Album of the Day (8/22)

[Dawn]

Thanks to Dave for suggesting today's album!

Thriller - Michael Jackson, 1982[/size]

The tracks:

1. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
2. Baby Be Mine
3. The Girl Is Mine
4. Thriller
5. Beat It
6. Billie Jean
7. Human Nature
8. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
9. Lady in My Life

What are your thoughts on this album?

[lora]

Finally! An album I know! LOL! This is one of the definitive albums. It's great. Naturally some songs are better than others...anyway, here goes.

1. This is a catchy song, very upbeat and cool. Great way to start off an album, I'd say.

2. I like this one. Of course, this was back when Jacko was considered to be a cutie, so this is a song that girls swooned over.

3. Ah, the duet with McCartney. Very enjoyable. I wonder if this was an inspiration for the Brandy-Monica duet, "The Boy is Mine". Hmm... It's something to think about.

4. Score! This was the best song on the album. I love the video for it, but then again, everyone loves it. Scared the hell outta me when I was younger!

5. Love this song too. I remember dancing around in my living room while this song was playing. Me and my friends used to pretend we were street fighting, just like in the video!

6. Another classic. For some reason, it's always struck me as weird that this song is so great. I mean, it's about a guy who's got this girl saying he's the father of her child when he knows that he's not. But...this is probably the theme song for my generation. I know all kinds of guys who swear that the kid isn't theirs.

7. It's been a long time since I've listened to this album, and I can't seem to remember this one.

8. I liked this song, but can't really remember why.

9. Aw. A sweet ballad. Jacko's got a pretty voice, don't he? LOL. This is a good song, though.

[SAT-I need more room!!]

Proud to say I NEVER owned this! Actually, I think I might now, I think it's one of the few vinyl albums my wife had from childhood.

Ok, this was before he was REALLY wacko, and I liked some tunes when they first came out, like Billie Jean. Human Nature isn't bad. And The Girl is Mine is 1000 times better than Say, Say, Say.

But give me Off the Wall anyday!

[Ken]

The impact this album had on pop music was mind blowing and Mike was at his peak.I remember taping the Thriller video when it first came out.

I just grew tired of it. I did like Wanna Be Startin' Something and Billie Jean when they were first released.


If I had to pick favorites they would be the two listed above.

[Pete70s]

It's actually a really good album, despite all the hype.. One thing I didn't know until recently was that the members of Toto played on some of the tracks (they wrote "Human Nature"). Of course, Toto played on EVERYBODY's records in the 80's.

Besides them, look at all the stars who appeared.. Paul McCartney, Eddie Van Halen, Vincent Price!!

Never liked the McCartney duet.. Seems as though everytime two singers of the same sex do a duet, it's usually a "He's mine" or "She's mine" theme... Streisand/Carnes did it, Brandy/Monica did it... Gets old fast!

To me, this is the last really good album he made. After this, it was all controversy over music...

[djdave]

Simply put, one of the best albums ever.
Start to finish, it's wonderful.
Got it for Xmas 1983, and played the heck out of it.
7 out of 9 songs on the album were top 10 hits--a most incredible feat.
Every song rates at least a 9.8 with me.
I'm fairly certain 3 or 4 of the songs are in my CRAZY top 800 as well.

[Dawn]

Lora-Bette's said:

Finally! An album I know! LOL! This is one of the definitive albums. It's great. Naturally some songs are better than others...anyway, here goes.

1. This is a catchy song, very upbeat and cool. Great way to start off an album, I'd say.

2. I like this one. Of course, this was back when Jacko was considered to be a cutie, so this is a song that girls swooned over.

3. Ah, the duet with McCartney. Very enjoyable. I wonder if this was an inspiration for the Brandy-Monica duet, "The Boy is Mine". Hmm... It's something to think about.

4. Score! This was the best song on the album. I love the video for it, but then again, everyone loves it. Scared the hell outta me when I was younger!

5. Love this song too. I remember dancing around in my living room while this song was playing. Me and my friends used to pretend we were street fighting, just like in the video!

6. Another classic. For some reason, it's always struck me as weird that this song is so great. I mean, it's about a guy who's got this girl saying he's the father of her child when he knows that he's not. But...this is probably the theme song for my generation. I know all kinds of guys who swear that the kid isn't theirs.

7. It's been a long time since I've listened to this album, and I can't seem to remember this one.

8. I liked this song, but can't really remember why.

9. Aw. A sweet ballad. Jacko's got a pretty voice, don't he? LOL. This is a good song, though.

I loved this album when I was in high school! This was the first cassette that I literally wore out, from playing it so much.

I agree, that video to 'Thriller' is great! It definitely raised the standard for concept videos back then. I have a cassette that I taped off the radio in 1984 that has an alternate mix of the song - the Vincent Price portion is in the middle of the song, and all the choruses are at the end!

[Dawn]

SAT-The said:

Proud to say I NEVER owned this! Actually, I think I might now, I think it's one of the few vinyl albums my wife had from childhood.

Ok, this was before he was REALLY wacko, and I liked some tunes when they first came out, like Billie Jean. Human Nature isn't bad. And The Girl is Mine is 1000 times better than Say, Say, Say.

But give me Off the Wall anyday!

'Billie Jean' is probably my favorite from the album. I loved that song from first listen. 'Human Nature' took a little while to grow on me, but I've come to like it a lot. Off the Wall is a great album as well!

[Dawn]

KenFrank said:

The impact this album had on pop music was mind blowing and Mike was at his peak.I remember taping the Thriller video when it first came out.

I just grew tired of it. I did like Wanna Be Startin' Something and Billie Jean when they were first released.


If I had to pick favorites they would be the two listed above.

As much as I like this album, I agree that there was a point when it was a little overexposed. For pretty much all of 1983 and into 1984, many of these songs got a lot of airplay on the top 40 stations. Still, 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' has a good beat, and 'Billie Jean' is truly a classic.

[Dawn]

Pete70s said:

It's actually a really good album, despite all the hype.. One thing I didn't know until recently was that the members of Toto played on some of the tracks (they wrote "Human Nature"). Of course, Toto played on EVERYBODY's records in the 80's.

Besides them, look at all the stars who appeared.. Paul McCartney, Eddie Van Halen, Vincent Price!!

Never liked the McCartney duet.. Seems as though everytime two singers of the same sex do a duet, it's usually a "He's mine" or "She's mine" theme... Streisand/Carnes did it, Brandy/Monica did it... Gets old fast!

To me, this is the last really good album he made. After this, it was all controversy over music...

I didn't know that about the members of Toto playing on this album - interesting! I agree, Michael did have some great guest musicians on this album. I wish his subsequent albums were as solid as this one.

[Dawn]

DJ said:

Simply put, one of the best albums ever.
Start to finish, it's wonderful.
Got it for Xmas 1983, and played the heck out of it.
7 out of 9 songs on the album were top 10 hits--a most incredible feat.
Every song rates at least a 9.8 with me.
I'm fairly certain 3 or 4 of the songs are in my CRAZY top 800 as well.

It really is a great album, and is one of my favorites even today. I remember I used to play it several times a day, every day, for the first couple of months after I got it! As you say, 7 top 10 hits is very impressive, and the other 2 songs could have been successful as singles also, IMO.