How Quincy Jones Helped Michael Jackson Craft the Smash 'Thriller' — and How the Epic Music Video Almost Didn't Happen

Mar. 15, 2025

Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones at the 1994 Grammys.Photo:Chris Walter/WireImage

Chris Walter/WireImage

It’s impossible to name the definitive work ofQuincy Jones, the multi-disciplinary maestrowho diedon Nov. 3 after helping shape nearly every artistic medium for more than 60 years. But one that first leaps to mind is likely “Thriller,“Michael Jackson’s spooky funk-pop smash that served as the title track to the most commercially successful album in history. Like Jones himself, who produced the record, the perennial Halloween anthem was a multi-media affair, encompassing music, film, television, dance and fashion.

1. From the start, the album was designed to be a crossover smash

Michael Jackson first rose to fame in the early ‘70s as the pint-sized frontman of Motown’s Jackson 5. But Jackson became a bonafide superstar with his first solo album for Epic Records,Off the Wall,for which he enlisted Quincy Jones as producer. Upon the record’s release in 1979, Epic made the then-unusual move of promoting it simultaneously to pop and R&B markets, which helpedOff the Wallbecome an enormous crossover success.

After that, Jackson and Jones aimed to go bigger. “The impetus was to have every song be a hit,” Larry Williams, who played saxophone, flute and synths on the album,toldThe New York Postin 2022.“That was the mandate.”

Speaking toRolling Stonein 2009, Jones admitted that creating a record with this goal required far more than just the two of them. “Michael didn’t createThriller. It takes a team to make an album. He wrote four songs, and he sang his ass off, but he didn’t conceive it – that’s not how an album works.”

The secret MVP of the entireThrillerproject is Rod Temperton — who is such a relentlessly low-key guy that both a biography and a BBC documentary about his career were titledThe Invisible Man. A musical kid growing up in Lincolnshire, England, Temperton eventually joined a multiracial disco-funk band called Heatwave on keyboards and started contributing originals. His biggest hits for the band, “Boogie Nights” and the ballad “Always and Forever,” were both million-sellers and helped break the band in America, which is how he came to the attention of Quincy Jones.

Michael Jackson in 1983.Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty

Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty

As they grew acquainted, Temperton quickly honed in on Jackson’s love of movies, which ultimately inspired the title track. “I came up with the idea that I should write something really theatrical,“he toldM Magazinein 2012. “I’d been really impressed with Michael’s participation in the rhythm section when recording [theOff the Wallsong] ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,’ so I wanted to write something with the same power, but a really dramatic melody structure.”

4. An early version of the song was called ‘Starlight’

The song’s lyrics and title went through a few iterations. “Originally, when I did my ‘Thriller’ demo, I called it ‘Starlight,’ ”Temperton toldThe Telegraph. “Quincy said to me, ‘You managed to come up with a title for the last album, see what you can do for this album.’ I said, ‘Oh great,’ so I went back to the hotel, wrote two or three hundred titles, and came up with the titleMidnight Man. The next morning, I woke up, and I just said this word … Something in my head just said, this is the title. You could visualize it on the top of the Billboard charts. You could see the merchandising for this one word, how it jumped off the page asThriller.”

Filling out the ranks of the “Thriller” personnel is a group of known Quincy Jones collaborators: Greg Phillinganes on synths and Fender Rhodes, David Williams on guitar, with Jerry Hey, Gary Grant, Larry Williams and Bill Reichenbach on various horns. Brian Banks, whoalsoplayed synths, pegged one interesting source of inspiration for the song’s arrangement.

“It was late in the evening one night when we were working, and Quincy came to us,” he recalled toThe Telegraph. “He wanted this huge chord sequence — he said, ‘There’s this sound that I’ve got in my head, there’s this underground, this new artist, that nobody’s ever really heard of but he’s great, he’s hot, he’s got this great song.’ And he pulled out the album and it was Prince,1999. And you know the opening sound on that? Duh-da da, Dur-duh-duh? Well that was the sound — that big, bitey chord sound at the opening of ‘1999’ — he wanted that, but bigger, for ‘Thriller.’ "

So began one of the fiercest musical rivalries of the ‘80s, as Prince and Jackson spent the remainder of the decade duking it out in the studio and in the charts.

