THRILLER POLL

okay lol

I predict a landslide for "[/i]"

isn't that a Magnetic Fields record title?

human nature

my top 3 is Wanna Be/PYT/title track, #1 changes on any given day.

actually no "Baby Be Mine" clicked for me in a big way a few years ago too, damn this hard.

my top three are Wanna Be/Human Nature/(rotating wild card depending on which of these I've heard most recently: "Beat It"/"Billie Jean"/"Thriller")

most impossible poll ever obv, but i voted for 'baby be mine' as an underdog (only non-single, right? but so great).

xp

"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".

I can't get over the fact that his stated intention at the outset was to make the biggest-selling album ever, and despite many factors being beyond his (or anyone else's) control, he fucking did it.

without hearing the less famous album tracks in years, for me it's bj vs wanna be startin something

I honestly didn't realize how many writing credits he had on this album

p.y.t.

PYT

"Baby Be Mine" and "The Lady In My Life" were the 2 nonsingles

By the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; Allmusic described him as a "blindingly gifted vocalist".[7] Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbred tenor is extraordinary beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly".[8] With the release of Thriller, Jackson could sing low—down to a basso low C—but he preferred to sing higher because pop tenors have more range to create style.[32] Rolling Stone was of the opinion that Jackson was now singing in a "fully adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness".[33] "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", credited to James Ingram and Quincy Jones, and "The Lady in My Life" by Rod Temperton, both gave the album a stronger R&B direction; the latter song was described as "the closest Jackson has come to crooning a sexy, soulful ballad after his Motown years" by Taraborrelli.[28] The singer had already adopted a "vocal hiccup" which he continued to implement in Thriller. The purpose of the hiccup—somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping—is to help promote a certain emotion; be it excitement, sadness or fear.[34]

holy shit

that's like a 4-octave range excluding his falsetto

That's amazing.

I have to say, though, while the hiccup works brilliantly on Thriller, by Bad it sounded like a tic.

ah yes i remember well in the late 1970s when Allmusic praised Michael's vocals

hahaha I was so busy boggling at the low C that I glossed over that

lol @ u Wikipedia

also I guess it's a 3-octave range (4 Cs: high C, middle C, low C, bass C)

listening to "The Girl Is Mine" and boggling that MJ is dead and Paul McCartney is still alive

she told him that he's her forever lover, don't you remember

I don't believe it.

oh my god is the low voice about 2:45 into this Michael and not Paul????????

I sort of hate this album

like I roll my eyes at it the way lex probably rolls his eyes at the Beatles

we know, Shakey in SFC

oh no way

xp to djp

here's a really great/underrated vocal performance from young mj (doing stevie): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ3Gm3DORaM

regardless of which one it is, it's pretty impressive how low they get on the last phrase, which is like Russian bass territory

coming of age in the Bad/Dangerous era makes me kind of jealous of people who got to be ridiculously overexposed to Thriller instead

this is a remarkably good headphones album

there are a lot of neat panning tricks and production details I've never noticed before, esp. with dropped-in percussion enhancements and small background asides in either the background vocals or instruments

Might vote "Beat It" - his singing is phenomenal on that.

the "oh no" after the "eyes looked like mine" line low in the right ear on "Billie Jean"... wau

love "beat it." "they'll kick you then they beat you and they tell you it's fair" always makes me sad these days.

coming of age in the Bad/Dangerous era makes me kind of jealous of people who got to be ridiculously overexposed to Thriller instead

As a stubborn fourth-grader, I held back for so long. I was a Men at Work man, fan of Billy Joel and the Police. Not really into this dance music.

I finally relented and I remember riding home from Wal-Mart, looking at the cassette and thinking, Okay, we'll give it a chance.

Then I opened it up and went, Ooh! A tiger!

The least likely song I'd vote for is "Lady in My Life."

i could choose either Gonna Be, PYT, Billie Jean or Beat It and live with the decision. choosing between them is impossible

also the least like song you'd write (xpost)

I would write "The Girl is Mine," however.

"The Girl Is Mine" is the only song I would for sure never ever vote for. Usually I toss a vote to "Baby Be Mine" for its gloss.

Yeah, I've heard it all before, Michael. She told me I was her forever lover.

shit idk -- PYP

lol PYT

this is impossible

I wanna love you, my Pleasant Young Plains

voted "Human Nature", one of my favorite songs in the universe as I've probably blabbed about elsewhere on ILM; obv the singing is incredible but that closing keyboard riff, with the little "cha cha" (is that a drum machine or is that Michael scatting?) is unearthly. plus the vibe of the song never fails to disorient me; even as an eight-year old I found the "I like living this way / I like loving this way" liberating & couldn't figure out if Michael meant it or not, & that's part of its attraction to me still.

