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♪ dramatic, atmospheric music ♪
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
♪
[crowd cheering]
♪ "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson ♪
♪
♪ Mama se, mama sa, ma-ma coo sa ♪
♪ "Beat It" by Michael Jackson ♪
[Steven Ivory] There are two things in the music business:
before Thriller and after Thriller.
[crowd cheering]
♪
♪ But you wanna be bad ♪
- ♪ Just beat it, beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated ♪
♪ Showin' how funky and strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter... ♪
[crew member] Mark.
[Mary J. Blige] The first time I heard
Michael Jackson's Thriller, he was pop,
he was R and B, he was gospel, he was rock.
It was everything that I loved.
[Usher] And bring all of these elements together--
dance and choreography
and theatrical moments and the feeling,
you know, like a musical, damn near.
The magic of it-- each track was better than the next.
It was in your brain, and everybody knew it.
[reporter] For the 14th consecutive week,
the best-selling album in the country
is Michael Jackson's Thriller.
If Thriller came out today,
it would still be the greatest album ever made.
It's the ultimate blueprint to modern pop music.
[Raphael Saadiq] I love the way that record is sequenced, right?
"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." The title says it.
He wanted to be starting some shit right now. He wanted...
He's like, "I'm about to start some shit
in the industry right now. I'm about to blow everybody up."
[Maxwell] This was literally the pinnacle of everything
that began with him.
"Thriller," "Beat It"
and "Billie Jean."
To this day, when "Thriller" comes on, I mean,
there's not a Halloween that doesn't happen
where you don't hear that song.
But then you have "Human Nature," "P.Y.T.,"
and then you have "Lady in My Life."
[announcer] It became the biggest-selling album ever.
Michael Jackson. Always keep one in the cab.
[Misty Copeland] This is history.
I want to say it's Black culture,
but it's-it's for everyone.
[Nelson George] Thriller is the biggest-selling
album of all time.
Thriller is a cultural phenomenon
that's lasted four decades and seems determined
to continue going forward.
[crowd cheering]
[Robert Hilburn] What takes your breath away is
he had the ambition to become the biggest star in the world.
And he did it. The fact that he had
that dream, I mean, that-that goal,
that's what's the remarkable story.
♪ soft, curious music ♪
[Michael Jackson] Ever since we were kids,
we've always wanted to dance or keep the time to the music.
And that's part of us.
It's like, uh, something we have to have.
And it's in us, because I don't know
what I would do if there was, uh... wasn't music.
[reporter] Joe Jackson's role
in his children's careers would give people a lot to talk about.
The former steelworker had somehow gotten his family
out of Indiana, groomed for stardom.
♪ "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5 ♪
♪
[The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" continues]
♪
[Ed Sullivan] Now, here are five brothers
from Gary, Indiana, ranging in age from ten to 18:
The Jackson 5.
♪ Oh, baby, give me one more chance ♪
♪ To show you that I love you ♪
♪ Won't you please let me ♪
♪ Back in your heart ♪
♪ Oh, darlin', I was blind to let you go ♪
♪ Let you go, baby ♪
♪ But now since I see you... ♪
[Dick Clark] This poor man's life has been
dissected completely.
Is there anything anybody hasn't asked you by now?
Um...
♪ Enjoy yourself ♪
♪ Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself with me ♪
♪ Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself ♪
♪ Enjoy yourself with me ♪
♪ You better enjoy yourself... ♪
[interviewer] Now, tell me, what do you think is the success
of the Jacksons, yourself and the Jacksons?
I would say probably, um, togetherness.
[Saadiq] I can't think about Michael without thinking about
The Jackson 5 and Motown and all of that,
so it takes me a little further back.
Takes me to Off the Wall,
which is one of my favorite records.
[Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" playing]
[radio DJ] Welcome to WBLS once again, Michael Jackson.
[Michael] Thank you very much.
[radio DJ] The name of the album is...
- [Michael] Off the Wall. - [radio DJ] Are you?
[both laughing]
[radio DJ] We'll be back with Michael right after this.
♪ Lovely ♪
♪ Is the feeling now ♪
♪ Fever... ♪
I was not the biggest Jackson 5 fan.
I was a serious pop music critic.
And I said, "Well, it's cute what they're doing."
- ♪ Baby, baby ♪ - ♪ Ow, ow... ♪
[Hilburn] You know, James Brown,
Jackie Wilson, that's really nice.
You know, it wasn't what I was interested in.
And then Off the Wall comes out,
and I was caught up in the excitement
of learning more about Michael and his world,
so I interview him separately.
You interview the brothers all together, him separately.
You know, he's nervous.
He doesn't like to do interviews.
He's sad, he's lonely, he says.
He starts talking about his life.
♪ soft, melancholy music ♪
He was so hurt around 14 and 15 and 16,
when his face changed.
He got bigger.
I mean, his face had broken out.
He was so sad.
People didn't care about him anymore.
You know, adults would come into a party at some house,
and they would be looking all around. "Where's Michael?"
And they'd be walking right past him, you know?
And he got the feeling that, "We don't care about you.
We want that little kid."
[George] He was dead set on his focus
to be, you know, Michael Jackson, solo artist.
[Brooke Shields] And he had to.
He knew that it was time. He knew that...
He was excited to have it all be on his own terms.
You know, not with... not attached to anybody.
And he knew that-that...
that he was even gonna soar from that.
Well, Off the Wall was an enormous success.
It-it put Michael on the map as a solo artist.
People forget that, before Off the Wall,
there was a period between Motown and the Destiny album
where people thought maybe
the career of The Jackson 5 was over,
that they were yesterday's news, forgotten boy band, really.
So Off the Wall reestablished Michael as someone to watch.
Off the Wall was just this incredible record,
and we knew that Mike was coming back
with something special because
he didn't win everything that he wanted during the Grammys,
and he only won one award,
which was the R and B award at that.
He thought he was gonna sweep.
He thought for sure, "I got a pop smash here."
So, when that didn't happen, he left there with a vengeance,
just determined to do better next time.
[John Branca] He was determined
to change the way he was perceived.
Uh, there were a lot of writings he did to himself, affirmations.
[Michael] I look in the mirror,
and I would say over and over to myself...
I'd take a deep breath, put my feet together,
raise myself erect, strong like a...
a hero warrior, and I'd say,
"Biggest-selling album of all time, greatest seller,"
over and over to my mind, and look in my eyes.
And I'd mean it.
I'd say, "Biggest-selling album of all times."
And I wouldn't accept anything
unless this was exactly what I wanted.
My attitude was:
I want the biggest-selling album of all times,
to break records, to do phenomenal work.
I came in angry.
[Ivory] Michael was writing.
He was writing. He was fuming.
He was still upset about
this idea that he would be denied,
you know, major awards for Off the Wall.
I just remember all of the, uh...
the process of when they were doing it.
And the, uh... the excitement
while they're recording, just, you know...
just hearing tales, you know, as they're coming
in and out of the studio with it.
["Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" playing, muffled]
♪ I said you wanna be startin' somethin' ♪
[fading in] ♪ You got to be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ I said you wanna be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ You got to be startin' somethin' ♪
- ♪ It's too high to get over ♪ - ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ You're too low to get under ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ You're stuck in the middle ♪
- ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ And the pain is thunder ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah... ♪
[Matt Forger] Westlake was a really great studio
because y-you felt the facility had this warmth
and this friendliness and this casual put-you-at-ease feeling.
There was just the most incredible vibe.
Where you could just be creatively free to-to take...
take the music wherever you wanted.
This is hallowed ground. I was... I was in here a lot
'cause Quincy made a lot of records in here.
Off the Wall was made in here.
Certainly Thriller.
Quincy worked in here a lot.
Quincy influenced everything
- we've ever done in our lives. - Yes.
- Whether you can hear it or not. - Exactly.
Depth of understanding of music.
That's what makes Quincy Quincy.
He's done big band. He's done small bands.
He's done pop. He's done rock.
He's done everything.
So, just understanding all those different genres
and-and how to fuse them all together
is what gives you all these
wonderful applications that you get on a Michael Jackson record.
And that sound was ma...
You know, Bruce Swedien had a lot to do with
how that overall sound was-- the echo
and the reverbs and the... the way he would place things.
And they were excited.
As we were making the record,
you could feel the excitement in the room.
Knowing that we were doing something
that was gonna be special.
[playing elegant melody]
[Greg Phillinganes] Wow, I don't even know
where to begin.
I just remember coming here to this studio,
which was like a second home,
and coming in, listening to, uh,
the demos that Rod Temperton would provide.
And we would just start to carve musically
and-and work our way into the details of the demos.
[Steve Lukather] Rod Temperton.
This guy was brilliant.
I mean, he was deep.
I love Rod Temperton. He wrote incredible songs,
and he was a part of Quincy's, you know, tight team.
[Anthony Marinelli] We did a lot of funky sounds
on "Baby Be Mine."
[Michael Jackson's "Baby Be Mine" playing]
♪
Quincy was just looking for...
He's always looking for something different.
So we were brought in because it was...
