For the post-Super Bowl episode "Sue Sylvester's Super Bowl Shuffle," Michael Jackson's "Thriller" will be mashed up with the Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Heads Will Roll." Reportedly New Directions and the football team will be performing this on "Glee."
Michael Jackson released his sixth studio album "Thriller" in 1982 (30 November) by Epic Records. As a single, "Thriller" wasn't released until 23 January 1984 as the seventh and final single off of that album. It would later appear on compilation albums such as the 1994 "HIStory" and the 2003 "Number Ones" and the 2009 "Michael Jackson's This Is It."
Rod Temperton wrote the song and Quincy Jones produced. Horror-film favorite Vincent Price (1911-1993) supplied the voice-over. The video is 14 minutes--longer than the actual song, and features Ola Ray as the love interest. Set in the 1950s, the video was directed by John Landis who was the director on the ill-fated 1982 filming of the "Twilight Zone" movie (actor Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen were killed in a helicopter accident).
The music video "Thriller" was choreographed by Michael Peters who had worked with Jackson on "Beat It." The locations used were the Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, Union Pacific Avenue and South Calzona Street in East Los Angeles and the final house scene in the Angeleno Heights neighborhood at 1345 Carroll Avenue.
In 2009 it was selected for the National Film Registry the the Library of Congress. It won a Grammy in 1985 for Best Video, Long Form.
The video won three of the six awards it was nominated for at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards (Viewers Choice, Best Overall Performance and Best Choreography, but not Best Concept, Best Male Video or Best Video of the Year). The Cars won Video fo the Year for their "You Might Think." Other also rans were Herbie Hancock's "Rockit," Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and The Police's "Every Breath You Take." If ever there should have been a Kanye West moment in the past--this was it.
Best male video went to David Bowie for "China Girl." Also-rans include Hancock for "Rockit," Billy Joey for "Uptown Girl" and Lionel Richie for "All Night Long (All Night)."
Hancock won for Best Concept video. Also nominated were The Cars "You Might Think," "Thriller," Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and the Rolling Stones' "Undercover of the Night."
Of course, "Thriller" has inspired many, including the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center prison in the Philippines where the prisoners dance to "Thriller" in a video that went viral in 2007.
Lyrics:
It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes
You're paralyzed
'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight
You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun
You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination, girl!
But all the while you hear the creature creeping up behind
You're out of time
'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl
Thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight
Night creatures calling, the dead start to walk in their masquerade
There's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time
(They're open wide)
This is the end of your life
They're out to get you, there's demons closing in on every side
They will possess you unless you change that number on your dial
Now is the time 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
That this is thriller, thriller night
'Cause I can thrill you more than any ghost would ever dare try
Thriller, thriller night
So let me hold you tight and share a
Killer, diller, chiller, thriller here tonight
'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
Girl, I can thrill you more than any ghost would ever dare try
Thriller, thriller night
So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller, ow!
(I'm gonna thrill ya tonight)
Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'alls neighborhood
I'm gonna thrill ya tonight, ooh baby
I'm gonna thrill ya tonight, oh darlin'
Thriller night, baby, ooh!
The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller
For more Glee coverage, visit our Glee blog.
Comments
somebody needs to stop these talentless little freaks from ruining jacksons classic songs.
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