Monday, October 31, 2011

Spook Rock: Thriller (1982)

The title song from Michael Jackson's 1982 album is probably ringing in the ears of Dr. Conrad Murray during his trial, and he's probably seeing a good chunk of this video, directed by John Landis ("The Blues Brothers", "An American Werewolf in London") in his dreams, too. Vincent Price contributes a spoken word poem, billed as a rap, his first such recording since he'd contributed to Alice Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" 7 years earlier. The video debuted on MTV in the winter of 1984 as the last single from the album, this after Jackson had already collected a truckload of Grammys & American Music Awards for earlier singles, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It", and his duet with Paul McCartney, "The Girl is Mine", which was the first single released in December 1982.

Uploaded by Jackson's VEVO channel.



Nearly 30 years later, people are still doing the "Thriller" zombie dance. Some things never get old.

3 comments:

magicdog said...

The video creeped me out, but hearing the song on the radio was fun at Halloween!

The fact that Vincent Price was also part of the project was also a plus! I loved watching his movies (even those of the non horror variety). It was all so apropos!!

Anonymous said...

Somethings do get old but, for some reason, people just won't let them die. The zombie dance falls into this category.

hobbyfan said...

The way the media glorifies Jackson, like they did with Elvis, moreso than John Lennon or George Harrison, it feeds into the fan frenzy. It happens when you're successful and you listen to bad advice being dispensed as good. A gimmick as old as the hills.