Michael Jackson – Thriller

The Dog That Wouldn’t Howl And The Rap Written In A Taxi

Released as a single on January 23, 1984, “Thriller” peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the seventh consecutive top ten hit from the album of the same name. Epic Records initially refused to release it as a single, with executive Walter Yetnikoff asking who would want a single about monsters. Jackson proved them wrong spectacularly. The song hit number one in France, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium, and is now certified Diamond in the United States with over ten million copies sold.

The single arrived after the Thriller album had already dominated charts for over a year, but Jackson wanted more. He was obsessive about sales figures and watched as the album slipped from its number one position. His manager Frank DiLeo suggested releasing the title track with a groundbreaking new video to push sales back up. The strategy worked beyond anyone’s imagination, doubling the album’s sales and helping Thriller become the best-selling album in history with over 70 million copies sold worldwide.

Rod Temperton, the English songwriter from Grimsby who had already written “Rock with You” and “Off the Wall” for Jackson, originally titled the song “Starlight.” Producer Quincy Jones wanted something more mysterious to match Jackson’s evolving persona. Temperton considered “Midnight Man” before landing on “Thriller,” though he initially thought it was a terrible word to sing. Once the title was settled, he wrote the lyrics in just a couple of hours. For the ending, Temperton envisioned a spoken-word sequence but had no idea what form it should take until Jones’s wife Peggy Lipton suggested her friend Vincent Price.

Engineer Bruce Swedien recorded the track at Westlake Recording Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles over eight weeks in 1982. He had Jackson record vocals in complete darkness because the singer hated light, capturing different approaches at varying distances from the microphone. Some backing vocals were recorded in the studio’s shower stall for a unique ambience. When Temperton’s arrangement called for wolf howls, Swedien placed his 200-pound Great Dane named Max in a barn overnight with tape recorders running, hoping the coyotes outside would inspire him. Max never howled once. He simply didn’t want to be in show business. So Jackson stepped in and recorded those iconic howls himself.

Vincent Price arrived at the studio never having worn headphones before and jumped out of his chair in surprise when he heard the funky track. Temperton had written his spoken-word part in a taxi on the way to the session that very day. Price nailed it in just two or three takes. Jones praised his work as fabulous, noting that voice-over recording is notoriously difficult. Price was offered either $20,000 or a percentage of album royalties, and he chose the flat fee. With over 70 million albums sold, that decision cost him a fortune, though Price always laughed about it graciously in interviews.

The song appeared on Thriller, Jackson’s sixth studio album, which spawned an unprecedented seven top ten singles. The album spent 37 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 and won eight Grammy Awards. Every Halloween, the song returns to the charts as new generations discover it. The Weeknd interpolated it in his 2025 single “Wake Me Up” with Justice, proving the song’s influence spans four decades and counting.

What makes “Thriller” endure is that collision of meticulous craft and happy accidents. A songwriter scribbling horror poetry in a Los Angeles taxi. A 72-year-old horror icon discovering headphones for the first time. A Great Dane who refused to perform. And Michael Jackson, standing alone in a darkened studio, howling at imaginary moons. Sometimes the greatest records come together through chaos that somehow sounds inevitable.