I think Quincy knew about MTV,
and he was looking for a cinematic thing
'cause Quincy came from film.
When Michael would want... he-he knew things
that he would want for sounds.
And, uh, he would put it on a record player and play it.
And then I'd say, "Well, let me go get that other synth."
So it would be in the truck,
parked in the parking lot of Westlake,
or it would be in the hallway.
We had Anvil Cases lined up the hall,
and we just basically took over the place.
And we were creating sounds and using synthesizers
in-in kind of a big way and replacing orchestra.
[playing Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"]
♪
[Paul Jackson, Jr.] So, one of the things that
I noticed about Michael's development
as a songwriter-- I-I saw him getting
more rhythmically and harmonically advanced,
taking steps forward and forward and forward.
His talent was not only developing as a singer.
- Mm-hmm. - He developed as a...
- as an entertainer. - Yes.
It's funny you guys should have picked this room,
'cause I'm walking through here, you know, and I-I just...
you know, I'm just seeing. I can...
I almost, um, channel him,
- his spirit into this room. - Yeah.
He had us prepared.
- We were prepared. - [Oren Waters] No question.
And he would come in ready to go.
He was the kind of individual that, uh,
had a awesome work ethic.
[Ed Eckstine] The process was
quite a, uh, adventure
'cause most people forget that the first single
from the album was "The Girl Is Mine."
♪ "The Girl Is Mine" by Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney ♪
Obviously, you had no bigger star in the world
than Paul McCartney.
And, you know, the pairing of Michael and Paul,
what better flag waver to get a project started?
[Michael] ♪ Every night, she walks right in my dreams ♪
♪ Since I met her from the start ♪
♪ I'm so proud I am the only one ♪
♪ Who is special in her heart ♪
♪ The girl is mine ♪
[Bruce Swedien] Yeah, hit it, John. Hit it, John.
♪ The doggone girl is mine... ♪
[Lukather] So we get the call.
It's, like, Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson.
I mean, it just didn't get any bigger than that,
so we were kind of like,
"Oh, holy shit. What are we gonna do?
What's this gonna be all about?"
When Paul McCartney walked in the room,
there was a palpable change of energy of:
"Oh, my God, that's Paul McCartney."
[Michael] ♪ Saying that she's yours, not mine ♪
♪ Sending roses and your silly dreams ♪
♪ Really just a waste of time ♪
♪ Because she's mine ♪
- [Quincy Jones] Beautiful. Whew! - Yeah.
♪ The doggone girl is mine ♪
Do that one more time, man, from the second verse.
[Forger] Uh, that was a wonderful day.
For me, it was a day that changed my life.
I was in the presence of the greatest,
most successful people
in the music business.
Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones.
George Martin was there.
[Nelson George] Because of its catchy melody,
many think "The Girl Is Mine" was written by Paul McCartney,
when, in fact, it was composed by Michael Jackson.
♪ Really just a waste of time ♪
♪ Because she's mine... ♪
Once the music started flowing,
it was like here's two old friends.
[beeping]
- ♪ - [dialogue inaudible]
[beep]
[McCartney] ♪ The girl is mine ♪
[backup singers] ♪ Mine, mine ♪
[McCartney, singing deeply] ♪ Yes, she's mine ♪
- [backup singers] ♪ Mine, mine ♪ - [laughing] ♪ Don't waste ♪
[beeping]
[Michael] ♪ But we both cannot have her ♪
♪ So it's one or the other ♪
♪ And one day you'll discover ♪
♪ That she's my girl forever and ever ♪
[McCartney] ♪ Don't build your hopes to be let down... ♪
[George] Coming out of Off the Wall,
the challenge was:
Is Michael Jackson really a pop star,
or is he just a big R and B artist?
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, whoo ♪
[Ivory] The way it worked was that
you were a Black artist until you weren't,
and you weren't when you got on the pop charts.
Michael told me
"The Girl Is Mine" was his sneak attack.
He knew he wanted to cross over, and what better way to do it
than to have Paul McCartney?
[McCartney] I've heard it all before, Michael.
She told me that I'm her forever lover, you know?
Don't you remember?
[Michael] Well, after loving me,
she said she couldn't love another.
Is that what she said?
Yeah, she said it. You keep dreaming.
- ♪ I don't believe it, no ♪ - [backup singers] ♪ Mine, mine ♪
- ♪ The girl is mine ♪ - ♪ Mine, mine, mine ♪
- ♪ No, mine ♪ - [Michael] ♪ No, mine ♪
♪ She's mine, mine, mine, mine, mine ♪
[backup singers] ♪ Mine, mine, mine... ♪
[George] So, that initial session
with Michael and Paul happens in April.
The actual formal sessions for Thriller
didn't start for a couple months later.
Yeah, Michael, uh, did the demos at-at his home studio.
Quincy invited me to go to Michael's house
to listen to some demos.
What I didn't realize was that
we would be given our own private world premiere
of "Billie Jean," "Beat It," "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'."
♪ "Beat It" (demo) by Michael Jackson ♪
♪ Beat it ♪
♪ But you're driving me mad ♪
- ♪ So beat it, beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated ♪
♪ Showing how funky, strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter who's wrong or right ♪
- ♪ Just beat it, beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated... ♪
[Michael] Well, the songwriting process
is something that's very difficult to explain
because it's very spiritual.
♪ Who's wrong or right, just beat it... ♪
It's, uh... it really is in the hands of God,
and it's as if it's been written already.
That's the real truth.
As if it's been written in its entirety before you were born
and you're just really the source
through which the songs come.
Really, because they're...
they just fall right into your lap in its entirety.
You don't have to do much, uh, thinking about it.
And I feel guilty having to put my name sometimes on the songs,
but I-I do write them.
I compose them. I write them. I-I do the scoring.
I do the lyrics. I do the melody.
But still it's, uh... it's the work of God.
"Startin' Somethin'" was wild. You know,
he had all this... [imitates drumbeat]
♪ "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' by Michael Jackson ♪
[Mark Ronson] "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
has the frenetic percussion of Off the Wall,
which is amazing because
it's like, you have these incredibly tight drum grooves
and these programmed beats now.
I think that's why, for-for me,
"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" is still my favorite.
I remember just, uh, uh, being able to go out and do the demo
- at Hayvenhurst, yeah. - [Maxine Waters] Mm-hmm.
[Julia Waters] He had it before we got there,
and then h-he just, you know,
shared it with us and we worked out the parts.
[Maxine] And we just had to perfect it,
because it's so rhythmic and all that.
And so he knew the sound, he knew the...
the rhythm that he wanted to hear and everything,
so like I said, we were quick.
- ♪ Too low to get under ♪ - ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Stuck in the middle ♪
- ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ And the pain is thunder ♪
- ♪ Yeah ♪ - ♪ Hard to get over ♪
[playing "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" accompaniment]
♪
There's a certain approach, you know, you want to take to...
you know, to emphasize the feeling.
I would say that Quincy helped glue those elements together
and make an arc out of the progression
of how the song started to... to the vamp at the end,
and made it seamless, you know, including horns,
which, of course, at-at first thought,
would be considered too jazzy,
but they blended perfectly well in the song later on.
- ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ Too high to get over ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ You're too low to get under ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ You're stuck in the middle ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ And the pain is thunder... ♪
But there's still that... [imitating percussive beat]
[percussive beat playing]
And then at the end,
when it goes a cappella to...
♪ Mama se, mama sa, ma-ma coo sa ♪
That, as a DJ... that is your best friend
because then you start to mix in your next record
and blending in whatever the biggest songs you have.
♪ Mama se, mama sa, ma-ma coo sa ♪
[scatting over "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"]
♪ Mama se, mama sa, ma-ma coo sa ♪
- ♪ Hee, hee, hee ♪ - ♪ Mama se, mama sa ♪
- ♪ Ma-ma coo sa ♪ - ♪ Help me sing it ♪
♪ Mama se, mama sa, ma-ma coo sa ♪
- ♪ Hoo, hoo ♪ - ♪ Mama se, mama sa ♪
- ♪ Ma-ma coo sa ♪ - ♪ Hee, hee ♪
♪ Mama se, mama sa, ma-ma coo sa ♪
- ♪ Sing it to the world ♪ - ♪ Mama se, mama sa... ♪
[Oren] As a matter of fact, I asked him
what "mama se, mama sa, ma-ma coo sa" meant,
you know, while it was going down.
He... "Well, it don't mean nothing.
Just sing it, you know," and...
- [laughter] - Yeah, and there it is,
because that was difficult to do, I'm telling you.
He said, "I like singing with you all
because you sound like me."
He always thought our voices blended so well
- with-with his. - [Maxine and Oren] Mm-hmm.
[Usher] "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
was like... it was like an opportunity
to kind of get into his mind.
And this idea of, like, "Billie Jean"
and the fact that he was living kind of in this...
this world where
you didn't really know what was real or wasn't.
