{"id":28063,"date":"2013-12-01T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2013-12-01T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=28063"},"modified":"2013-12-02T01:01:04","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T09:01:04","slug":"day-history-december-1st","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/day-history-december-1st\/","title":{"rendered":"This Day in History: December 1st"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today in History: December 1, 1982<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"michael-jackson\"<\/a>When Michael Jackson began work on what would become the best selling album of all time (by far<\/a>), “Thriller,” released on this day in history<\/a>, he did so with a huge chip on his shoulder. He felt strongly that his previous effort, \u201cOff the Wall<\/a>,\u201d which ended up selling a \u201cmeasly\u201d 20 million copies worldwide, had been undervalued by the music world, and he was upset when the album wasn\u2019t honored with the Record of the Year<\/em> award.<\/p>\n

So when Jackson entered the studio with producer Quincy Jones to start the process of recording his sixth album, he did it with the intention of creating a record where “every song was a killer.”<\/p>\n

Thirty songs were originally composed by Jackson and Jones for tentative inclusion on the album; they eventually whittled the number down to nine. When these nine tunes were ready to go, both of them were unhappy with the finished product. They spent nine weeks remixing every single song, spending a full week on each.<\/p>\n

The song \u201cThriller,\u201d written by Rod Temperton, was a rare example of a horror-themed pop song that wasn\u2019t strictly a novelty tune in the tradition of \u201cMonster Mash.\u201d Unlike other songs of that genre, this was a \u201cspooky\u201d song with year-round appeal.<\/p>\n

When looking for someone to recite the closing lyrics (because, let\u2019s face it, MJ sounded as menacing as a Disney princess,) Jones secured the talents of the one and only Vincent Price, who did the job in just two takes.<\/p>\n

About six months after the release of \u201cThriller<\/a>,\u201d Vincent Price made an appearance on \u201cThe Tonight Show.\u201d He said with a laugh that when he did the narration for the song \u201cThriller,\u201d he was given the choice between taking a percentage of the album sales or a flat $20,000 as payment (about $46,800 today). Price chose the $20,000. Carson was quick to remind him how much money he passed up given the enormous success of the album, and Price good-naturedly replied, \u201cHow well I know!\u201d<\/p>\n

Vincent Price may not have made out very well from the success of \u201cThriller,\u201d but just about everyone else did. Epic, Michael\u2019s record company, just months earlier had let go a huge number of its employees. The entire music industry was experiencing a horrible slump in sales, which was soon to change.<\/p>\n

TIME magazine suggested that “the fallout from Thriller has given the [music] business its best years since the heady days of 1978, when it had an estimated total domestic revenue of $4.1 billion.” It describes Jackson himself as the<\/p>\n

…star of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue team for the music business. A songwriter who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street. A singer who cuts across all boundaries of taste and style and color too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s no exaggeration to say that without MJ, MTV would not have been nearly as popular in the \u201880s as it was. Michael Jackson pretty much invented how a music video should go. Because of him, everyone had to have elaborate dance numbers in their videos, even artists who never should have been allowed to. I\u2019m looking at you Pat Benatar with your \u201cLove is a Battlefield<\/a>\u201d moves.<\/p>\n

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, Google Play Music<\/a>, Feed<\/a>), as well as:<\/p>\n