6. Jackson did most of the wolf howls himself

The album came together in a scant two months – at a cost. Recorded at Westlake Recording Studios in LA, its budget was $750,000 — which is nearly $2.4 million in 2025 dollars. The entire production team worked around the clock. “They would carry the second engineers out on stretchers,” Jones said — with a touch of hyperbole — in an interview with the BBC. “And the musicians too. Bruce and I … would stay up for 5 days, 5 nights. The passion drives you.”

Talking to MusicRadar,engineer Bruce Swedien explained that the wolf howls on “Thriller” were Rod Termperton’s idea. “At the time there was a Sherlock Holmes movie,The Hound of The Baskervilles, that had this huge dog — a Great Dane — in it that did some howling. Of course, I had that in my mind’s ear. I automatically thought ofmyGreat Dane who I figured ought to be in show business! So I tried to get him to do those howls and you know what? He never did it. We put him up in the barn at night to listen to the coyotes and I had my tape machine ready to record him. He was a fantastic dog, 200 pounds, his name was Max …  But you know who it is that is doing those wolf howls? That’s Michael Jackson. We had to get Michael to do it instead, but he did it so great. There’s some library stuff in there but Michael did those wolf howls.”

The sounds of the creaking doors required a surprising amount of trial and error for Swedien. “I went to Universal Studios in Hollywood, the movie lot, and rented two or three sound effects doors and brought them to Westlake and spent a whole day auditioning these doors and miked the hinges real close,” he continued. “That is a real door and I recorded that and added it on the track. Come to think of it, that might have been Michael doing those footsteps too, actually.”

7. Jackson recorded his vocals in the dark

8. Quincy Jones’ then-wife Peggy Lipton contacted Vincent Price — who regretted his involvement for the rest of his life

“I had always envisioned a talking section at the end,” Temperton said in an interview included on the CD reissue ofThriller, “but I didn’t really know what to do with it.” Originally he considered hiringElvira, Mistress of the Darkto do the voiceover at the closeout of “Thriller,” but her image was likely a little too overtly sexual for Jackson. The solution came when Jones’ wife Peggy Lipton — at the time best known as Julie fromThe Mod Squadbut later beloved as Norma fromTwin Peaks —revealed she knew the legendary horror movie actor Vincent Price.

“The idea was that [Price] would just talk some horror talk like he would deliver in his famous roles,” Temperton later said. “The night before the session, Quincy called and said, ‘I’m a bit scared. Perhaps you better write something for him.’ ” Temperton wrote one verse of the rap that closes the song while waiting for a taxi to the studio, and then two more verses during the ride. “Rod wrote this brilliant Edgar Allan Poe spiel,” said Jones. “And Vincent really understood it … Vincent did it in two takes.”

Vincent Price.Allied Artists/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Allied Artists/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Price was given the choice of a flat fee for his work on the track or a cut of the profits. Unfortunately for him, he chose a flat fee. This rankled Price after the song became a record-breaking hit. John Landis, who directed the “Thriller” video, toldThe Telegraph, “Vincent called me about a year later and he said, ‘Look, the kid made the most successful record of all time and I made less than $1,000 … Michael won’t take my calls … I’m very upset about it.'”

Price’s daughter Victoria elaborated on the feud in a 2018 biography she wrote about her father. “Word eventually trickled back to Michael Jackson that my father was upset about the money. One day I answered the door at my father’s house to find three members of Jackson’s entourage. They came bearing a gift — a letter of thanks from Jackson and a large frame containing a poster of the pop star and one gold and two platinum albums, all dedicated to Vincent.”

This didn’t mollify Price. He attempted to get paid for the usage of his voice in the music video, but there was a clause about video usage buried in his original contract, so he didn’t get any further money from that, either. At that point, Victoria wrote, “Vincent agitated to have the gold disc auctioned, with the proceeds to go to his gallery at East Los Angeles College.”

9. ‘Thriller’ wasn’t originally going to have a video, until Jackson got competitive with Madonna and Prince

It was DiLeo who first mentioned the idea of making a third video, and ultimately pressed Jackson to consider the album’s title track.