♪ "Billie Jean" (demo) by Michael Jackson ♪
♪ She told me I was a lonely man ♪
♪ And I felt sad ♪
♪ She called my name, then she said hello ♪
♪ All them who died ♪
♪ And I sit in a cup in a ride ♪
♪ It seems that you ♪
[scatting melody]
[Blige] My mom had just bought
a stereo system, and it had lights.
The drums kicked in.
[imitating drumbeat]
And then... [imitates bass line]
I mean... [chuckles] What?
And I ran down the hallway just to hear closely
what was... what was playing, what this record was.
And it was "Billie Jean," and it was on
and poppin' from there. [laughs]
It's actually kind of nasty, and you can hear the room mics
and it's dirtier than you think.
You know, you always have that moment where
you fall in love with an artist for the first time.
Really truly great, legendary artists,
you have that same feeling over and over and over again.
"Billie Jean" was that moment
where I fell in love with Michael all over again.
♪
When Michael sings it,
he puts the funk into it the way he does all the...
[imitating Michael's vocalizations]
...and all the little stuff that he puts in.
That gives it the syncopation.
And if I just go... [imitates beat]
...he's gonna go... [imitating vocalizations]
♪ She was more like a beauty queen ♪
- ♪ From a movie scene ♪ - [accompaniment fades]
[a cappella] ♪ I said, "Don't mind ♪
♪ But what do you mean I am the one ♪
♪ Who will dance on the floor in the round?" ♪
♪ She said I am the one ♪
♪ Who will dance on the floor in the round ♪
[accompaniment returns]
♪ She told me her name was Billie Jean ♪
♪ As she caused a scene ♪
♪ Then every head turned ♪
♪ With eyes that dreamed... ♪
[Usher] Everybody loves toxic R and B.
"Billie Jean is not my lover. She's just a girl
who claims that I am the one"?
Yeah, that's like, was it his side chick?
You know what I'm saying? Was it some chick who,
you know, he had an encounter with and got pregnant?
Is this real, or is this some delusional fan
who is saying that, you know,
they had an encounter that they did or didn't?
All of those things just led you
to be more intrigued about an artist, right?
But it was, like, urgent and R and B.
It was... it was crazy. It was a...
an amazing R and B record, and his lyrics--
you know, "The kid is not my son," I mean...
♪ The kid is not my son... ♪
[Blige] "The kid is not my son."
[laughs] That first... well, that... we-we like bad boys,
so that made us love him some more.
And then when I saw the video, I was losing my mind.
I lost my voice, screaming.
You know, it was about "Billie Jean."
You know, him stepping on, you know, the-the pavement,
it glowing and, you know, making you feel the magic.
I'd storyboarded that, uh, he would walk down the, uh...
the street and the paving stones would light up.
And I showed him which 11 paving stones
we could afford to have light up
and therefore which ones couldn't.
And he looked carefully at them,
and-and I said, "Well, should we rehearse it?"
And he said, "No, let-let's just do it."
And we ran the playback, the music,
and the chorus kicked in for "Billie Jean,"
and he began his dance movement
down that street, and I'll never forget it.
The-the camera actually steamed up.
I could hardly even see him through the-the eyepiece
because it was
so exciting to watch.
[Ivory] Michael is doing so much moving
that Steve isn't even getting.
There are several shots in "Billie Jean"
where he's just being shot from the waist up
and you can just see him doing all kinds of stuff.
And it's like,
"Why aren't you getting that?"
But that's just how new
the medium was to capturing dancers.
Michael opened the door for that.
♪ I am the one... ♪
And every time they just kept freezing him in those brackets,
and every time he'd walk, they froze him.
And every time he said something,
I just was losing my mind 'cause I loved him so much.
But on "Billie Jean,"
we was like, "Oh, he is super-duper-duper sexy."
♪ Not my lover ♪ - ♪ Don't call me, Billie Jean ♪
♪ Billie Jean is not my lover... ♪
[Branca] MTV refused to play "Billie Jean."
They said, "Well, our network appeals to,
you know, white teenagers,
and this just really doesn't fit our format."
♪ hard rock guitar riff ♪
[Mark Goodman] This is it.
Welcome to MTV Music Television.
I'm Mark Goodman.
- I'm Martha Quinn. - I'm Alan Hunter.
[Goodman] You'll never look at music the same way again.
Turn it on! Leave it on!
America, see the music you want to see.
I want my MTV.
Some prominent Black musicians are complaining
that they are being left out of the video market,
specifically the Music Television cable operation.
It-it occurred to me, having watched MTV
over the last few months, um, that it's-it's got a...
it's a solid enterprise and it's got a lot going for it.
I'm just floored by the fact that there's so many Bl...
so few Black artists featured on it.
Why is that?
The fact is, quite frankly, we're a rock and roll station.
MTV will deny this till the world ends,
that they had nothing against Black artists.
But they refused to, uh, play Michael.
[Walter Yetnikoff] In 1975, I was named
president of the CBS Records Group
and a vice president of CBS, Inc.
No single record changed the business and my life
as powerfully as Michael Jackson's Thriller.
I screamed bloody murder
when MTV refused to air his videos.
They argued that their format, white rock,
excluded Michael's music.
I argued they were racist assholes.
[Branca] So Walter Yetnikoff said,
"Really? Okay.
If you don't play Michael Jackson,
I'm pulling Billy Joel and everybody else that I have,
uh, off of MTV."
[Yetnikoff] I've never been more forceful
or obnoxious.
I've also never been as effective.
With added pressure from Quincy Jones, they caved in,
and in doing so, the MTV color line came crashing down.
[Ivory] One of the most important
things about Thriller was the doors that it opened
for other artists to have the opportunity
to get on the pop charts.
Tina Turner. My God, Private Dancer.
That's who it was.
It was Tina, it was Lionel, it was Whitney,
it was Michael and Prince.
Revenues could just be crazy.
♪ quiet, hypnotic music ♪
[George] Thriller changes the dynamic
and the culture.
Michael shows the way that this is possible.
Yeah, I-I grew up, uh,
during the time that Thriller was released,
and MTV was just becoming a really big thing.
I remember almost more vividly
the amazing storytelling through the videos,
which is pretty interesting 'cause I think here we are
40 years later, and the music and the video
is coming to life again for the next generation
on TikTok.
Michael Jackson's music has been available
on TikTok since August 2020.
I think there's a real rebirth
of the music and the video from these songs on the album.
And it is this new generation that's being exposed
or engaging with the music.
There are about ten million
video creations on TikTok right now
that include music from Thriller.
There are 17 billion views
of those ten million videos that exist.
There are about two billion likes on those videos,
so people putting a little thumbs-up
or sharing or doing something to say, "I'm excited about this.
I'm engaging with this-this music."
Pretty massive numbers.
They're hearing it for the first time.
They're-they're like...
You know, it's-it's the same feeling
we maybe had when we watched the MTV video
for "Thriller" or "Beat It."
They're having that same experience 40 years later,
but rather than just watch, they're actually
then making something to engage with that music.
[Michael] I was kind of upset about
the news I heard about MTV and how they weren't showing Blacks,
and that kind of hurt me.
So I wanted to do something that was so powerful,
so strong that everybody would have to show it.
But I wanted to tell a strong story.
The story had to sell itself.
And what... these so-called videos weren't doing that.
They were terrible. They were just a lot of nothing
put together just to sell a song.
I wanted my things to be powerful.
I wanted to stand out from everything else
that when you see it, you run to the set
and you're glued to it, watching it.
I wanted quality. I wanted excellence.
I wanted the best. I wanted to perfect perfection.
[Usher] One thing that I can
always say about Michael
is that you felt like there was a sense of culture.
And the culture would span all the way
from kind of like this Broadway, you know, more theatrical world,
and then there was this other element that was cultural,
that was almost like gangsters.
♪ "Beat It" by Michael Jackson ♪
♪
You know, when you look at "Beat It"
and the idea that the people of that era felt like,
"Oh, he's speaking to us and with us.
He's rocking with us. He's making music for us.
We can dance to his music."
♪
It was an incredible move to decide,
"We're gonna have a rock and roll record
on this thing."
"Beat It" was straight up rock and roll.
[Steven Ray] Michael's idea with "Beat It"
was to distance himself from Off the Wall,
from the dance, disco.
And Michael wanted to stretch.
Creatively, he wanted to stretch.
[Lukather] They wanted a crossover hit across the board.
Rock, R and B, pop.
They called me to come in with Michael and Quincy
to do the... [imitates "Beat It" guitar riff]
They want to go rock and roll, let's do it.
You know, so I did it with all... you know, all-all that,
doubled it and made it sound huge.
And then I played the bass on it as well.
I did play bass on that record as well.
So I sat with them and made that swing,
and when Michael was dancing in the room,
I knew I was in the pocket.
[Branca] When he wrote "Beat It,"
he said, "I want a kind of guitar player on here
that will attract young, white, teenage males."
Eddie Van Halen.
[Ray] He said, "Well, what do you want me to do?"
And Quincy said, "Well,
I want you to be you.
That's you right there." And he pointed
to the famous, you know, Strat that he had.
And he said, "I'm not gonna tell you what to play.
