he already had, and after Landis hung up, Michael just said calmly, “Okay, I’ll pay. ” But remember that we are talking about a time when Michael Jackson did not yet have so much purchasing power, that amount was still too high for him to bear alone. Furthermore, it was an investment, meaning everyone who would benefit had to contribute in some way.
Eventually Walter calmed down and agreed to pay $100,000 for the clip, but it was still not enough. It was then that director of photography George Folsey, and Michael's lawyer, John Branca, thought of a bold and innovative solution to raise investment for the project. They decided to record a making-of documentary about the production of the Thriller video, believing that people would be curious to know the complexity behind the scenes of that mega production.
And I think they were right. In fact, it's this same curiosity that's making you watch this video so far, isn't it? If I got it right, then leave your like to help DecifraHITS bring you more interesting videos.
The team's idea was to sell the behind-the-scenes VHS tape and sell the content to pay TV channels, which was something very bold at the time, as this style of TV was just beginning and wasn't that popular. Fortunately, two large companies were interested in the investment: the TV network Showtime and MTV, each contributing $250,000. Which would already be enough to start production on the almost 14-minute mega-video clip.
But Michael Jackson still needed a woman to play opposite him, so he thought of actress Jennifer Beals, who starred in the film Flashdance. Unfortunately, Jennifer declined to participate in the clip. Landis then interviewed several models and actresses until he found the perfect girl: Ola Ray.
She was in love with Michael, and the chemistry between them was so natural that, according to Ola, they even had some intimate moments in the dressing room. (Hee-hee) There was one detail, they later discovered that Ola had already posed nude for Playboy magazine, which worried Michael, who was afraid that the judgments would influence the album's performance. But Landis calmed him down by saying: “She was a Playboy bunny, in Thriller she will be an actress.
” And she really was. The clip begins with Ola and Michael driving in a car early in the 1950s. But as the vehicle runs out of gas, they decide to continue on foot.
Halfway through, after asking Ola to be his girlfriend, Michael decides to reveal a macabre secret about himself, saying that he's not like other guys. The girl doesn't seem to understand, thinking he's talking about being more romantic. But as soon as the full moon rises in the sky, something strange begins to happen to Michael: "Are you alright?
" "Run! " (screams) In a scene clearly inspired by John Landis' film, Michael transforms into a macabre creature, revealing the incredible talent of the director and makeup artist Rick Baker. According to him, the creature is not a werewolf, but rather a type of tiger-man.
Michael's transformation goes through 4 stages, and for each of them it was necessary to make a different makeup mold, with Michael having to wear vampire teeth while making the mold. To make the beast's skin move as if it were breathing, Baker glued inflatable balloons to Michael's face. They were underneath all the makeup and were activated through manual air pumps that were hidden beneath the star's clothes.
If you think the makeup process was painful, believe me so. According to Michael Jackson, the most painful part was the beast's yellow contact lenses, which burned like pepper after about 15 minutes. But our perfectionist star liked a challenge, and played his role in the video with the mastery that only he could achieve.
The helpless girl then runs for her life as she is chased by the beast and finally captured. At that moment we see that this was just a movie that Michael and Ola were watching: a classic scene that has already generated several memes that you have certainly seen out there. But the girl is so scared of the film that she leaves the room in the middle of the session, and Michael follows her.
And it is only at this moment that the song begins, at 04:40 of the clip, with Michael dancing, singing and using dark humor to try to calm the scared girl. Little by little she seems to get into the mood and calm down, but things start to get strange when they pass a macabre cemetery. At that moment, undead begin to emerge from their tombs while Vincent Price recites the horror poem.
