3 things I had forgotten about "Thriller"

Watching a bit of puffery about Michael Jackson recently made me think about "Thriller," not an album I listen to all the way through today but one I sure as hell loved in the eighties. Hey, everybody loved it back in the eighties. In 2011, a few details about the classic stand
out, things which may not be well known today:

1) The album came out in 1982. That's right, 1982. Seeing this fact somehow surprises me every time because I can remember the LP being very much a big deal in my circles well into 1984. There are a few albums today that sustain interest and stay relevant for several years, but not to the extent of a "Thriller."

2) It only has 9 songs. That seems a bit thin, doesn't it? Especially when one of them is "The Lady in My Life," which I inexplicably told a grade-school buddy of mine I liked when he incredulously demanded clarification after I said I liked the whole album.

"Even the last one? That slow song at the end?"
[Me nodding my head]

Sure, the album has massive hits like "Beat It" and "Billie Jean," but it also counts among its 9 tracks that weak closer and another Rod Temperton-penned song (to be fair, the guy is the credited writer of the title track, too), "Baby Be Mine," that didn't tear up the world.

That's over 20% of the album as filler, and it leaves you with 7 notable cuts. Doesn't it seem odd today that such a memorable, long-lived album had "only" 9 songs total and 7 that people remember? I'm not denigrating "Thriller," mind you, but pointing out that my perception would be that such a huge album of that era had at least a dozen or so standout tunes out of, say, 15 songs in all.

3) The lead single was...: I totally forgot this one. You know what the first released single off "Thriller" was? It wasn't the title cut. "Billie Jean"? Nope. Nor was it "Beat It." I would have guessed "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'." I would have been wrong.

It was in fact the Jacko/McCartney duet "The Girl Is Mine," which "only" hit number two on the pop charts and doesn't hold up well today as much more than a novelty, partly because a concept that was tongue in cheek even then--Michael and Macca fighting over a woman--is downright surreal today.

Yet I do remember the ditty being much more significant at the time, though it was more a mainstay of lite-FM and MOR radio than it was a pioneering big-tent single like "Billie Jean." Compared to that hit and the energetic, vital "Beat It," "The Girl Is Mine" seems quaint today,
and it boggles the modern mind that it and not one of the other classics on the album became "Thriller's" debut single.

Perhaps the starpower of Paul McCartney made this song an irresistible lure for radio, perhaps Jacko himself really loved it--I don't know the reason for the strategy, but it does make one wonder how a song best known for Macca announcing he's a lover, not a fighter, became the
premiere single off the biggest pop album of all time.