You go be you."
[Branca] I mean, Eddie ripped
these solos off one after the other.
[rhythmic thumping]
[playing "Beat It" guitar solo]
♪
[Marinelli] I remember, like, hearing
the sound coming from Studio A,
where he was doing the-the solo.
It was so loud.
I could... I just...
It was just so loud.
Bruce Swedien and Quincy brilliantly
edited that solo together.
I mean, I think I probably just loved it
'cause, at that moment, it was probably everything
that I ever loved in one song, you know?
I've done way more time googling
Lukather's tone on "Beat It" than, um, Eddie Van Halen's,
because it's the tone that drives
the whole record-- that's the riff.
It's the perfect way that, like, a rock guitar could ever sit
over programmed drums in a... in a...
like, a funky groove.
I thought his videos were incredible.
I mean, first off, the guy could dance.
I mean, just being in the room,
watching him groove while we're playing.
[Rich Talauega] That short film--
you see, this whole movie,
it's about a big fight that's about to happen, right,
between two rival gangs, right?
♪ "Beat It" by Michael Jackson ♪
♪
♪ Beat it... ♪
[Tone Talauega] He saw value in street culture.
He wanted to try to figure out a way
on how to incorporate it, and...
and the beginning of it was "Beat It."
[Rich] The people that you see
in that film are a mixture of dancers and street cats.
And not only that
is that you actually had real gangsters on set.
Like, real Bloods and Crips
and Vatos and all that, like, for real.
[Terry Lewis] There was such a magic
in Michael and his movement.
♪ No one wants to be defeated, oh, Lord ♪
♪ Showin' how funky and strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter who's wrong or right ♪
♪ Just beat it... ♪
[Rich] You had B-boying
that was going on in New York.
You had popping and locking
that was going down over here in California,
and strutting and-and robotting, all them.
So the guy that's vibrating
in the "Beat It" short film with the... with the glasses on,
his name is Robot Dane.
This is the first ever
street dance wave of the United States of America.
♪ Showin' how funky and strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter... ♪
[Usher] The most relevant scene
at the time, which either was breakdancing, locking,
popping, waving, whatever it might have been,
he's pushing the envelope forward,
he's teaching us some things, he's informing us as artists,
but also, too, as performers,
he's letting us know that, "Yo, I want to be the baddest."
As a fan or a critic,
you're always looking for breathtaking moments,
the time when you say,
"I've never seen anything like that.
I'm probably not gonna see anything like that again."
The Motown show,
that's what I think was the most important step
in the whole Thriller process of making him the superstar.
♪ And I'll be there ♪
- ♪ Whoo! ♪ - [crowd cheering]
[Ivory] Bob Jones was, uh,
vice president of publicity at Motown.
He says,
"We're doing a Motown show."
I rented a tuxedo, and, uh, I went to the show.
People just went crazy.
[Blige] I was home in front of the TV.
[chuckles] Waiting for him to take us there.
First, we didn't know what he was gonna do,
because he was up there with his brothers.
[Ivory] The Jacksons leave,
the brothers leave, and Mike stays out there.
[crowd cheering]
And in the audience,
you could hear just kind of like:
"What's-what's getting ready to happen now?"
And, you know, Mike goes through the whole...
"Those were some great times. I love the-the old songs."
You know, th-those were good songs.
I-I like those songs a lot,
but, especially, I like...
- [spectator] "Billie Jean"! - [crowd shouting]
- ...the new songs. - [crowd cheering]
[Ivory] And then here comes
"Billie Jean."
- ["Billie Jean" playing] - [raucous cheering]
♪
The tape that you can see
of "Billie Jean"
and the stuff you see going on in the audience,
it does not capture what was happening in that crowd.
These people were going
absolutely berserk.
♪ Who will dance on the floor in the round? ♪
Mike just turned it the fuck out.
♪ People always told me, "Be careful of what you do ♪
♪ Don't go around breakin' young girls' hearts" ♪
♪ Hee-hee ♪
♪ And Mother always told me... ♪
I mean, he just laid a bomb on that room.
♪ "'Cause the lie becomes the truth," hey, hey ♪
♪ Billie Jean is not my... ♪
[Hilburn] I was at that show
at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
And he's moving different. He's got his own moves now.
He's not so much doing what-what he learned growing up,
and he was excited about it.
♪ Hee-hee-hee ♪
♪
[Blige] We just was happy to see
Michael Jackson perform, period.
Nobody seen the moonwalk coming.
[cheering]
♪ She says I am... ♪
[Hilburn] He does the moonwalk.
That's the breathtaking moment, okay?
And after the show, I couldn't believe it.
I had to go backstage and to ask somebody,
"Was there a special trick floor?
[laughs] How did he do that?"
[Rich] You know, this was the performance
that really changed space and time.
A few of his dances, we call 'em timekeepers.
And he created a whole vocabulary of timekeepers,
whether it's with his hip...
[snapping rhythmically]
...or with his... you know, his side,
- stomping with the ankle. - That's right.
Or he'll stomp with the foot.
With that, you can sing.
You see what I'm saying?
And it looks like you're dancing.
- But you're really not. - It's an illu...
It's-it's a bit of a trick, right?
And you go... you walk over here.
[scatting rhythmically]
And switch the mic,
flip the coat, put the hand in the pocket.
You could do a few things here and there that only...
only you can do if you know your song and your music.
♪
You know, when you see
him glide across the floor or pop,
it's a special effect.
He saw magic in that dance.
Look at that-- if you pause each moment,
it's an iconic silhouette.
It's the hat, it's the arms, it's the...
it's the tapping of the leg.
Right? The kick.
♪
To see a Black man standing on his toes,
seeing that and not being conscious of it
has made generations of Black, brown,
white, whatever color kids feel like anything was possible.
It's bigger than I think we, uh, think and acknowledge.
[cheering]
[Ivory] After Mike finished,
the producer had to get on the microphone and say,
"Ladies and gentlemen, please, please,
gather yourselves and take your seats.
We have more show to tape.
There's much more show coming."
And it took a minute for people to get their ties back together
and the women to put their wigs back on.
[George] Okay, I have one question for you.
Who was the unfortunate artist
- who had to come on-- - [laughing]
I don't remember. [laughing]
[cheering continues]
[Usher] I think that was the moment that he had
his breakout moment from the... from the group.
That song, "Billie Jean,"
and the way he performed it on that night
set the standard of what it was to be a megastar.
The next day after the show, Fred Astaire called my house.
He said, "I saw the show last night.
I taped it. I watched it twice this morning."
And he said, "You were incredible.
You're a hell of a mover, and you really put them
on their A-S-S," he said.
And I said, "God, thank you.
It's so wonderful for you to say that,
'cause I think you're the best."
And that was my r-reward, 'cause I think he's brilliant.
♪ tense, hypnotic music ♪
♪
[Copeland] To a classical dancer,
it's about your line, it's about the shapes
that you're-you're making.
And Michael does that.
That, to me, is very similar to a trained dancer,
even though he wasn't trained.
He would've been the ideal ballet dancer.
The proportions of his body.
He was lean, uh, and long, um, and just had, like,
a natural instinct when he moved.
But there... but there was such precision and clarity.
He was a perfectionist,
and that's what dancers are.
Um, you know, you don't commit that type of time
and sacrifice your body,
the injury, all of those things,
if you don't have the passion for it and the love for it.
And all of that sums up Michael
as a dancer, as a performer, as an artist.
[George] Michael Jackson didn't invent dancing on film,
but his particular synthesis
of the Nicholas Brothers on one hand
and Bob Fosse, Astaire, popping, locking,
moonwalking-- no one had ever
put those elements together before like that.
You can see it all the way through from
"Billie Jean" and "Beat It" and "Thriller,"
all the way through to all of these other artists.
Look at MC Hammer, "U Can't Touch This."
Then you go forward to, like, Usher and Justin Timberlake.
And then you go farther forward to Justin Bieber,
Doja Cat, Bruno Mars.
[Branca] Michael is emulated.
If you look at BTS, you can see it.
[BTS's "Dynamite" playing]
[Ivory] I'm all in with BTS.
I love those guys.
Every move they do is all Michael Jackson.
Michael created that.
[George] The entire K-pop wave,
they've all studied Michael
in terms of stage clothes, video clothes and stagecraft.
There's a great video if you watch BTS.
There's a lot of Michael Jackson.
You see it in their dancing.
♪ 'Cause I, I, I'm in the stars tonight ♪
♪ So watch me bring the fire and set the night alight ♪
♪ Shining through the city with a little funk and soul ♪
♪ So I'm-a light it up like dynamite, whoa-oh-oh ♪
♪ Dyn-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na, life is dynamite ♪
♪ Dyn-na-na-na... ♪
[George] So, the entire K-pop movement,
they're students of the game.
You can look at a number of millennial hip-hop artists--
Polo G being one of them--
23, 24 years old, from Chicago,
yet he's very much in trance with Michael Jackson
and he uses Michael Jackson music
and imagery in some of his music.
