The best-selling album of all time is Michael Jackson‘s Thriller, so, of course, it is also the most successful album of his career. Success and greatness normally don’t typically go without some peculiarities, and as we are fully aware, Michael Jackson wasn’t necessarily the most normal of people. However, that is part of what makes Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson.
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During the creation of his all-time greatest album, there were certainly many peculiarities, but they weren’t all brought on by Jackson, as producer, Quincy Jones played a part as well. During the creation of the album, engineers, session musicians, and other personnel reportedly worked days on and without sleep, and as a result, some were allegedly carried out of the studio in s strecher due to exhaustion.
Why Quincy Jones pushed the team so hard is because he followed this creative philosophy: “Leave space for God to walk through the room,” via Sound On Sound. Quincy, Jackson, and their peers followed this philosophy so that they could lean into the improvisational and spur-of-the-moment decisions that often came after working on end. While that seemingly worked, this constant work also started a literal fire in the studio.
Michael Jackson’s Voice Didn’t Literally Blow a Speaker
After the death of Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones wrote a piece for the LA Times commemorating his friend and partner. One of the highlights of that article is Jones taking readers behind the scenes of the creation of Thriller.
Recalling the experience, Jones wrote, “The drama surrounding Thriller seemed to never end.” “With two months to get Thriller done, we dug in and really hit it. Michael, Rod, the great engineer Bruce Swedien and I had all spent so much time together by now that we had a shorthand, so moving quickly wasn’t a problem.”
“Rod also brought in ‘Thriller’ and Michael sang his heart out on it,” he added. “At one point during the session, the right speaker burst into flames. How’s that for a sign?” A sign indeed, a sign that the team had put all of their effort and energy into this one project, and surely, they were happy with the result.
Following the release of Thriller, the 1982 album landed at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and remained there for 37-consecutive weeks. Furthermore, the album has seven singles that reach the top 10, two of which hit No. 1. Needless to say, the album is one of the greatest of all time, and it seems Jackson and Jones were shooting for that goal.
Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage
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