MJdude
Proud Member
MJ is on the cover of Republika,a nice romanian magazine,about what is new and interesting in movies,music and technology.There is a cool article about Thriller - like a short history.It's very positive and nice:
THRILLER
In 25 steps
There were times when Kate Nash wouldn’t have got to sing and when a hard-rock guitar-solo in a so called “pop-song” was consider an almost indicent extravaganzza.The year was 1982 (autumn),when a legendary kid,that just got out from a (some would say) “very long adolescency”,signed his masterpiece,sitting on his left elbow,in a hot,contagious suite.
1) In the morning of 25th march 1983, Fred Astaire took his phone and dialed a certain number.When the person on the other line answered,Fred said: “Man,you were amazing!”.But it wasn’t a simple “Man,you were amazing!” like you would expect,because the person on the other line was Michael Jackson,the guy with the white suite from the cover.The same guy that will be the hero of the day for very many years from that on.
2)One day earlier from Fred Astaire’s phonecall, Motown celebrated 25 years of existence,with a wonderfull show with guest-stars,such as Marvin Gaye,Diana Ross & The Supremes,The Temptations,Four Tops and the wonder-kid of the past 10 years,from the Detroid/Los Angeles label.
3) Over 47 million people watched a hat dancing and singing the lyrics of Billie Jean - “one of the most excentric,bizzare,cerebral things that ever landed in Top 40” according to Blender – while moving it’s legs like the kids from the ghettos.The Moonwalk was born that night.
4)Many people that saw the performance that night,went to the shop to buy a copy of the album,the very next day,adding another 8 million copies to the sales of the album.
5)Recorded during april and november 1982, Jackson’s second album,co-produced with Quincy Jones and with the help of the guys from the american band Toto,for the instrumentation part, Thirller lunched a pop-icon like no other in history and distroied many idiotic rase-bariers: the NY-radio station WPLJ,a so called “white” station, would play almost immediately the single called Beat it,and MTV,another “white thing” ,recently created,would play the Thriller video 2 times in a hour.
6)The guitar solo from Beat – the best track on the album,if you would ask me(the author) – was played by Eddie Van Halen.This is the reason why WPLJ accepted to play the song.
7)For MTV to play the Billie Jean video,Walter Yetnikoff,the president of CBS,had to threat the music station: “ I will retire all of our songs from your playlist and I will tell the whole world that you are so stupid,that you will not accept to play an amazing video,just because the guy singing the song is of color!”
8)The “of color guy” that Walter Yetnikoff talked about, stared having his skin problem around this period.
9)In 1982,aswell,another guy,called Prince,released his own “Thriller” – the 1999 album.If Michael’s Thriller would have never been released,this article could have been about the Minneapolis singer.
10) Another famous guy,Paul McCarney,had some connection with the platinum winning album, singing a duet with Michael Jackson called The girl is mine – the best song that is releated with the Beatles (it’s a joke,ok?! – the author)
11)In september 1983,the Thriller video was aired for the first time on MTV and contribuited big-time to the evolution of the music station that we still see today.It also focused the attention of the public from the rock genre to pop and R&B.
12)In the 14 minutes short-film (which costed 800.000 $) ,that was directed by John Landis, Michael seemed a little more light-skinned than on the cover of the album.
13)It was thought to be the foult of the make-up (a zombie is supposed to look pale) and the lights that were used,althogh there were a few that were skeptical.The sale-rating of the album was not affected by this.though…
14) My friend,Tutu, would start to look like Michael.Or better yet,like the Michael from the Bad cover.Something was not right here…
15)The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller ,the movie about the short-movie,that soled over 9 million copies,would close the path for the guys who soled “moving-pictures”-like-videos and would open the one for the guys for Guinness Book.
16) Ola Ray, Michael’s sweetheart from the Thriller video,was Miss June for the Playboy magazine,in 1980.In 1981,she played the role of a prostitute in the movie called (what do you know?!) Body and Soul,a remake of an oscar-winning 1948 film.
17) Michael’s real girlfrined was Brook Shields – just a teenager at that time,which will appear with Michael at the 1983 Grammy Awards.
18)Michael Jackson was nominated for 12 Grammies.He left from the award show holding Brooke with one hand,and 8 awards with the other.
19) One of the 8 awards was not for Thriller,though,but for Someone in the dark,produced by Quincy Jones for Spielberg’s 1982 “E.T:The Extra-Terestrial”,for The Best Recording for Children cattegorie
20) Thriller was like a magnet for records: 80 weeks in the Billboard 200 Top 10 (37 as # 1),the only album in history that was a best-seller 2 years in a row (1983-1984) and,of course,the best selling album in the world – 104 million copies soled.
21) In 2001, a Special Edition of the Thriller was released.This edition contained some great interviews with Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton,and a couple of amazing songs from wich were recorde in that period,but never made the album.
22) In 2006,Charlotte Church and Amy Winehouse song togheter Beat it at the end of the first series of The Charlotte Church Show.
23) 1500 inmates from a Filipino Prison remade the Thriller dance,wich was described by the Time as: “a great tribute for the Thriller”.By 7th february 2008,the video,which was uploaded on You Tube,already had 11.467.295 views.
24) On 30th of december 2007,Thriller, “the album that changed the face of music”, celebrated 25 years of existence,beeing 25 years younger than the guy that appears on the cover.