♪ Ha, smooth criminal, Mike Jack ♪
♪ And I still like to tote a four-five like Mike back ♪
[Polo G] It was just a night I was riding around,
I was riding in my car, and I was just listening
to Michael Jackson interviews.
I wasn't listening to music.
I was just listening to his interviews.
And I just came up with this idea, like,
maybe I should do, uh, this song and this instrumental
and just really mess everybody head up
'cause I know they wouldn't
be expecting that from a young artist.
♪ Tell me, Annie, are you okay? Screaming out, "No way" ♪
♪ Tell me, Annie, are you okay? ♪
'Cause I remember my grandma had this same exact album.
My auntie, who was her daughter,
she was a big Michael Jackson fan,
so she always had us listening to him.
So I remember her having this one exactly.
[George] It's pretty wild.
It says how powerful the imagery that Michael created was.
♪ soft, atmospheric music ♪
♪
[Ray] On Thriller,
his life was evolving, you know,
and his vocal approach was different.
There's vocalists, and there's stylists.
[chuckles] Style wins.
When you can hear a person sing
and recognize them fr-from the first couple bars,
you know you got something special.
They have a special tone,
a special voice, a special delivery.
Now, Michael had all of that.
In just the way he loved to dance
and-and he loved to perform,
he turned all of that melody that he was so great with
into percussive melody.
Well, that's what he did. He would sing drum parts.
He would sing bass lines.
He would, uh... all with his rhythmic inflections.
We call it "drums in your mouth."
He would beatbox. He was an amazing beatboxer.
But beatbox with melody and sing, you know,
not just beatboxing.
He would, you know, integrate melody with it.
And you can hear it on "Beat It," you know,
just the way he would attack each syllable.
♪ Just beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated ♪
[accompaniment fades]
[a cappella] ♪ Showin' how funky, strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter who's wrong or right ♪
♪ Just beat it ♪
♪ Beat it... ♪
I think of all of his melodies and his songs,
and they're completely percussive.
I mean, they're incredibly rhythmically hooky,
and, you know, all those songs, and the songs that he wrote
have these very aggressive staccato rhythms.
I feel like "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin',"
they're really short and stabby.
They're always, like... there's a tiny bit of, like,
anger and, like, contempt in the... in the...
in the way that he's singing and writing.
[Michael, a cappella] ♪ I know I am someone ♪
♪ And let the truth unfurl ♪
♪ No one can hurt you now ♪
♪ Because you know what's true ♪
♪ Yes, I believe in me ♪
♪ So you believe in you ♪
♪ Help me sing it ♪
♪ Hoo-hoo! ♪
The greatest soul singers are not afraid to feel the music,
you know, just do what the music tells them to do.
For all the new cats, all the new-school cats
that are going on record and ad-libbing,
and they say, like...
[aggressive staccato scatting]
I'm sorry, Michael did that first.
I'll prove it to you.
[Michael, a cappella] ♪ So beat it, just beat it ♪
[brief staccato scatting]
♪ Beat it ♪
[Michael yawning over beatboxing]
♪ Beat it ♪
Why was he yawning on a record, though?
It shows the freedom
and how comfortable he felt in the studio
without worrying about people's judgment
or, like, "Yo, what's that?"
Because you know he was bringing the freaking skills.
You knew he was bringing ultra talent and imagination,
for him to be like, "You know what?
I feel like yawning right here."
[Michael yawning over beatboxing]
♪ Beat it ♪
[Michael grunts dramatically]
I-I don't know what that one is. I don't know what...
[laughing] I don't... but I love it.
And I'm listening to his ad-libs.
He's doing all that...
[beatboxing]
He's doing all this rhythmic stuff.
♪ "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson ♪
[Michael beatboxing as instrumental track fades]
[Ray] Michael had such a clear vision
of what he wanted, and Quincy,
he knows who wanted to work with each other.
There's a number of things going on.
We have "Beat It," drums being done
by Jeff Porcaro at Sunset Sound;
Steve Lukather in Studio B at Westlake;
Studio A, Quincy and Bruce.
Quincy's going back and forth between A and B,
across the hallway.
Then you add the E.T. storybook album,
and-and then... then it's just a lot going on.
Quincy had become friends with Steven Spielberg.
And I remember one day he... Steven invited Quincy
down to the set when he was working on E.T.
And, uh, E.T. was there,
and the guys who were operating it at the time were there.
And I think somewhere in the course of it,
Steven had said to Quincy, said, "You know,
"I want to do a rec... we should do
a record of some sort."
[Branca] So Quincy, I think,
came to Michael and-and said,
"Steven wants us to do the E.T. storybook album,"
where Michael would narrate the story of E.T.
and Michael would write and sing a song for the album.
[Eckstine] And Michael was a big fan, too,
so, "Quincy, let's do this."
So they started doing it in the midst of doing Thriller.
I've always loved film, and, uh,
we're talking, in the stage of doing, uh,
Quincy Jones and myself and Steven Spielberg,
uh, working on a project.
[Branca] The problem is nobody bothered
to call Walter Yetnikoff
and clear the rights because the album was
going out on Universal MCA's label.
I'll never forget, uh, one day, I was at a-a meeting
and I get a call, so I get on the phone
and Walter says, "Tell Michael to stop kissing the monster."
"Walter, what are you talking about?"
"Stop kissing the monster!"
So, if you look at the E.T. storybook album,
Michael's got his arm around E.T.
They're like pals, and that's what Walter was talking about.
It wasn't just an album.
It was a whole box set with posters
and a picture of Michael with E.T.
So Walter filed an injunction against,
uh, MCA and Universal
and made them take the album out of the stores.
It was already shipped. It was already a huge hit.
They had to pull the album back.
Epic wasn't happy, and they felt it was sort of
holding up their record, the-the Thriller record.
Yeah, they sued, you know.
"No, you can't have our artist, da-da-da-da-da."
You know, and Walter was litigious anyway,
and so he-he went... he went in hard.
And MCA responded hard,
and it was, you know, all hell broke loose.
[Branca] And he said, "John, is he mad at me?"
I said, "What do you think, Walter?" [laughs]
"You-you just sued him and Steven Spielberg
and Quincy Jones, and you wonder...
you're wondering if he's mad at you?"
Uh, and he goes, "What can I do to make it up?"
And I said, "You give him the owner...
ownership of his master recordings:
Off the Wall, Thriller and everything to come."
And he said, "Done."
To get your masters back in the middle of a contract,
I don't think had ever, ever happened.
♪ "Carousel" by Michael Jackson ♪
[Ray] Rod came with his songs.
Michael had his songs.
And if those worked, they worked.
If they didn't, they-they went looking elsewhere.
♪ I lost my heart ♪
♪ On the carousel ♪
♪ To a circus girl ♪
♪ Who left my heart in pieces... ♪
[Jones] "Carousel" was a great song,
and fortunately or unfortunately, you know,
there was only room on the album
for one mood like, uh, "Carousel" or-or "Human Nature,"
and "Human Nature" was the choice we had to make, you know.
Toto was big at that time.
[Jones] Toto, who I just adored,
we worked together a lot, and, um, they sent over
two demos that they thought would be right for Michael,
and all of a sudden, there's...
at the end, there was all this silence.
And then it said... it said...
♪ Why, why? ♪
[scatting "Human Nature" melody]
♪ Why? ♪
And-and I tell you, I get...
I get goose bumps just talking about it.
And I said, "What the hell is that?" You know?
That's what took "Carousel" out.
I said, "This is where we want to go,"
'cause it's got such a... a-a wonderful flavor.
- [crowd cheering] - [Michael] I'll tell you what.
Tonight, I want to do...
...one of my favorite songs.
♪ I touched her shoulder ♪
♪ She likes the way I stare ♪
♪ And they say, "Why?" ♪
Everybody sing!
♪ Tell them that it's human nature ♪
♪ Why, why does he do me that way? ♪
The song that always haunts me is "Human Nature."
- [chuckles] - [exhales sharply]
- Um... Yeah. - What a beautiful record.
That's-that's one of those records that you just say,
"I wish I would've did that record." [laughs]
And that always, for me, is the...
the test of if I love it or not.
[Michael] I remember one experience in the studio,
Rod Temperton, one of the writers on the album,
and he said, "Michael, if you only had three hits
off this album, would you not be happy?"
I said, "I'd be very angry."
And they all started laughing.
I said, "I expect eight hits off of this album.
Nine, all of 'em."
[Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" playing]
That is how I am. I'm sorry.
And my attitude was always reaching out for more.
Never being satisfied.
And right at this very moment, I'm on my fifth hit record.
Five. "Human Nature" is number ten.
And I've broken a record that has never been done before--
five hit songs for one album.
Always reaching out for more, striving for excellence.
[Ray] It's so engaging
because the idea
was to have something for everyone.
There was a song that I didn't really know too much about
that was called "Starlight,"
and it was a disco song that Rod Temperton wrote.
You know, so it really evolved from
this click here at 1:18.
And so, okay, we lay the click down, and the idea was:
"Let's put it... let's put a new version down.