This poll is harder than fuck. The palm muted guitar on "Wanna Be..."!!! The synth trumpet on "Billie Jean"!!! Everything about "Beat It"!!! The total cocoon-womb of "Human Nature"!!!

i lent this to a family friend when i was little and he drew stubble and a moustache on MJ in ballpoint pen - i have seriously never forgiven him for that

ugly young thing!

The guitar playing on this whole record is fucking awesome tbqh...

All credit to Toto and (on "Beat It") Eddie Van Halen.

Yeah, well! Toto, when employed in the service of good, can be an amazing thing.

Billie Jean for me please!

just putting this here, in case you may be a fan of Thriller yet have perhaps never heard it. often referred to by MJ fans as being the beginning of that whole 'hiccup'y vocal era referenced upthread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yt-bKGeeP8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2zx9uukY-s

always liked this demo

also a good documentary on how it was recorded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8if4LV_SzE

i never heard "Heartbreak Hotel" before he died but it's been a staple of posthumous radio tributes i've listened to, both in '09 and earlier this week, awesome song.

"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." Hate "Beat It," got tired of "Billie Jean" long ago. I like "Human Nature," love SWV's "Right Here."

sophie's choice.

human nature v. beat it

And Though You Fight To Stay Alive
Your Body Starts To Shiver
For No Mere Mortal Can Resist
The Evil Of The THRILLER

voted "human nature." really wish thriller had gotten this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLEhh_XpJ-0
and pipes of peace got "the girl is mine"

otm "say say say" is so much better

We all agree!

"The Girl is Mine" vs "Say Say Say"

"The Girl is Mine" is the sound of noticing you have erectile dysfunction syndrome for the first time while sitting in lukewarm water.

― Z S, Tuesday, December 18, 2007 12:17 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

^otm

and Linda McCartney harmonies are the lukewarm water.

Human Nature is so gorgeous, I never get tired of hearing it. The lyrical imagery is so great.

yeah i relistened to this album and p.y.t. was tempting but def voting human nature

Michael's home demo of "Billie Jean."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_1eYWx4fM

The palm muted guitar on "Wanna Be..."!!!

And his scatting in unison with it!

Yeah, well! Toto, when employed in the service of good, can be an amazing thing.

― Axolotl with an Atlatl (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, August 30, 2011 6:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

As I recall, when they started putting out records, critical consensus was, "How can these guys sound so great on other peoples' records, but sound iredeemably shitty on their own?"

I am no huge fan of "Say Say Say", but it probably would have benefited from Quincy Jones producing instead of George Martin, while "The Girl Is Mine" might have worked with Martin producing.

Btw. I consider "The Man" to be the best of those three songs they did together. :)

Can't hear Human Nature without being transported back to shit teenage house parties, circa 11pm. The vomit is drying on the carpet, one girl is crying on the stairs, the hard kids are ransacking the host's parents' bedroom. Then Human Nature comes on the stereo, and three couples take to the floor to "slow dance" and snog awkwardly while everyone else just wishes their fucking lifts home would arrive.

Jackson could sing low—down to a basso low C

A lot of very famous people (JLennon for instance) had two signatures, one for autographs and one for contracts/cheques/etc.

I think MJackson had two speaking voices, one deeper one for normal business/work/private use, and the high one for fans/interviews/public.

While I was aware of Michael Jackson as a kid in the 80s, I didn't really get round to hearing any of his albums until much much later. I therefore can't help thinking of SWV's excellent Right Here when I hear Human Nature.

I'd love to here some basso MJ singing.

I think MJackson had two speaking voices, one deeper one for normal business/work/private use, and the high one for fans/interviews/public.

Lisa Marie says this is the case.

I think John Noakes was the same.

I challopsilly voted for The Girl Is Mine. This is a great album, but I've heard some of these songs a billion times, whereas TGIM is technically a deep cut. And yeah, it's kind of rubbish, if not crepey, but it's also kind of charming in its way. I have a perverse liking of McCartney in the mid-'80s (I share Geir's love of the Tug Of War album), so yeah... Iff this were Bad, I'd be all over the hits - Smooth Criminal being maybe my first favourite independently-heard song.

technically a deep cut lead single that peaked at #2 on the Hot 100

it was a single? my bad.

