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Speaker 1: Crazy and LEAs. It's the story behind the album.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think that's the first thing that set Thriller apart,

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Speaker 2: wasn't it the Vincent Price Medge?

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Speaker 3: Definitely.

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Speaker 2: Thriller is the sixth studio album by Michael Jackson, released

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Speaker 2: on November twenty nine, so just a a couple of

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Speaker 2: days ago, back in nineteen eighty two, by Epic Records.

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Speaker 2: It was produced by Quincy Jones, who'd previously worked with

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Speaker 2: Jackson on his nineteen seventy nine album Off the Wall.

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Speaker 4: When you were in the studio doing it, were there

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Speaker 4: any moments where you thought, here, since you have any

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Speaker 4: idea what impact that album was going to have.

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Speaker 1: I don't think of it like that. I think about

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Speaker 1: what touches me. You know. I've never in my life

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Speaker 1: ever done music for money or fame, never and never

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Speaker 1: will because God walks out of the room now and

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Speaker 1: it's not secret anymore, and it is sacred, you know,

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Speaker 1: because to me, melody is God's voice. Is clothed by lyrics,

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Speaker 1: but melody is God's voice. That's the power.

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Speaker 4: But I always wonder, so when you did the playback

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Speaker 4: for Billy Jean, or for any of the songs on

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Speaker 4: there was there a moment where you said to yourself,

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Speaker 4: we've done something different special.

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Speaker 1: No, but that was the whole plan in the beginning. Man,

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Speaker 1: when you go through eight hundred songs to get nine,

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Speaker 1: that's not casual. You know, I'm actually aiming for.

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Speaker 3: It's so cool? Is a Quincy the que love him.

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Speaker 5: We often talk about entertainment, and especially we talked about

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Speaker 5: movies and stuff and someone missed out on a role

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Speaker 5: and whatever. I found that. We found that stuff quite fascinating.

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Speaker 5: It happens with songs on albums as well. He's Quincy

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Speaker 5: Giants talking to David Letterman.

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Speaker 6: When you get down to the final cut, do you

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Speaker 6: ever take a song off and replace it with another

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Speaker 6: one and then save that song and then later give

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Speaker 6: it to somebody else and it does well.

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Speaker 2: That's happened on my thriller.

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Speaker 5: We had four songs on there and had all the songs.

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Speaker 1: Finish, took four off and replaced it with pyt and

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Speaker 1: beat it and uh, human nature.

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Speaker 3: What became of the four he took off? Some other

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Speaker 3: people require it. And what happened was it was it

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Speaker 3: was okay. You know, it wasn't so you knew what

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Speaker 3: you were doing, and we just got lucky.

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Speaker 1: No no, no, no no no.

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Speaker 3: May I think those hits, they were all hit singles.

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Speaker 2: Wouldn't be drawn on who he gave it to him?

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Speaker 5: What I was, that's right, obviously El de Barge or

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Speaker 5: someone maybe.

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Speaker 2: Thriller spent a record thirty seven non consecutive weeks at

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Speaker 2: number one on Billboard. Seven singles were released, The Girl

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Speaker 2: is Mine, Billy Jean, Beat It, Want to Be, Starting

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Speaker 2: Something two, Quincy just mentioned Human Nature and PYT Pretty

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Speaker 2: Young Thing, and of course Thriller. They all reached the

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Speaker 2: top ten, with beat It and Billy Jean reaching number one.

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Speaker 2: Following Jackson's performance of Billy Jean in the Motown twenty

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Speaker 2: five television special where he debuted his signature Moonwalk Dance,

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Speaker 2: the album began selling one million copies per week. And

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Speaker 2: after he debuted that said signature moonwalk dance, you know who.

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Speaker 3: Called him someone pretty famous, Fred Asta Unreal.

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Speaker 7: The next day after the show, when Fred Astaire car

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Speaker 7: in my house, he said, if I saw the show

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Speaker 7: last night, I taped it, I wastted it twice this morning,

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Speaker 7: and he said, you were incredible. You're a hell of

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Speaker 7: a mover and you really put them on there. He said,

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Speaker 7: and I said, God, thank you, so wonderful for you

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Speaker 7: to say it, because I think you're the best. And

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Speaker 7: that was my real reward because I think he's brilliant.

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Speaker 3: Imagine having as a d having fred A Stair ring you,

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Speaker 3: fred A.

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Speaker 2: Staire who Dad's Wow heat wave things like that, called

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Speaker 2: you to tell you you went or right with your moves.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Fred Astaire.

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Speaker 5: If you google fred to Stare dancing in nineteen seventy one,

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Speaker 5: ninety seventy I think was the Oscars.

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Speaker 3: He's still great, but it still had it.