10. John Landis didn’t want to direct the ‘Thriller’ music video at first

Despite not really being a horror aficionado, Jackson had seenAn American Werewolf in London, John Landis’ groundbreaking horror comedy that featured Oscar-winning makeup from SFX icon Rick Baker. “[Michael] contacted me and asked me if I would make a video with him,” Landis toldThe Telegraph. “And I said ‘No,’ actually — because they were basically commercials, right? But he persisted and said, ‘No, no, no — I really wanna make it.’ So when I returned to L.A. I called Rick Baker, who had done the makeup effects forAmerican Werewolfand said, ‘Rick, Michael Jackson wants to become a monster.’ "

11. Jackson ended up footing most of the bill for the ‘Thriller’ video himself

Landis told Jackson that he didn’t want to direct a music video and instead wanted to think of the production as an actual short film, shot on 35 mm., with multiple locations, a show-stopping dance number and Baker’s makeup — to the tune of $900,000, or nearly $2.9 million in 2025 money. Landis recalled that when Jackson called CBS head Walter Yetnikoff with that figure, after CBS had dropped $250,000 for “Beat It,” Yetnikoff screamed so loudly that the director had to hold the phone away from his ear. “I’ve only heard three or four people swear like that in my life,”he later toldVanity Fair.When Landis hung up the phone, Jackson said calmly, “It’s okay, I’ll pay for it.”

12. The makeup designer insists that Jackson isnota werewolf

Michael Jackson in “Thriller”.Courtesy Epic

Although most assume Jackson transitions into a werewolf, Baker maintains that this isn’ttechnicallyaccurate. “We made him into more of a ‘werecat’ because I just didn’t want to do another werewolf,”he told Vulture in 2010. “At first I was thinking [it would be] almost like a black panther thing, but … I ended up putting a longer mane of hair on it and bigger ears.” The choice might have been one of necessity due to Jackson’s facial features — specifically his nose, which wouldn’t support more substantial prosthetics.

13. Jackson’s famous outfit was courtesy of Fred Astaire and John Landis’ wife

Jackson’s wardrobe was the work of Landis' wife, Deborah. Since the video would be shot at night with a relatively subdued palette, she toldVanity Fair, “I felt that red would really pop in front of the ghouls,” and elected to make both his jacket and jeans red to make Jackson appear taller. (“The shoulders of that jacket gave him some virility,” she added toThe Telegraph.) The socks and the shoes were his own, however. “He took that directly from Fred Astaire, who always wore soft leather loafers to dance in, and socks.” One of Jackson’s jackets wassold to a Texan gold tradernamed Milton Verret in 2011 for $1.8 million.

14. Jackson helped develop the ‘Thriller’ dance steps himself with the help of a mirror

Michael Jackson in ‘Thriller’.Alamy

InThe Making of ‘Thrillerfeature,Peters talks about Jackson’s virtuosic ability, remarking that in “Thriller” he dances in front of 18 professionals who’ve spent their lives training to achieve what Jackson seems to pick up in minutes. “Purely on rhythm,” Peters says. “I give him a rhythm of a step and he does it … you say, ‘This is the beat, dum de dah, dah, dah,’ and he does it. It’s really wonderful to watch, because it’s an innate gift; he’s a dancer in his soul.”

15. Jackson had a real-life affair with his love interest in the ‘Thriller’ video — but it ended badly

For Landis’I Was a Teenage Werewolf-inspired plot, they needed a love interest for Jackson. Ultimately they landed on Ola Ray, a formerPlayboyPlaymate, which caused some consternation from Jackson. “I auditioned a lot of girls and this girl Ola Ray … first of all, she was crazy for Michael,” Landis toldVanity Fair. “She had such a great smile. I didn’t know she was a Playmate. I said, ‘Michael, she’s a Playmate, but so what? She’s not a Playmate inthis.’ "

16. Creators went to great lengths to keep the video shoot a secret

The cinema scenes for the “Thriller” video were shot at the Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles; the zombie sequence at the junction of Union Pacific Avenue and South Calzona Street in East Los Angeles; and the final house scene at 1345 Carroll Avenue in the Angeleno Heights neighborhood of Echo Park. Marty Thomas, the video’s props assistant, recalled the secretive atmosphere around the shoot. “I remember we had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and not to tell anybody what we were filming — not to tell family or anything,” he toldThe Telegraph. “What they would do is print up maps to the location and leave them around, but they were false locations. Somebody from the press would sneak on set and steal these maps and they were just sort of locations of the shopping mall that’s closed, way way out in the Valley.”