*slopes off to another thread*

in fairness to dog latin, TGIM has the same problem "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" -- a huge hit that somehow no one associates with the album.

Both those had no video at the time, so both were 'low-key' singles, ahead of the big hitters which didn't need a "Hey hey new album soon, check this lead track" hype to hit top spot(s).

In fact, they never did this until "Black or White" which, um, had a fair bit of video-promotion...

yeah...and not having a video while being off an album with several hugely famous videos (xpost)

I can only remember maybe 2-3 singles off of Dangerous, and yet there were something like 7 or 8 of them released. This was when I was most exposed to chart countdowns and whatnot as well.

i remember the first 4 Dangerous videos all getting big splashy premieres on MTV and heavy rotation afterward, and "Heal The World," thought not a huge hit, felt annoyingly ubiquitous later on

feel like everyones gonna rep for dif songs then billie jean will crush all

ILM seems like a place where "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" or "Human Nature" could stage an upset imo

hey dudes im upping this ron g blend of human nature for you cause its bananas http://www.mediafire.com/?xcs4uix1cri2f7m

"wanna be startin' something" would be my second choice. watching tracy morgan chant "mamasaymamasamamakoosa" onstage in prospect park was cathartic right after mike kicked it was way cathartic

yes, doubly cathartic . . . and apparently i need my morning caffeine

"beat it", which feels like a choice out of character but is also pretty unhesitating

oh wait "p.y.t." actually

ILM seems like a place where "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" or "Human Nature" could stage an upset imo

Voted "Wanna Be Startin' Something."

ILM seems like a place where "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" or "Human Nature" could stage an upset imo

I fully expect these to be #2 and #3 (behind '[/i]')

i voted [/i] jah rastafari

Nothing is bad on this album, but "I Wanna Be Startin' Something", "The Girl Is Mine" and "The Lady In My Life" are the only tracks that aren't downright great.

Wow do i disagree w/ you (at least about the first two)

Well, the first *is* great, the next is bad, and the last I don't remember.

Used to really love "I Wanna Be Startin' Something". It still sounds marvellous (like virtually anything produced by Quincy Jones at that time), but I feel the song becomes a bit too repetitive and mantra-like after a while. No bad track in any way, but doesn't have the magic that most of the others do.

On the other hand, "Baby Be Mine", a non-single which is often overlooked, is one of my definite fave tracks off the entire album.

Baby Be Mine is awesome.

Lady in My Life is the only one that seems like it could've been done by a lesser R&B singer of the time. Also, it sounds like he says "I will love you, Morris Day".

feel like everyones gonna rep for dif songs then billie jean will crush all

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, August 31, 2011 2:31 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

yep

the song becomes a bit ... mantra-like after a while

Bingo.

Realize now that many of my all-time Jackson tracks were composed by Rod Temperton.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_GxI0cmRFEuc/RyoNrmDh_4I/AAAAAAAAAe8/TtqiKqlIRyY/s320/rod+temperton+-+Heatwave-%28Good%29.jpg

Of course he also wrote all those great Heatwave hits, and "Razzamatazz" and "Yah Mo B There" and "Sweet Freedom". LA needs more Brits ;)

And "Stomp!" and "Give Me The Night".... Damn... Genius...

Wanna Be Starting Something sounds more like a cut from Off The Wall than anything else off the album. A pure dance/disco track.

On the topic of Michael Jackson's low voice, I did find this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jl2VKqHRJw

kind of feel like throwing a vote to thriller since it isnt coming up here much but man wanna be startin' somethin is kinda unbeatable

also yeah say say say is all time great

I'm going to vote for "The Girl is Mine" because I just listened to it again and it's such a warm record.

I like the bridge a lot. But most of it is, um, not "Startin' Something."

i can't vote for girl is mine but i think it's hilarious and i never got why everyone in the universe is so uptight about it.

For a bad song, Girl Is Mine is a pretty good song.

how is "Girl is Mine" a bad song? I'm curious. It's at worst innocuous in a touching way.

it's on thriller, usually seems to be the idea

(and isn't at the safely ignorable end like whatever "the lady in my life" is)

I don't ignore "The Lady In My Life"; I'd vote for it above everything except "Human Nature" & "Billie Jean". The cascading synths & Michael's ascending vocals at the end are magnificent.

(and has paul mccartney on it, why do the wrong ones always live amirite)

((i know there is plenty of love for paul mccartney around here, talking about those menacing Other People w/ that one))

I like the disjunction of placing this cute number by the guy who sang a movie theme about his pet rat on an album full of paranoia. On the other hand, it's not a disjunction.