Let's put some tracks down and see where it goes."
So we-we started with this drumbeat.
[synthesized drumbeat playing]
Four on the floor, kind of dance song.
And then... backbeat.
[drumbeat continues]
Claps on the four.
[synthesized handclaps add to the beat]
And then the hi-hat part was like this.
Five, six, seven, eight.
[drumbeat continues]
And then open hat.
There we go.
And then the cowbell.
Here we go.
So, another thing about Michael and Quincy
is they like kind of like
a little bit of a feel to the music.
So, this is straight time.
And then we add a little bit of shuffle to it
so it just kind of pushes it a little bit like that.
So it's in.
And then the bass line ended up being kind of like a...
something I never would have expected,
like a little bit of a Latin rhythm, like...
[imitating drum and bass beat]
Which sounded like a conga line to me, but...
[playing synthesized bass line]
And there was the-the opening.
[playing "Thriller" synthesizer melody]
♪ "Thriller" by Michael Jackson ♪
♪
[wolf howling]
[Phillinganes] Just layering all the parts to "Thriller"
was one of the most fun sessions I've ever done in my life.
[Yetnikoff] At 24, Michael had become more
than a master singer, dancer, songwriter.
He was a super salesman of his own mystique.
Michael's passion for world conquest was singular.
He lived, breathed, slept, dreamt and spoke
of nothing but number one successes.
Thriller stayed number one for months.
In the long period of its unprecedented success, however,
when it occasionally fell to second place for a week or two,
Michael panicked.
Hysterical, he'd berate me
for failing to pump up the promotion.
"I'm pumping, Michael," I'd say.
"I promise you I'm pumping."
And I was.
[Ivory] After Thriller had sold
about three or four million copies,
I got a call about 12 noon.
On the phone was the record company saying,
"Hey, listen, if you're not busy,
we need you to get over here right now."
Michael was going to be presented a-a plaque
for the-the Thriller record.
And we were wondering, why were we waiting?
In came Jane Fonda.
Jane?
[applause]
I love Michael, and I admire him.
He's the only person I know that writes music
that you can dream to and dance to
and love to and work out to.
And I do all of 'em to it.
- Come here, Michael. - [applause]
[Ivory] In retrospect, I know
exactly what he was doing.
He understood the importance of having
a big white star giving him this plaque.
Uh, Michael has a number one single on the pop charts,
number one album on the pop charts,
number one single on the R and B charts,
number one album on the R and B charts.
And I think that starts...
that's sort of an historic record.
[Maxwell] But I don't think we understood
where it was gonna go until
the "Thriller" video came out.
♪ suspenseful orchestral music ♪
♪
[Branca] As far as the record company
was concerned, the album cycle was done.
They were thrilled with whatever it sold,
and Michael said, "No, no, we're gonna... we got more."
"Thriller," of all the songs on the album,
uh, seems like you can do much more video-wise--
no, movie-wise-- than any of the songs
'cause of the story and all the visuals
and monsters and stuff.
And so I came up with an idea
of thinking that I really want to change,
metamorphosis into some other creature.
I... and I-I saw American Werewolf In London.
I really liked it.
And-and I said, "Who's the director who did it?"
And they said, "John Landis, John Landis."
I said, "Great. That's who we got to get."
So I said, "Get in touch with him."
[John Landis] So I get this call, and he says,
"Michael Jackson," and I really thought...
"Little Michael Jackson of The Jackson 5?"
I mean, I thought, "He's a kid," you know?
And he told me he had a song, "Thriller,"
and he wanted me to make a video.
And I said, "Why?"
His brother showed him on the bus
the tape of American Werewolf, I think to scare him,
but he loved American Werewolf in London.
And he was obviously fascinated with Rick Baker's work.
[roaring]
And so he called me and said,
"I want to turn into a monster. Will you do it?"
And the record label wouldn't pay for it.
And, uh... and we talked, and I said,
"Michael, you know, you shouldn't pay for this.
You shouldn't pay for it yourself."
And he said, "Branca, figure it out."
Nobody wanted him to do this.
This was entirely his own thing.
And everybody else-- his people and the record company--
said, "Next album. Let's... We've already... Michael, hello.
It's the most successful album of all time. We want..."
So they thought "Thriller" was outrageous.
[George] Its budget was $1.2 million dollars.
That's at a time when the average music video budget
was only $50,000 dollars.
So I went... I went back to the office and thought about it.
And I thought up this idea of a making-of.
Went to MTV and Showtime,
and-and Michael was the biggest thing on the planet.
And I said, "We'll give you
a making of Michael's next video.
We need a million two."
And they came back, and they said yes.
[Michael] We're trying to bring back
the motion picture shorts,
which we will do with, uh... with "Thriller."
A lot of the videos-- I hate to use the word "video"
'cause I like to think of it as a film, which it is--
we're doing a short film-- a lot of 'em are so terrible.
And I wanted "Thriller" and "Beat It" to be a stimulant
for people to make better videos or short films.
I really did, 'cause, I mean, I love MTV, watching it.
You know, I think it's great,
but a lot of stuff I see, I'm not so crazy about.
[Landis] He wanted to turn into a...
at first, a-a wolf man,
like the werewolf in American Werewolf.
[growling]
His desire was to turn into a monster
on camera.
We had the character turn into
a four-legged hound from hell, a...
you know, a beast.
And Michael wanted to do that, and I told him,
"Michael, it would be so difficult
for you to dance with four legs,
you know, and for the puppeteers.
No."
So then it was gonna be
more of a traditional wolf man character.
And Rick Baker did the first design, and it was great
but truly terrifying.
And I said, "Aah! Whatever we have him
turn into, he's got to be attractive."
Scary but...
kind of cool and elegant, you know?
So his second design, he made him that "were-cat,"
and it's a much more graceful design.
Are you all right?
- Go away! - [screams]
[roaring]
♪ "Thriller" by Michael Jackson ♪
♪
[Deborah Nadoolman Landis] Michael Jackson was
a very slight person.
99 pounds soaking wet.
So, how do you develop a presence on screen?
For "Thriller,"
you know, it was supposed to be
a satire of a teenage horror film,
so he's in a letterman's jacket.
And then, with his red jacket for that theater,
I was trying to create a silhouette that was
sexy, masculine, impressive,
and... and gave him weight on screen.
[John Landis] So, with Michael's fascination
with monsters, I said, "Well, you'll become two monsters.
You'll become a werewolf,"
and then when we decided on dancing zombies, a zombie.
Doesn't make sense, but who cares?
You know, it's a fantasy.
And he really enjoyed the process of the makeup,
and he really enjoyed wearing the makeup.
Most actors hate it, and he loved it.
He's so dynamic, Mike,
and he has such power and such charm.
As I had seen it, just looking at, you know,
"Can You Feel It" and everything I saw,
it's like, "Why isn't he being sexual?"
I mean, he's a rock star.
So one of the first things for me was
I wanted a girl to make him sexy
and to also...
to be gaga in love with him.
The big eyes, you know.
And I saw over a hundred actresses
and dancers and all kinds of people.
And when Ola came in,
one, she was desperate, desperate
to be with Michael Jackson, and she was adorable.
[Ola Ray] Michael Jackson isn't Michael Jackson
as a werewolf.
Michael Jackson is
another person totally with the mask.
And I like, you know, when he's so shy.
I have something I want to tell you.
[John Landis] The only time I really
explained something to him, I said, "You know, Michael,
I want you to know when you say, 'I'm not like other guys'..."
I'm not like other guys.
"...it will get a laugh."
And he was clueless. He said, "Why would this get a laugh?"
I said, "Because you're not like other guys."
But at least he was prepared, 'cause it got a huge laugh
and, uh... and so he was in on it.
You know, I think he would have been terribly upset otherwise.
[Rich] From the beginning of the film,
going to the theater,
then you're walking out, and then Michael has
that cat-and-mouse sort of, uh,
walk that he's doing with Ola Ray.
That's like an ode back to, uh, classic, uh, musicals, right?
The cat-and-mouse chase.
Right? Th-Then, you know, the-the man
playing up to the woman and all that.
[John Landis] And it's a dolly shot.
And I said, "Mike, here's what we're gonna do.
As long as Ola could keep the beat,
you do those lyrics,
you can never be more than this many feet away from her."
[Deborah Nadoolman Landis] The big difference between
a costume designer and a fashion designer is,
for us, it's all about dramatic context.
So, where are they gonna be?
They're gonna be in an alley and a movie theater.
And what are they doing?
They're on a date, and Michael is gonna
be playful and be seductive.
She's dressed in blue.
She's cool.
She's relaxed. She's in jeans.
They did have a leopard print on them,
but, you know, tight jeans, little jacket.
She couldn't have been cuter.
I think, to the audience,
with what she's wearing and her attitude,
she's sending off every good vibe.
And I'll say, "Okay, well, that was fine.
I don't want fine.
You're Michael Jackson,
so it has to be great.
Because if you can't be great,
why the fuck do I have Michael Jackson here?"
So he goes, "Okay, John."
And he did the next take.
