New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Sony
Music and the Estate of
Michael Jackson announced today that MICHAEL JACKSON THRILLER 40, a double CD set comprised of Michael's original masterpiece and an exciting bonus CD of rarities and demos, is available for Pre-Order starting today. The titles of the ten bonus tracks will be revealed one at a time, starting after Labor Day with the last track being revealed just before release date, November 18. Additionally, 15 additional tracks which have been in limited release previously will be available as part of an expanded digital release.
The release of MICHAEL JACKSON THRILLER 40 celebrates the 40th anniversary of the biggest selling album of all time worldwide. Pop up events and worldwide activations are planned to honor Michael's epic creation which won a record setting 8 Grammys, smashed musical barriers and changed the frontiers of pop music and music videos forever. Michael Jackson's Thriller has spent more than 500 weeks on the Billboard album chart and has sold over 100 million albums since its release on November 30, 1982.
Thriller holds a modern-day record of 37 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard. It was the first album in history to spend each of its first 80 weeks in the album chart's Top 10, a feat only reached by one other album in the nearly four decades since. During its 112thweek on Billboard's album chart, it became the first title ever to be certified RIAA 20X multi-Platinum (October 30, 1984) and became the first title ever to be certified more than RIAA 30X multi-Platinum in 2015 and since has been certified at 34x Multi-Platinum.
Worldwide, Thriller went to #1 in practically every country in the world, including the UK, France, Italy, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, South Africa, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa and remains the biggest selling album of all time with sales in excess of 100 million.
Seven tracks from the album became Top 10 singles, and three, "Beat It," "Billie Jean," and "Thriller," went to No. 1.
The music on Thriller was so singular for the time it defied any definition of rock, pop or soul that had gone before. "
Beat It" was a new kind of pop-rock hybrid and demolished the longstanding segregation between black and white music with Eddie Van Halen's incendiary guitar. On "The Girl Is Mine," two men, one white and one Black, banter about the same girl. On the same album were songs like the African-rooted "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" and the rhythm and blues-based "Billie Jean."
Michael set out to revolutionize how to tell a story and entertain on a grand scale through film but faced roadblocks. Despite the luscious cinematography, dramatic narrative and spectacular choreography of "Billie Jean," a fledgling MTV, which was programming white rock artists almost exclusively, refused to play it. Epic persisted. Once the wall came crashing down, MTV's ratings soared and a door was opened for generations of African American artists. "He was MTV's Jackie Robinson," said cultural critic Touré.
Next, came the unforgettable short film for "Beat It," which featured Michael bringing two gangs together through the power of music and dance. And then there was "Thriller." Premiered at the AVCO Theatre in Los Angeles in 1983, it sold out every night forthree weeks. No other music video before or since has generated such excitement and has such a hold on our attention, such that 40years later we all share it as a collective memory and it remains the only music video to be inducted into the elite
National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Music from Thriller and Michael's other hit albums is featured in the hit Las
Vegas show
Michael Jackson ONE, at the
Michael Jackson ONE Theater in Mandalay Bay Resorts and Casino and in the acclaimed Broadway musical MJ The Musical at the Neil
Simon Theatre in New York, which won four Tony Awards earlier this year. . Michael has sold more than 1 billion records and remains one of the top streaming artists in the world.