25)On 11th february 2008,Thriller 25,a special anniversary edition ,was released by Sony/BMG. The special anniversary edition has 7 bonus tracks: an amazing song,written in that periond,called For all time,the voice-over of Vincent Price and 5 remixes by artists such as Will.I.Am,Akon, Kanye West and Fergie
^_^
THRILLER
In 25 steps
There were times when Kate Nash wouldn’t have got to sing and when a hard-rock guitar-solo in a so called “pop-song” was consider an almost indicent extravaganzza.The year was 1982 (autumn),when a legendary kid,that just got out from a (some would say) “very long adolescency”,signed his masterpiece,sitting on his left elbow,in a hot,contagious suite.
1) In the morning of 25th march 1983, Fred Astaire took his phone and dialed a certain number.When the person on the other line answered,Fred said: “Man,you were amazing!”.But it wasn’t a simple “Man,you were amazing!” like you would expect,because the person on the other line was Michael Jackson,the guy with the white suite from the cover.The same guy that will be the hero of the day for very many years from that on.
2)One day earlier from Fred Astaire’s phonecall, Motown celebrated 25 years of existence,with a wonderfull show with guest-stars,such as Marvin Gaye,Diana Ross & The Supremes,The Temptations,Four Tops and the wonder-kid of the past 10 years,from the Detroid/Los Angeles label.
3) Over 47 million people watched a hat dancing and singing the lyrics of Billie Jean - “one of the most excentric,bizzare,cerebral things that ever landed in Top 40” according to Blender – while moving it’s legs like the kids from the ghettos.The Moonwalk was born that night.
4)Many people that saw the performance that night,went to the shop to buy a copy of the album,the very next day,adding another 8 million copies to the sales of the album.
5)Recorded during april and november 1982, Jackson’s second album,co-produced with Quincy Jones and with the help of the guys from the american band Toto,for the instrumentation part, Thirller lunched a pop-icon like no other in history and distroied many idiotic rase-bariers: the NY-radio station WPLJ,a so called “white” station, would play almost immediately the single called Beat it,and MTV,another “white thing” ,recently created,would play the Thriller video 2 times in a hour.
6)The guitar solo from Beat – the best track on the album,if you would ask me(the author) – was played by Eddie Van Halen.This is the reason why WPLJ accepted to play the song.
7)For MTV to play the Billie Jean video,Walter Yetnikoff,the president of CBS,had to threat the music station: “ I will retire all of our songs from your playlist and I will tell the whole world that you are so stupid,that you will not accept to play an amazing video,just because the guy singing the song is of color!”
8)The “of color guy” that Walter Yetnikoff talked about, stared having his skin problem around this period.
9)In 1982,aswell,another guy,called Prince,released his own “Thriller” – the 1999 album.If Michael’s Thriller would have never been released,this article could have been about the Minneapolis singer.
10) Another famous guy,Paul McCarney,had some connection with the platinum winning album, singing a duet with Michael Jackson called The girl is mine – the best song that is releated with the Beatles (it’s a joke,ok?! – the author)
11)In september 1983,the Thriller video was aired for the first time on MTV and contribuited big-time to the evolution of the music station that we still see today.It also focused the attention of the public from the rock genre to pop and R&B.
12)In the 14 minutes short-film (which costed 800.000 $) ,that was directed by John Landis, Michael seemed a little more light-skinned than on the cover of the album.
13)It was thought to be the foult of the make-up (a zombie is supposed to look pale) and the lights that were used,althogh there were a few that were skeptical.The sale-rating of the album was not affected by this.though…
14) My friend,Tutu, would start to look like Michael.Or better yet,like the Michael from the Bad cover.Something was not right here…
15)The Making of Michael Jackson’s Thriller ,the movie about the short-movie,that soled over 9 million copies,would close the path for the guys who soled “moving-pictures”-like-videos and would open the one for the guys for Guinness Book.
16) Ola Ray, Michael’s sweetheart from the Thriller video,was Miss June for the Playboy magazine,in 1980.In 1981,she played the role of a prostitute in the movie called (what do you know?!) Body and Soul,a remake of an oscar-winning 1948 film.
17) Michael’s real girlfrined was Brook Shields – just a teenager at that time,which will appear with Michael at the 1983 Grammy Awards.
18)Michael Jackson was nominated for 12 Grammies.He left from the award show holding Brooke with one hand,and 8 awards with the other.
19) One of the 8 awards was not for Thriller,though,but for Someone in the dark,produced by Quincy Jones for Spielberg’s 1982 “E.T:The Extra-Terestrial”,for The Best Recording for Children cattegorie
20) Thriller was like a magnet for records: 80 weeks in the Billboard 200 Top 10 (37 as # 1),the only album in history that was a best-seller 2 years in a row (1983-1984) and,of course,the best selling album in the world – 104 million copies soled.
21) In 2001, a Special Edition of the Thriller was released.This edition contained some great interviews with Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton,and a couple of amazing songs from wich were recorde in that period,but never made the album.
22) In 2006,Charlotte Church and Amy Winehouse song togheter Beat it at the end of the first series of The Charlotte Church Show.
23) 1500 inmates from a Filipino Prison remade the Thriller dance,wich was described by the Time as: “a great tribute for the Thriller”.By 7th february 2008,the video,which was uploaded on You Tube,already had 11.467.295 views.
24) On 30th of december 2007,Thriller, “the album that changed the face of music”, celebrated 25 years of existence,beeing 25 years younger than the guy that appears on the cover.
25)On 11th february 2008,Thriller 25,a special anniversary edition ,was released by Sony/BMG. The special anniversary edition has 7 bonus tracks: an amazing song,written in that periond,called For all time,the voice-over of Vincent Price and 5 remixes by artists such as Will.I.Am,Akon, Kanye West and Fergie
^_^
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