One of the zombies is even makeup artist Rick Baker himself, who we see in this scene. The rest are professionals who were hired for the clip, but due to the very short time to produce the clip, a team of 20 makeup artists were needed to do all the zombie makeup. To make matters worse, makeup artists would only have access to professionals at the last minute, so, to anticipate, Baker used a makeup trick called the “bandit mask”, a standard mold that is placed around the eyes to give the typical sensation of depth.
of a zombie. Baker used this strategy because this is a region of the face that varies little from person to person, so he was able to leave several pre-made molds. As Jackson and Ola continue walking through the night, they end up being cornered by the army of zombies.
At that moment, the camera pans around Ola until it reveals that Michael has also turned into a zombie. From there begins one of the most memorable scenes in the audiovisual industry: the iconic Thriller choreography. It turns out that the professionals hired as zombies were actually professional dancers from Los Angeles, led by choreography genius Michael Peters, who had already participated in and directed the choreography for the Beat It video.
Michael Jackson, knowing the excellence of the team that was with him , took the opportunity to extract the maximum potential of those dancers, tirelessly rehearsing each of the steps. The choreographer revealed that he was surprised to see how Michael Jackson equaled or even surpassed professional dancers who studied decades for this, he really had the innate gift of dancing. But despite the absurd level of this team, they committed to creating a choreography with simple movements that even a child or an elderly person could do.
The advantage is that this facilitated the popularization of the Thriller dance in a universal way, and to this day people of all ages and places repeat the choreography at Halloween events, parties and shows. In addition, several films and series have already replicated these famous dance steps. Another striking element of the clip is Michael Jackson's famous red jacket.
It was designed by director John Landis' wife, designer Deborah Nadoolman, the same one who made Indiana Jones' clothes. Deborah chose the color red because this is the tone that most highlighted Michael Jackson in the midst of the dark scenery. Furthermore, the notable V-cut of the jacket was designed to broaden the singer's shoulders, who at the time was 1.
75 tall and weighed just 50 kg. Furthermore, the cut reinforced the V-formation of the zombie dancers. But if you think that everything had already been resolved at this point, you are wrong.
Just 2 weeks before the release of the clip, Michael Jackson called his lawyer John Branca, desperate and with a breathless voice, ordering him to destroy all the footage from Thriller immediately. It turns out that at that time the world was experiencing a kind of collective panic in relation to secret sects and the occult, with MTV itself being the target of attempts to ban some of its videos. In the midst of all this frenzy, Michael Jackson, who was a Jehovah's Witness, ended up receiving several threats from his religious community when they found out that he was going to release a music video with monsters and the undead.
"They said Michael was promoting demonology and that they were going to excommunicate him," said his lawyer John Branca. Seeing Michael's desperation and fearing he would do something stupid, the lawyer and director John Landis decided to hide and lock the film negatives inside the lawyer's office. But the launch date was approaching and they needed to calm Michael, who was so anxious that he wouldn't leave his room and hadn't eaten for days.
The lawyer, in a desperate attempt to convince him, said the following: "Michael, have you ever seen the actor Bela Lugosi playing Drcula? " Michael replied, "Yes, why? " and the lawyer said, "Did you know he was a devout Christian?
And have you noticed that they put disclaimers at the beginning of the film? So instead of destroying that footage, let's put a disclaimer at the beginning of the clip saying that he does not reflect your personal beliefs. " John Branca made up this whole story about Bela Lugosi, but what matters is that it excited Michael again and he loved the idea.
And that's why at the beginning of the Thriller clip we see this huge disclaimer saying: “Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses belief in the occult” - Michael Jackson. And on December 2, 1983, the video for Thriller finally premiered on TVs all over the planet, which defined not only the direction of pop music in the 80s, but also the direction of the entire audiovisual industry to this day. And as for Michael's desire, if before he was frustrated by not having won the Grammy for best album, with Thriller he won not only that award, but an incredible 8 Grammys in a single night, another record that no one has managed to break to this day.
When they ask you why Michael Jackson is a complete artist, just share this video. And if you want to know the history of other songs by the king of pop, just click on this playlist above. Thank you very much for watching this far, and I'll wait for you in the next video.
