People often talk about how the number of copies of Michael Jackson’s 1982 album suspense has sold. People often mention that it is the best selling album of all time. They bring up all the awards he has won.
All of that is great for the trivia nerd in all of us (and I certainly have one in me), but what it really does suspense remarkable is the music itself. While most 1982 pop music sounds positively dated today, I think most Thriller tracks still sound as fresh in 2009 as they did 27 years earlier.
The album opener “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'” is the most over the top song on the album and says something that opens the album with it. There is so much content in this song that it is about to explode. These days, most hit songs have about 1/3 of the imagination that this song has (and that’s being generous).
The three best known songs on the album are “Thriller”, “Billie Jean” and “Beat It”. In fact, these are possibly the three best-known songs of Michael Jackson’s entire career. Surprisingly, they come one after another on the album. How many albums have three memorable songs one after the other?
The “Thriller” music video seems to be talked about all the time. But what about the song itself? The video wouldn’t have been as good if it didn’t have an amazing soundtrack.
“Billie Jean” is so great that I really don’t even need to say anything about it here. It’s the best dance pop song. It demands you hit the dance floor, but it also has an irresistible melody and engaging lyrics that beg you to sing along.
“Beat It” featured rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen. When you think about it, that’s quite an interesting move for a pop R&B artist like Michael Jackson. People forget the original idea he had for him to make such a rock song at that time. His innovative ideas were so influential that it is now difficult to see them in their original context.
Those three songs are fantastic, but it’s some of the others that really tickle me these days. “PYT (Pretty Young Thing)”, “Human Nature”, and “Baby Be Mine” are wonderful songs that weren’t huge hits, so they are sometimes overlooked by casual fans. These are great songs. Forget “Greatest Hits” albums because they don’t include great songs like these. you need to get suspense.
Even the minor songs on the album have their moments and their charms. “The Girl is Mine” is a goofy duet with Beatles legend Paul McCartney, but it’s actually quite enjoyable once you accept it for what it is. “The Lady in my Life” takes a while to get going, but once the groove is established, it’s a great song.
One thing that I definitely feel is too often overlooked with Michael Jackson is his songwriting ability and Thriller was really the first proof that he was a great songwriter (although he did write one song, the number 1 hit “Don’t Stop ’til you get enough’ for outside the wall.)
Michael Jackson has sole songwriting credit on four of the nine songs on this remarkable album: “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” and “The Girl is Mine.” Write four songs for suspense it was just the beginning, because from 1987 Bad through 2001 Invincible Jackson would write about 90% of the original songs on his album (I’m not counting his covers of “Smile” and “Come Together” in my quick and dirty estimate).