True as people say, "The Girl Is Mine" is not at all a bad song, but it is on "Thriller", which makes competition tight. May be one of few cases of albums where the leadoff single was actually the worst song on the album.

kind of feel like throwing a vote to thriller since it isnt coming up here much but man wanna be startin' somethin is kinda unbeatable

also yeah say say say is all time great

― dougie instructor (jjjusten), Wednesday, August 31, 2011 11:35 AM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark

"Thriller" is my fav song out of the big trio of video hits and i always feel alone in that

Whenever you drive around and see giant gated houses and think "Who lives in places like this?" The answer is Ron Temperton.

Can't help but fantasize about "Someone In The Dark" replacing "The Girl is Mine" on this LP. Would it be more or less crepey? Do you wanna hear Sir Paul utter the words "forever lover" or have E.T. whispering sweet nothings in your eardrum?

Right now for me this is "Wanna be..." vs "Beat It" vs "Human Nature"...

when i was little my favorite song on thriller was "say say say", until i realized that it was on some other album called "pipes of peace"!! ARRRRGH as if i'm buyin that. rather stay home and listen to "dirty laundry" again

Pipes of Peace began Macca's commercial slide, which is strange considering the hugeness of "Say Say Say" (and "So Bad" got MTV play).

my real answers in 2011 are pretty much the same as everybody else's. "thriller" (the song) maybe edges the others for the neat trick of having its two most incredible moments at the very beginning (the opening synth fanfare) and at the very end (vincent price's laugh), meaning DJs are practically obliged to play the entire thing with no blends

The gatefold of the Pipes of Peace record was great because it had these casual Polaroids (probably taken by Linda) of all the people on the record (Paul, Linda, Ringo, Stanley Clarke) and Michael's there in the office or studio or wherever, fully dressed in his Grammy Sgt Pepper-looking suit.

I write for a sports blog and recently included the video for "Pipes of Peace" when the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission recently decided that duck season would be suspended between Dec. 23 and Dec. 26 this year.

I'm hilar.

Alfred, Pipes of Peace actually sold more in the UK than Tug of War did - maybe because the title track (second single) was also a big hit there?

Also a platinum album in the U.S.

Yeah, but the album didn't hit the top ten and produced no follow-up single. Plus, MJ was doing Paulie the favor.

*hit follow-up single

Did London Town/Back to the Egg/McCartney II sell more, though? (I know McCartney II did not.)

Tug of War only had one big hit ("Ebony and Ivory"). At least in the UK, Pipes of Peace had two - "Say Say Say" and "Pipes of Peace," the latter of which was actually a number one.

PYT all the way

the next tier for me is wanna be starting something and the three big radio hits

the whole album is classic though obviously

"human nature" and "wanna be startin' somethin'" are the picks of the bunch for me, the latter barely edging out the former

Can't help but fantasize about "Someone In The Dark" replacing "The Girl is Mine" on this LP. Would it be more or less crepey? Do you wanna hear Sir Paul utter the words "forever lover" or have E.T. whispering sweet nothings in your eardrum?

Dave Marsh gave The E.T. Storybook five stars in the 1983 (blue) Rolling Stone Record Guide. His review was pretty convincing, too. I'll dig it up when I get home.

...and the correct answer is "Human Nature"...

Regarding Paul's commercial slide, I'd argue it started a bit later. Although "No More Lonely Nights" was a rather huge hit, the accompanying "Give My Regards To Broad Street" felt rather unneccessary as an album while the movie bombed completely. Next year's "Spies Like Us" single was a huge commercial disappointment, and he hardly managed to recover with the controversial "Press To Play" album, which - except for a track or two - sounded very different from what one would expect from McCartney. Even when he released 1989's "Flowers In The Dirt", which was considered as a return to form by his fans, it sold rather poorly when compared to his works from before the mid 80s.

This may all have been caused by people buying "Pipes Of Peace" and being disappointed though. As much as people may have loved the two hits, most of the rest of the album was rather underwhelming.

http://www.connollyco.com/discography/paul_mccartney/pipesgf.jpg

I think it has more to do with the core population having all the solo Macca they needed, and the young people not starting to buy them.

I'd say he maybe picked up some interest by having Radiohead's producer do one album, but he's not dumb enough to think he could sell as much as Band on the Run now, let alone Sgt Pepper.

And in any case, why should he? To his mind, he can do whatever he wants to. Or, nothing.

