Thriller is the sixth studio album by the American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson , released on November 29, , by Epic Records. Jackson wanted to create an album where "every song was a killer".
Paul McCartney is the first credited appearance of a featured artist on a Jackson album. Upon its release, Thriller was lauded by critics. Pretty Young Thing ", and " Thriller ". They all reached the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot chart, setting a record for the most top 10 singles from an album , with "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" reaching number one. Following Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" in the Motown 25 television special, where he debuted his signature moonwalk dance, the album began selling one million copies per week.
By , Thriller had sold 32 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling album of all time. It was the best-selling album of worldwide, and in became the first to become the best-selling in the United States for two years. It set industry standards, with its songs, music videos, and promotional strategies influencing artists, record labels, producers, marketers and choreographers. The success gave Jackson an unprecedented level of cultural significance for a black American , breaking racial barriers in popular music, earning him regular airplay on MTV and leading to a meeting with US President Ronald Reagan at the White House.
Thriller was among the first albums to use music videos as promotional tools; the videos for "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Thriller" are credited for transforming music videos into a serious art form. Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, having sold an estimated 70 million copies worldwide. Thriller is frequently included in lists of the greatest albums of all time and continues to be recognized as an important event in American culture.
In , it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant recordings".