He was great! [laughs] You know?
♪ For you and I to cuddle close together, yeah ♪
♪ All through the night ♪
♪ I'll save you from the terror on the screen ♪
♪ I'll make you see... ♪
[John Landis] Michael Peters and Michael Jackson
came up with the choreography,
and it's fascinating choreography
because the dancers were allowed
more rehearsal than usual.
At that point already,
Michael had established certain moves,
so my first instruction to Michael Peters was spooky,
and the second one was:
"I don't want any Michael move."
♪ suspenseful orchestral music ♪
♪ "Thriller" by Michael Jackson ♪
♪
[Rich] And they go into this
popping routine, right?
This goes back to the whole thing of where Michael Jackson
crosses the technique and the street world, right?
♪
And he was so inspired by popping and waving and all that
so that he had to put them in the film.
How would a zombie dance?
And then looking at it, and it was...
it just made a lot of sense to me
that they weren't just locking or they just weren't popping
or they just weren't doing jazz dance.
The angles, the lines were all...
demented and crooked, and it...
I'd just never seen anything like that before.
♪ 'Cause this is thriller ♪
♪ Thriller night... ♪
[Deborah Nadoolman Landis] On those zombies,
those costumes were just made of rags.
We call it aging, distressing and dying.
Then, of course, Rick Baker's work
was just masterful on everybody.
♪ Thriller night ♪
♪ 'Cause I can thrill you more ♪
♪ Than any ghoul would ever dare try ♪
This is a song about watching a movie.
Yo. A Blockbuster night.
[laughs] He made a whole movie.
He entertained us.
He gave us R and B, he gave us horror,
he gave us sci-fi, but he gave it all to us in music.
He-he was just a-amazing.
[John Landis] After the video came out,
it tripled its sales.
They sold six million of these.
This made MTV a powerhouse
and then created this whole rock video business.
It was extraordinary.
[Deborah Nadoolman Landis] And it's that moment when
the audience falls madly in love,
that the audience creates the icons.
[Branca] He could write the songs.
He could produce them.
He could sing them.
He could perform like no other.
And he also was a fashion icon.
I've seen little tiny kids in red jackets.
I've seen old grandpas in red jackets.
I've seen girls in red jackets.
I've seen everybody wearing that jacket.
It was huge worldwide.
They were buying the leather jackets that Michael...
They were buying everything.
They were buying Michael Jackson posters, calendars.
♪ Looks so much like Michael from head to toe ♪
♪ Put the mic in his hand and he'll steal the show ♪
[all] I love you, Michael Jackson.
[crowd chanting] Michael Jackson!
[woman] Anything with Michael Jackson on it
does continue to sell.
[man] I work in a record store, and it still
just flies out of the store every week.
And we're talking about a record
that's a year and a half, almost two years old,
and people are still freaking out about it.
[reporter] There have always been fan clubs,
Michael's fans more passionate than most.
This club calls itself the P.Y.T.'s.
We love you! We love you, Michael!
And if nothing else, "Thriller" was always
gonna be played in the month of October.
Like, there's this big thing in Mexico that happens
where, I'll tell you, the-the... every... people fly in for it.
They're all in their costumes, and they do
the "Thriller" dance, thousands of people.
And people are still, you-you know,
dancing to this song like it's...
like it was just done, like the...
like the short film just came out yesterday.
"Thriller," a long time coming.
Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
[George] Probably the single biggest video
for MTV ever.
[Ivory] After their initial reluctance,
MTV became a huge supporter of Michael Jackson,
especially the "Thriller" short film.
They heavily promoted the premiere.
At some point, it felt like the "M" in MTV
stood for "Michael."
And everybody was talking about how they were gonna cut school
to go home to watch the "Thriller" video
because it was a twelve o'clock world premiere on MTV.
And he was acting, he was eating popcorn,
and then he turned into a monster.
There's something about music, I think, that has...
that triggers so many different emotions in people,
so you're tapping into all of that
to a larger and larger and larger audience,
and it just exponentially grew.
[George] So, the spring of '84,
the record's already out,
it's already selling because Michael's now gone
from being a pop star to a phenomenon.
The Guinness Book of World Records is giving him
an award as the biggest-selling album of all time.
It's a thriller of a party tonight
for Michael Jackson at the Museum of Natural History.
That's where Jackson's being honored
for his album that's broken all the records.
[reporter 2] This was the payoff for the fans tonight,
that momentary glimpse of superstar Michael Jackson
with his date for the evening, Brooke Shields.
[Yetnikoff] Thriller, with 25 million copies sold,
was the best-selling album ever.
Today, we surpassed 25 million copies for Thriller.
Michael Jackson, the number one artist in the world!
- [crowd cheering] - Thriller eclipsed them all.
At one point, the damn thing was selling
a million copies a week.
[George] Michael had become a global obsession.
And just think, you all came to see me.
[sparse laughter]
No, I know why you're here, and with good reason.
To see one of the most talented, most popular
and most exciting superstars in the music world today,
Michael Jackson.
Michael, welcome to the White House.
[John Landis] But being with Michael
at that moment in time,
this is... "Thriller" is now out on television.
And there was Michael mania, you know.
He called me, and he said,
"Have you ever been to Disney World?"
So the park was open, and there were people walking around.
Here's Michael, here's Mickey and me.
Suddenly, we look around,
and there are people
as far as you can see in every direction--
behind us, in front of us, around us--
and they're getting more and more hysterical.
"Michael! Michael!"
And you see Mickey Mouse is going like...
"Holy shit!
We're never getting out of this alive!" You know?
[Branca] You know, Thriller was
the biggest album in the world, Michael was the biggest star,
and he wanted to go out and tour Thriller.
But Joseph-- you know, uh, Mr. Jackson--
had other ideas.
He wanted to bring all the family back together.
He brought in Don King
as the recommended promoter of the tour.
And he got the brothers and Mrs. Jackson, Katherine.
Everybody was all for it.
Michael was hesitant, to be honest.
He felt like he had done Thriller on his own,
and he wanted to tour as a solo artist.
But he was persuaded to go along with it.
[Ivory] This tour is a bonanza of marketing,
so everybody wants to get in on this.
And Quaker Oats, you know, they had made a deal.
They had a tentative deal with the Jacksons
to be the sponsors of this thing.
And then Don King says, "Listen, I've already made a deal.
I made it with Pepsi."
♪ "Billie Jean" (Pepsi Version) by Michael Jackson ♪
♪
[Branca] Michael was not into the sponsorship
'cause he-he said, "This isn't my thing.
I don't drink Pepsi. This is all for my family."
And Michael did not want to do the Pepsi deal.
♪ You're a whole new generation ♪
♪ You're loving what they do ♪
♪ Put a Pepsi into motion ♪
♪ And that choice is up to you, hey, hey, hey ♪
♪ You're the Pepsi Generation... ♪
[Branca] 'Cause he said to me, "Okay, Branca, listen to me.
I got to do this 'cause my family wants it,
but you have to write two things in the contract.
Number one: I'm never holding a Pepsi can.
And number two: I can't be
on the screen for more than three seconds."
So it's in the Pepsi contract,
no more than three seconds and never holding a Pepsi can.
So if you ever watch that commercial again,
you'll-you'll see.
[Ivory] It's interesting because
if Don King had not made the deal with Pepsi,
Michael's hair wouldn't have gotten burned.
I was actually at the Pepsi commercial,
and I had an all-access pass.
When I arrived at the Shrine Auditorium Downtown,
Michael and the Jacksons were onstage
performing "Billie Jean."
[cheering]
The audience had been invited,
you know, and they were told to scream
and the whole thing.
They didn't have to be instructed to do that.
They were crazy about, you know,
seeing the Jacksons and Michael there and...
They did a run-through, and after they came offstage,
Michael was just in a great mood
and he was having fun, fooling around.
And then they called them back out
and said, "We're gonna do this again."
And it went horribly wrong.
Filming the Pepsi commercial, there was a big explosion.
♪ You're the Pepsi Generation ♪
♪ Guzzle down... ♪
[Branca] And it burned Michael's scalp
very severely.
[Ivory] The audience didn't know what was going on.
And when they took Michael offstage,
I went backstage,
and it was just absolute chaos.
They put him in a stretcher--
you know, an ambulance stretcher--
and they took him offstage to a paramedic truck.
And Michael Jackson was smart enough...
- [camera snaps] - ...to be covered up,
but he had his glove out.
That was the photograph that went around the world
of him with the glitter glove.
People were crying, you know, in the audience.
And people were running with the ambulance
as it was taking him away.
It was just an incredible thing.
When I got home, it was all over the news.
[reporter] Jackson was rushed to a hospital last night
after suffering second- and third-degree burns.
[reporter 2] But his doctor said
the famous patient was doing well.
He slept several hours last night.
He was up watching TV at approximately one o'clock.
He's comfortable this morning, although he is continuing
to have discomfort in the scalp area.
[Branca] People don't realize
he had to go to emergency treatment in a burn center,
and he was troubled by the pain from that burn
for the rest of his life,
which led to pain pills and whatnot to-to ease the pain.