Any road up, back to Jackson...

the young people not starting to buy them.

as proven by science by me, age 11, despite the fact that i LOVED say say say

i ended up voting for p.y.t.

Pretty sure most of those who liked "We All Stand Together" were very young indeed.

But did they buy "Tug of War"? I think not.

Probably not. Mind you, I was really into McCartney at 11-12YO (but too old for "We All Stand Together" at 14).

So was I (I got WAST for my sister, a funny shaped picdisc), but I moved onto liking Lennon more, just before he died. At which point everyone started over-appreciating him.

Last Macca album I bought would be the "speed of sound" live thingy.

After that it was the punk and new wave embarrasment of riches...

Tug Of War is really good. We had the Frogs Chorus video back when we were kids - must have watched it a thousand times. Backed with Seaside Woman and the slightly-nudey Oriental Nightfish by Linda.

Sorry for derailment. I just had to post these up. Such strange memories. I wonder if these two songs helped instil a love of cod-reggae and spacked-out post-punk in me when I was just Pup Latin?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jWlpU4bGhw&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkDKB7aYW8w

On Michael's lower (?natural) voice vs his falsetto, from John Jeremiah Sullivan's memorial essay in GQ:

People want to know, Why, when you became a man, did your voice not change? Rather, it did change, but what did it change into? Listening to clips of his interviews through the '70s, you can hear how he goes about changing it himself. First it deepens slightly, around 1972-73 or so. (Listen to him on The Dating Game in 1972 and you'll hear that his voice was lower at 14 than it will be at 30.) This potentially catastrophic event has perhaps been vaguely dreaded by the family and label for years. Michael Jackson without his falsetto is not the commodity on which their collective dream depends. But Michael has never known a reality that wasn't susceptible on some level to his creative powers. He works to develop something, not a falsetto, which is a way of singing above your range, but instead a higher range. He isolates totally different configurations of his vocal cords, finding their crevices, cultivating the flexibility there. Vocal teachers will tell you this can be done, though it's considered an extreme practice. Whether the process is conscious in Michael's case is unknowable. He probably evolves it in order to keep singing Jackson 5 songs every night through puberty. The startling effect is of his having imaginatively not so much castrated himself as of womanized himself. He essentially evolves a drag voice. On the early demo for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," recorded at home with Randy and Janet helping, you can actually hear him work his way into this voice. It is a character, really. "We're gonna be startin' now, baby," he says in a relaxed, moderately high-pitched man's voice. Then he intones the title, "Don't stop 'til you get enough," in a softer, quieter version of basically the same voice. He repeats the line in a still higher register, almost purring. Finally—in a full-on girlish peal—he sings. A source will later claim to have heard him, in a moment of anger, break into a deep, gruff voice she'd never heard before.

Interesting that these out-flashings of his "natural" voice occurred at moments when he was, as we would say, not himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMov3FYphLI

The essay is excellent, ties the voice to the face to the man.

mj is a weird dude

was

mj is a weird was

don was walked a weird dinosaur

whereas the blue cows get the girls

I imagine Quincy Jones sounds like how he speaks at 1:55 in this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_7Afqcim2c

Thriller <<<<< Off The Wall IMO.

I kinda liked the Miles Davis cover of "Human Nature"...

Bad >> Off The Wall IMO

Off the Wall > Thriller > Dangerous > Bad > You So Crazy

Thriller >>>>>> Bad >> Off The Wall >>> HIStory > Dangerous >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Everything else.

Thriller>Off The Wall

Side 1 of Off the Wall>Thriller

I just feel like the non-singles on "Off The Wall" don't hold up to the same extent, but surely "Off The Wall" and "Rock With You" in particular are fantastic songs.

Side 1 of Off the Wall>Thriller

Actually, yeah this works (tho side 2 at least has "She's Out Of My Life" and Stevie's "I Can't Help It"). Side one of Off the Wall is second maybe only to side one of Innervisions.

Off the Wall > Thriller > Dangerous > Bad > You So Crazy

― Gus Van Sant's Gerry Blank (Eric H.), F

c'mere and kiss me

Not til you alfred marry me.

Somehwere In The Dark reminds me of this so much
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wDDjVPJ73A

lotta folks i know in their 20s think Dangerous is his peak i'm not kidding. kids of my era (except me) tend often to think Bad was the peak. people in their late 30s/early 40s say Thriller a lotta the time. it's a generational whichever-one-you-grew-up-with thing i guess.

I grew up with Dangerous and like it a lot but Thriller is so obviously his best.

okay, maybe not obviously.