The production didn’t need any gawkers, since the set was already packed with an unprecedented number of cast and crew. “We couldn’t believe it was just for one music video,” Thomas continued. “It was a small city everywhere we went. There was a lot of police, a lot of security. And Landis, he would let people who made it there get pretty close, but behind a barrier. They had third and fourth and fifth assistant directors handling the crowd, which would be in numbers of two, three to four hundred, who had figured out where to go or had heard from one of the film crew or whatever, there watching on the set.”

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

17. Jackson (reportedly) had his father escorted off the set

Joe Jackson in 2014.Mike Marsland/WireImage

Other, less fun visitors, included Jackson’s parents, Joseph and Katherine, which caused a minor stir.Landis toldVanity Fair: “Michael asked me to have Joe removed. He said, ‘Would you please ask my father to leave?’ So I go over to Mr. Jackson. ‘Mr. Jackson, I’m sorry, but can you please … ?’ ‘Who are you?’ ‘I’m John Landis. I’m directing this.’ ‘Well, I’m Joe Jackson. I do what I please.’ I said, ‘I’ll have to ask security to remove you if you don’t leave now.’ ” Landis told the mag he had a policeman escort Joe Jackson off the set, which Jackson, through his lawyer, denied.

18. Jackson nearly had the video shelved for religious reasons

As the project moved out of shooting and finished editing, Jackson’s religious beliefs nearly caused the entire project to be shelved. Two weeks before the premiere, the singer called his lawyer John Branca and ordered him to destroy the negative of “Thriller.” Representatives for the Jehovah’s Witnesses — of which Jackson was a devout practitioner —  had gotten wind of the project and, believing that it promoted demonology, told Jackson that they would excommunicate him if the video saw the light of day. Branca, wary of all the money they’d sunk into this, convinced Landis to remove the film canisters from the processing lab and locked them up in his office to prevent destruction.

Jackson apparently was struggling with some inner demons in this period. Shortly after he ordered the tapes destroyed, Landis received a call from the singer’s security chief informing him that Jackson had locked himself in his room for three days, refusing to eat. Landis immediately drove to his estate and kicked down the door. After a trip to the doctor, Jackson apologized to Landis for wanting to destroy the film. Landis then informed him that his order has been ignored. “I said, ‘Michael, I wouldn’t let it be destroyed,’ ” he recalled toVanity Fair. “He went, ‘Really? Because I think it’s really good.’ I go, ‘Michael, it’s great and you’re great.’ ”

Branca eventually resorted to fibbing to Jackson to preserve the work: He added toVanity Fair, “I said, ‘Mike, did you ever watch Bela Lugosi inDracula?’ He goes, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Do you know that he was a devout Christian?’ I was just making it up. And I said, ‘Did you ever notice there were, like, disclaimers on those movies?’ He goes, ‘No.’ ‘So, Michael, before we destroy this film, let’s put a disclaimer on it saying that this does not reflect the personal convictions of Michael Jackson.’ "

19. The ‘Thriller’ video had a star-studded premiere — where they played it twice

Sadly, like so many other things in Jackson’s life, “Thriller” was subsumed in the financial chaos of his fame. In January 2009, six months before the star’s death,John Landis and co-producer George Folsey filed suit against Michael Jacksonand his company Optimum Productions for breach of contract, alleging that they had not been paid their 50 percent of royalties in many years, and accusing Jackson of “fraudulent, malicious and oppressive conduct.”

20. The ‘Thriller’ video pushed the album to become the highest-seller in history

Originally the label planned for a Christmas 1982 release before pushing it into the following January to allow Jones and Jackson more time to tinker with the mixes. (There are famously 91 different mixes done of just “Billie Jean.”) But when the album leaked to radio and stations began playing multiple cuts, the label was forced to rush Thriller into stores on Nov. 30. The first single, “The Girl Is Mine” (featuring Paul McCartney), went to No. 2; then the label made the decision to go for broke and release “Beat It” while “Billie Jean” was stillalsoclimbing the charts.

Thrilleralso became something of an albatross around Jackson’s neck: He fully expected it to be a stepping stone to an even higher peak, rather than the top of the mountain. WhenBadcame out and sold 20 million copies, Jackson was disappointed. He would ultimately never match the commercial success ofThrilleragain.

source: people.com