[Ivory] Because he needed painkillers,
he was in pain, life couldn't stop.
He had a book full of things that he had to do.
You know, a schedule that just could not stop.
The opening of the Victory Tour
in Kansas City was a massive event.
[dramatic, atmospheric music playing]
♪
[crowd cheering]
It's at Arrowhead Stadium.
It's a giant football stadium.
[raucous cheering]
- I love you, Michael. - I love you, Michael.
I love you so much.
This is gonna be the best concert of the century.
- Don't you think? - Definitely.
I have to ask Michael Jackson to marry me today.
We would do about anything to see Michael Jackson.
[dramatic music continues]
♪
[cheering continues]
[reporter] You're looking at a sneak preview
of what is perhaps the most controversial
rock concert tour in history, the Jacksons' Victory Tour,
opening tonight in Kansas City.
[Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" playing]
♪
♪ I said you wanna be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ You got to be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ I said you wanna be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ You got to be startin' somethin' ♪
- ♪ Too high to get over ♪ - ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Too low to get under ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ You're stuck in the middle ♪
- ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ And the pain is thunder ♪
- ♪ Too high to get over ♪ - ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
♪ Too low to get under ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ You're stuck in the middle ♪
- ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪ - ♪ And the pain is thunder ♪
♪ I took my baby to the doctor ♪
♪ With a fever, but nothin' he found ♪
♪ By the time this hit the street ♪
♪ They said she had a breakdown ♪
♪ Someone's always tryin' ♪
♪ To start my baby cryin' ♪
♪ Talkin', squealin', lyin' ♪
♪ Sayin' you just want to be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ I said you wanna be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ You got to be startin' somethin' ♪
[fading] ♪ I said you wanna be startin' somethin' ♪
♪ tense synthesizer tones fading into drumbeat ♪
♪ "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" by Michael Jackson ♪
♪ Where did you come from, lady? ♪
[reporter] The Victory Tour sold out in Kansas City.
Then it was on to Dallas, Jacksonville,
New Jersey, New York and Knoxville.
It's currently scheduled in some 13 cities
with more sites yet to be announced.
Preparations are well underway tonight
for the Jacksons' Victory Tour concert.
[reporter 2] The Jacksons' massive stage was beginning
to take shape as early as Thursday.
[reporter 1] There's not too many places
that you can stick a monstrous stage like this.
Most of the performances, more than 50 in all,
will be in stadiums like the Silverdome.
♪ Pretty young thing ♪
- ♪ You need some loving ♪ - ♪ TLC ♪
♪ Tender lovin' care ♪
♪ And I'll take you there, girl ♪
♪ Ooh-ooh, I want to love you... ♪
[George] The shows of the Victory Tour
were much more mainstream America,
and that was a testament to how big Michael had become
and to the penetration of the album.
♪ Ow! ♪
[Michael Jackson's "Beat It" playing]
[George] The irony of Thriller is that
there was never a tour solely dedicated
to the biggest LP of all time.
The Victory Tour was a mix
of vintage Jackson family music and hits from Thriller.
But it was the Thriller material
that turned the crowd out every night.
[crowd cheering]
[Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" playing]
♪ Hee! Hoo! ♪
♪
♪ She says I am the one ♪
♪ But the kid is not my son ♪
♪ No, no, no ♪
♪ Billie Jean is not my lover ♪
♪ She's just a girl who claims that I am the one ♪
♪ But the kid is not my son ♪
♪ She says I am the one ♪
♪
♪ Whoo! ♪
♪ You know you ain't ♪
♪ Not my lover ♪
- ♪ You know you can't ♪ - ♪ Not my lover ♪
♪ Because you are ♪
♪ Not my lover ♪
♪ 'Cause you're a silly girl ♪
♪ Not my lover ♪
♪ Billie Jean is not my lover ♪
[steady drumbeat playing]
[crowd cheering]
♪ Billie Jean is not my lover ♪
Michael has been nominated for 12...
- 12 1983 Grammy Awards. - [applause]
The highest number in history.
♪ "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson ♪
[Shields] So we went to the 1984 Grammys
at the Shrine Auditorium.
I didn't get the feeling he was nervous.
I actually got the feeling that
he was excited.
And I don't think I had any idea
even the magnitude of it.
♪ Keep on with the force, don't stop ♪
♪ Don't stop till you get enough, keep on... ♪
[George] Michael Jackson was nominated
for 12 Grammys overall,
including Album of the Year and Record of the Year.
♪ And I feel on fire ♪
♪ Ain't nothin'... ♪
[Melissa Manchester] The Record of the Year is...
"Beat It," Michael Jackson.
[Mike Love] For Album of the Year...
[Brian Wilson] The winner is...
- [laughing, exclaiming] - Thriller!
[cheering and applause]
♪ Sensation ♪
♪ Oh, sensation ♪
♪ Lovely where we're at... ♪
Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male: Michael Jackson.
[cheering and applause]
I made a deal with myself, if I win more...
one more award, which is this award,
which is seven, which is a record,
I would take off my glasses.
[cheering]
♪ Ooh, keep on with the force, don't stop ♪
♪ Don't stop till you get enough ♪
♪ Keep on with the force, don't stop ♪
♪ Don't stop till you get enough ♪
♪ Keep on with the force, don't stop... ♪
[Shields] He deserved it.
You know, it was... it was due.
♪ Don't stop till you get enough ♪
♪
[Yetnikoff] In February 1984,
between Michael and Quincy, Thriller won a dozen Grammys.
[Michael] Well, as we know, Thriller is
a huge, huge success-- the album--
but, uh...
the joy of doing something phenomenal
'cause everybody waiting to see the next big,
you know, Michael Jackson short.
And I thought "Thriller" was the perfect vehicle.
- We're gonna come out. - No.
- No one's gonna like it. - No, no, no, no, no.
But 40 years from now, Michael--
My part will be.
[laughing] I don't know about you.
All right, and stop.
- [crew member] Cut. - [beep]
Who's your biggest inspiration?
Who inspired you the most?
Michael Jackson.
[Ronson] Michael saw that he could
touch greatness with Off the Wall,
knew he was still going against racist radio
and people that wanted to put him in a box.
But you have to be so in the rarefied air,
...0001%, to even be able to, like, project yourself to that.
That idea that I can take
dance music and visuals
and turn the world on its ear,
that idea that he crystallized in "Thriller"-- not going away,
and I don't think it's ever gonna go away.
[Usher] So, whether it was
"Human Nature" and his amazing voice,
you know, "Beat It" and looking at
the references that were there, because every time
you saw a video, you got a new idea of, like,
who he was as an artist and what he was selling.
Right? There was his hair and his clothing, his wardrobe.
All of those things were informing the culture.
He was establishing the standard.
Thriller.
Man, there has never been anything like that.
Michael Jackson's Thriller.
♪ suspenseful orchestral music ♪
[screams]
What's the problem?
Come on, I'll take you home.
[evil laughter]
♪ "Beat It" by Michael Jackson ♪
♪ They told him, "Don't you ever come around here ♪
♪ Don't wanna see your face, you better disappear" ♪
♪ The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear ♪
♪ So beat it, just beat it ♪
♪ You better run, you better do what you can ♪
♪ Don't wanna see no blood, don't be a macho man ♪
♪ You wanna be tough, better do what you can ♪
♪ So beat it ♪
♪ But you wanna be bad ♪
- ♪ Just beat it, beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated ♪
♪ Showin' how funky and strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter who's wrong or right ♪
- ♪ Just beat it, just beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ Just beat it ♪
- ♪ Beat it, beat it, uh! ♪ - ♪ Just beat it ♪
♪ They're out to get you, better leave while you can ♪
♪ Don't wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man ♪
♪ You wanna stay alive, better do what you can ♪
♪ So beat it, just beat it ♪
♪ You have to show them that you're really not scared ♪
♪ You're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare ♪
♪ They'll kick you, then they'll beat you ♪
♪ Then they'll tell you it's fair, so beat it ♪
♪ But you wanna be bad ♪
- ♪ Just beat it, beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated ♪
♪ Showin' how funky and strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter who's wrong or right ♪
- ♪ Just beat it, beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated ♪
♪ Showin' how funky and strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter who's wrong or right ♪
♪ Just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it ♪
♪ Beat it, beat it, beat it ♪
♪
♪ Beat it, beat it, beat it ♪
[rhythmic thumping]
[electric guitar solo playing]
♪
- ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated ♪
♪ Showin' how funky and strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter who's wrong or right ♪
- ♪ Just beat it, beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated, oh, Lord ♪
♪ Showin' how funky and strong is your fight ♪
♪ It doesn't matter who's wrong or right ♪
- ♪ Just beat it, beat it ♪ - ♪ Beat it, beat it ♪
♪ No one wants to be defeated, oh, no ♪
♪ Showin' how funky and strong is your fight ♪
[fading] ♪ It doesn't matter ♪
[crowd cheering]
[soft jingling]
[Michael chuckles]
[Michael whoops]