I love Dangerous. All this poll confirms is what a helluva streak he's on.

I was like eight when I started listening to MJ, right around or just before Dangerous came out, but I got Bad and Thriller at about the same time. So I guess I "grew up" with all three. Yet though my three favorite Michael Jackson songs of the time were on Thriller - "Thriller," "Beat It" and "Billie Jean," all in a row - I pretty much skipped the other songs until years later. Turned out there wasn't a single song I didn't like, even "The Girl Is Mine," which I had hated as a kid.

Dangerous has somehow aged a fuck of a lot better than Bad (which may actually be his worst Epic album - Michael doesn't count], although Michael's id run rampant on the latter is compellingly weird.

"Man in the Mirror" and "Smooth Criminal" excepted, I don't care for Bad at all.

Don't want to imagine an MJ discography without "The Way You Make Me Feel."

also i love that creepy "dirty diana"

"way you make me feel" had that rape-y video that mtv never stopped playing when i was a kid, so it's hard for me to dissociate it from the song.

"man in the mirror" is as good as anything else he did imo

lotta folks i know in their 20s think Dangerous is his peak i'm not kidding. kids of my era (except me) tend often to think Bad was the peak. people in their late 30s/early 40s say Thriller a lotta the time. it's a generational whichever-one-you-grew-up-with thing i guess.

― piscesx, Friday, September 2, 2011 4:59 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark

i've said this before but it cracked me up one time when i saw Ne-Yo pick a bunch of MJ and Prince videos for a BET countdown but it was mostly Dangerous/Diamonds & Pearls era stuff (Ne-Yo is older than me, mind you, but i prefer the 80s stuff by a much wider margin)

I suspect Ne-Yo was reflecting the sentiments of the early nineties R&B community: rewarding Prince for recording straight R&B again.

you had stuff like "Insatiable" blowing up on R&B radio at the time without making a dent on the pop chart.

ehhhh i kinda doubt it had anything to do with the mid/late 80s stuff not being R&B enough (and iirc some of the videos he picked were things like "cream" and "thieves in the temple")

with Ne-Yo you could be right, but there's no doubt that D&P's success had much to do with the R&B community's re-embrace of prince.

you probably remember that era better than me, but going off charts (five R&B top 10s between SOTT and D&P) it really doesn't seem that way.

(by 'between' i mean post SOTT and pre D&P, if i didn't phrase that clearly, so Lovesexy/Batman/Graffiti Bridge era)

yeah, I'm relying on my memories of the time and Matos and Hahn's books.

lotta folks i know in their 20s think Dangerous is his peak i'm not kidding. kids of my era (except me) tend often to think Bad was the peak. people in their late 30s/early 40s say Thriller a lotta the time. it's a generational whichever-one-you-grew-up-with thing i guess.

Those recent kids who didn't get into him until just after his death (there are a lot of them) have a tendency to like the "Thriller" stuff best.

Regarding "Bad", I consider the sound of the late 80s to be sort of a low point for modern pop music (OK - and early 90s..), but I still consider "Bad" to be great - a lot of the songs there sound fantastic, and it also contains a couple of his best ballads. "Liberian Girl" is possibly his most underrated moment.

i'm in my '20s and his peak was triumph

man, ignore that apostrophe

Overhyped crap then, overhyped crap now

"man in the mirror" is as good as anything else he did imo

glen ballard writing credit

VINTAGE ALEX POST DUDES

Ended up voting for "P.Y.T." over "Beat It." I guess it's more of a throwback style than other things on the album, but maybe it's exactly what he did best.

mm i think Bad pretty much sucks now (man how *thin* does that keyboard on Leave Me Alone sound??) aside from Smooth Criminal and The Way You Make Me Feel. i must listen to Dangerous again end to end because it's getting a fair bit of hype round these parts.

i've *no idea* what Morphine (the winner here Michael Jackson: Blood on the Dancefloor - HIStory in the Mix Poll) even sounds like.

still think this is the best thing he ever did after Thriller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEEMi2j6lYE

"Stranger In Moscow" is fantastic, and I do at least consider it by far the best thing he did after "Bad".

"Dangerous" generally suffers from the horrible mistake of not working with Quincy Jones anymore. The 80s >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the 90s.

Not really.

I mean, you did hear what Q was doing in the '90s, right?

He didn't do much after the "Back On Block" album at all, did he?

(Except making a documentary about the history of rock and similar things)

But really... I guess Terry Riley, Bruce Swedien & co were OK. And what Jam & Lewis did on HIStory sounded at times very great. He didn't really choose really awful people until he started working with those horrible contemporary R&B people on "Invincible".