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Speaker 5: Amazing and we talk about the actual movie they made,

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Speaker 5: because it wasn't just a video for Thriller was at.

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Speaker 2: Least no and I remember I remember watching it when

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Speaker 2: it was released and it was a.

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Speaker 3: Huge lead up the beginning.

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Speaker 2: It was a big deal. Nothing like this had ever

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Speaker 2: been done before.

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Speaker 5: I remember being at Eagle One nightclub the night they played,

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Speaker 5: my first time in Northbridge and just looking at people's

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Speaker 5: vi just with him mouths up into watching this incredible thing.

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Speaker 5: And he's MTV's Matt Goodman talking about how big Thriller

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Speaker 5: was at the time.

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Speaker 6: What a piece of work, Thriller A long time coming.

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Speaker 6: Michael Jackson's Thriller, the piece written by John Landis, the director,

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Speaker 6: and also by Michael Jackson. Now John Landis, she probably

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Speaker 6: remembers the guy who directed things like Animal House, who

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Speaker 6: was also responsible for An American Werewolf in London. Landis,

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Speaker 6: Michael and George Fawlsey Junior produced the short music film.

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Speaker 6: It's being shown in selected movie theaters. It was shown

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Speaker 6: last week so that it'll be eligible for this year's

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Speaker 6: Academy Awards. Hey, we might have an Academy Award winner

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Speaker 6: on our show. The makeup effects which were substantial. I've

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Speaker 6: been watching those effects just over and over. The makeup

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Speaker 6: effects created by Rick Baker. He was the guy who

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Speaker 6: won on Oscar for an American Werewolf. Choreography designed by

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Speaker 6: Michael Jackson and Michael Peters, the Tony Award winning choreographer

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Speaker 6: of dream Girls. Michael Peters also the guy who did

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Speaker 6: the dance sequences for Beat It, Michael Jackson's Beat It.

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Speaker 6: The only place on TV you can see Thriller is

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Speaker 6: here on MTV, and we are proud of it. It

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Speaker 6: is more than just a video with the short film

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Speaker 6: and quite a piece of our Michael Jackson and John Landers.

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Speaker 6: We're real happy to have it here.

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Speaker 2: Well, I loved American Werewolf in London and the Landers

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Speaker 2: connection was clear, wasn't it?

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Speaker 3: Scrimp and Bell?

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Speaker 2: His face in American Rewolf deteriorated throughout the movie.

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Speaker 3: It was very similar.

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Speaker 2: Thriller remains the best selling album of all time, having

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Speaker 2: sold an estimated seventy million copies worldwide, won a record

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Speaker 2: breaking eight Grammy Awards the nineteen eighty four Grammy Awards,

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Speaker 2: including Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Beat.

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Speaker 2: It won two Grammys for Record of the Year and

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Speaker 2: Best Rock Vocal Performance, and Billy Jean won two Grammys

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Speaker 2: for Best R and B Vocal Performance. He touched all

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Speaker 2: the categories. Take that bet. Best Rhythm and Blues Song

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Speaker 2: was the other one. Thriller is frequently included in lists

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Speaker 2: of the greatest albums of all time. In two thousand

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Speaker 2: and eight, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of

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Speaker 2: Fame and the Library of Congress in the US additor

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Speaker 2: to the National Recording Registry of Culturally, historically or Aesthetically

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Speaker 2: Significant Recordings. And this is my call again talking about

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Speaker 2: how talking about the continued success of Thriller.

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Speaker 8: Then till I get a platinum album. It's never been

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Speaker 8: taken lately on my VF. I'm always honored and it's

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Speaker 8: great thanks. You know, I'm very happy that the public

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Speaker 8: enjoy what I do and I'll continue to put my

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Speaker 8: heart into my work.

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Speaker 5: Really did go to the stratosphere, didn't it, Because off

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Speaker 5: the what was a big album for him?

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Speaker 3: It was next level.

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Speaker 2: But as you know, as we just touched on then,

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Speaker 2: it was so much bigger than just a Hesma new album.

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Speaker 2: It was a moment and those of us that do

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Speaker 2: remember watching that Thriller, it was a bit like when

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Speaker 2: Live Aid was on.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it was the time in the world, point in

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Speaker 5: time when there was no doubt he was the biggest

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Speaker 5: star in music on the planet.

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Speaker 3: Was that absolutely.

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Speaker 5: And the freaky thing that Quincy said earlier, that bit

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Speaker 5: we heard where he said, you know, p y t

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Speaker 5: in Human Nature and beat It were not originally on

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Speaker 5: the album.

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Speaker 2: Replaced imagine beat It being on the album.

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Speaker 5: Credible. Well, let's get beaten. The story behind the album.

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Speaker 5: Michael Jackson Thriller