Terry Riley co-produced a Michael Jackson record? That would be kind of insanely incredible.

a rainbow in curved a-hee hee

P.Y.In C.

a rainbow in curved a-hee hee

lol

mm i think Bad pretty much sucks now (man how *thin* does that keyboard on Leave Me Alone sound??) aside from Smooth Criminal and The Way You Make Me Feel. i must listen to Dangerous again end to end because it's getting a fair bit of hype round these parts.

there's at least 6 songs i like on 'bad' as much as i like anything he's done. 'leave me alone' wasn't on the uk edition btw. (full disclosure: this and psb 'actually' where the first two albums i ever got, 'actually' is all-time for me, 'bad' maybe not but i still love it). also i don't remember 'stranger in moscow' being as good as it is.

(btw) the way you make me feel, liberian girl, man in the mirror, i just can't stop loving you, dirty diana, smooth criminal. there's 3 unimpeachable classics: 'twymmf' 'mitm' and, ha 'sc'. went for the title track off Thriller. reasoning: i'm still not tired of it despite massive overplay; the instrumental bridge(?) loop before the chorus kicks in again (the bit the zombies dance to) is one of my favourite things in music; the vincent price monologue. over the years it could have been any one of this, 'billie jean', 'human nature' and 'wanna be startin something'(would love if it turned EVEN MORE mantra like).

off the wall > thriller > dangerous > bad

I dunno. To my ears "Bad" and "The Way You Make Me Feel" define "pneumatic."

he does The Way You Make Me Feel in the cash-in posthumous concert rehearsal movie and the version they come up with is sensational. there's a lazy, jazzy intro that goes on for minutes and the object of his desire is spectacular and sassy and gives just as good as she gets.

Leave Me Alone was on the uk CD fyi. that's the version we all taped off our parents back in the day.

You say pnuematic, I say propulsive.

Leave Me Alone was on the uk CD fyi. that's the version we all taped off our parents back in the day.

― piscesx, Saturday, 3 September 2011 23:34 (1 minute ago) Bookmark

it wasn't on mine. maybe cos i had the cassette or something w/e.

You say pnuematic, I say propulsive

I say go go go

it was cd only worldwide afaik

worlwide apart from the uk yeah?

which still seems weird. no vinyl or cassette in u.s.?

no i mean Leave Me Alone was CD only

apologies, rather the worse for wear..

Terry Riley co-produced a Michael Jackson record? That would be kind of insanely incredible.

Oops. Not Terry Riley. :)

Regarding "Dangerous", it probably would have worked better had it been 30 minutes shorter. Particularly some of the ballads might have been trimmed away, but also some of the dance numbers sound a bit too alike.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

surprised there was a track with no votes!

especially considering it wasn't The Girl Is Mine

[/i] 12

lol

feel like everyones gonna rep for dif songs then billie jean will crush all

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, August 31, 2011 7:31 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ILM seems like a place where "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" or "Human Nature" could stage an upset imo

― ✇ ruehl (some dude), Wednesday, August 31, 2011 7:38 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

nailed it

I'd have thought more of ILX would rep for Baby Be Mine, the archetypal hidden-in-plain-sight sleeper. Just listen to the verses ffs; sensual and graceful but inapproachable at the same time, draped in cold velvet silhouette, and so very tantalizing.

that's precisely why I didn't vote for it

it's MY secret

I like the Stanley Jordan version of "lady in my life". I know it's muzak-y, but still.

i wanted to vote for "Baby Be Mine" but i wanted "Startin'" to beat "Billie Jean" more

off the wall > thriller > dangerous > bad

This changes daily for me.. i'm not sure how anyone can definitely say "this is the best, this is the least" out of these 4.. they all have something great and different about them.

I hear you, mostly, but for me at least Bad is easily the worst of them. Don't know if I would have said that even five years ago, but time has not been kind to that record.

I still like it tho, just not a patch on the others

god i don't know why people think that, "dirty diana" running right into "smooth criminal" makes me all breathless and shit, still

funny (and geeky) thing : now, "baby be mine" (which is an amazing track and I can't understand those who see it as a minor track) reminds me of cruising in "miami" in GTA vice city at sunset (I know. I said it was geeky).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3oiDmaCL9c&NR=1

once you get back to the initial groove of it, even "the girl is mine" is kinda cool, actually !

Did Thriller really sell a hundred million copies?

Wyman was decidedly more cynical about Jackson's purported sales figures in the days after Michael's death (on Wyman's now-defunct Hitsville blog):

[Thriller was the best-selling album ever in the U.S.] until Their Greatest Hits by the Eagles supplanted it. Now, you’ll, note, everyone talks about how Thriller is the largest selling album worldwide. It probably is, but it’s a conveniently uncheckable factoid; in some twelve days of almost constant coverage, I’ve yet to hear someone say that Thriller is the second best-selling album in U.S. history.

Nice to know it only took him three and a half years to check the "conveniently uncheckable."

pyt

TLC

Don't get all the hate for Bad; to me, it's his best album.

Wow, this is maybe the most OTM poll result spread ever, except for "Baby Be Mine" beating "The Girl Is Mine" and "bracket slash i bracket" beating "Beat It."

lol

Nah, swap "The Girl Is Mine" with "The Lady in My Life."

^

weird that thriller itself scored so low imo; i mean human nature's nice but fuckin thriller y'all

just read Nelson George's Thriller book on the plane ride from Chicago.

tracer otm. also the girl is mine shouldn't have gotten any votes

now Hungry4Ass we're really not gonna fight about this, ok?

Really wasn't sure whether I wanted to write about this, but in the end I decided better done than not done: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/michael-jackson-thriller.html

Aha awesome! I'm glad you did, MC.

(Saves link to Pocket, brews another PG Tips).

guys i just uploaded this for you cause its so dope yw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTBQilmQhjI

this is wayyyyyy better than the released version!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFWmSULkvXU

you're right; that version is much better.

Are the drums on Billie Jean played by a human or a machine?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_%22Ndugu%22_Chancler

thanks. the beat is so solid, I thought it was a machine.
And the sound of that snare is great - instantly recognizable. so crisp.

Yes, for many years I also assumed that the drums were sequenced samples. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a human being could play with such extraordinary precision.
As to the sound of Chancler's kit, it's apparently down to a special wooden platform constructed in the studio by the engineer on the Thriller sessions, Bruce Swedien.

No, those are definitely acoustic drums, just very well engineered, as you'd expect!

Man, The Lady in My Life, which I’ve always thought of as the boring one, is a-mazing.

Yes ! I have Loved this album since its release when I was a kid but I still find things to enjoy and « the lady in my life » is one of those. I think the album would have been almost perfect if « the girl is mine » had been the version without McCartney.

It seems like one of those rare albums where the first single is the worst song on it

I kind of love The Girl is Mine too. It's the only non-banger on th album but it brings me great joy. When we were teenagers we used to cackle at the lameness/weirdness of Paul's "I don't believe it", and the fucking terrible cartoon in the insert, and now the whole song makes me smile.

https://cdn-p.smehost.net/sites/28d35d54a3c64e2b851790a18a1c4c18/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/190108_TGIM_feat.jpg

Such a weird choice for a first single, but I think the album ended up doing okay for itself.

I absolutely adore Paul's pathetic collapse the moment the song actually arrives at a head-to-head conflict. I have happy memories of sharing chuckles over that, at a sunny and jolly little office I worked at in 2009, where this was one of the CDs in rotation. (It was the 25th Anniversary reissue, but we rarely made it deep into the BEP half...)

did MJ draw that cartoon himself?

Surprising to find people who don’t hate « tgim » on ilm ! I don’t hate it but it’s obviously over cheesy and the low point of the album. The demo without McCartney shows there’s a decent song in there but still weaker than the rest. Considering the other unreleased songs of these sessions I’m not sure which one could have replaced it though.

random memory unlocked:
i had to be driven to the next town over for a soccer game. i took my walkman and thriller tape for company on the drive. the batteries were really not even at half charge the day before, so they were definitely not lasting the entire drive today. anyway, the conversation portion of "the girl is mine" is really good at about 60% of its normal speed. sidebar to that: mccartney has zero understanding of how 'that's what she said' jokes work.

but seriously: for a novelty, it's quite good. be a lover, not a fighter.

First time I listened to this was also the first time I used a Walkman, lent to me by another kid in the hospital ward we were both temporarily occupying. I learned then about not singing along while listening to headphones.

Macca said the conversation bit didn't bother him so much, it was "Doggone.." he had an issue with.

https://cdn-p.smehost.net/sites/28d35d54a3c64e2b851790a18a1c4c18/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/190108_TGIM_feat.jpg

Such a weird choice for a first single, but I think the album ended up doing okay for itself.

― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, April 25, 2025 7:23 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

some jigglin' fightin' booties right there