23 January: Thriller

On this date in 1984, Michael Jackson’s Thriller single was released. 10 things you might not know about it:

1. Thriller is a disco-funk song set in the key of C# minor, with a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute.

2. It was written by the English songwriter Rod Temperton, who had previously written Rock with You and Off the Wall for Michael Jackson Temperton wrote the lyrics within "a couple of hours". He wrote Vincent Price’s bit in the taxi on the way to the studio for the recording session.

3. When Temperton started writing the song, he called it Starlight, Starlight Love or Starlight Sun. Quincy Jones didn’t like the title title, so Temperton came up with Midnight Man. Then he got a better idea, and the rest is history.

4. Thriller was the last of seven US Top 10 hits from the Thriller album. It wasn’t originally going to be released as a single, because Epic Records saw it as a novelty song.

5. The video was directed by John Landis and premiered on MTV on December 2, 1983. In the video, Jackson becomes a zombie and performs a dance routine with a horde of the undead. It was the first music video to be inducted into the National Film Registry.

6. The words at the end were spoken by Vincent Price, who managed to record his part in two takes. However, despite Thriller being one of the best selling records of all time, Price as paid less than $1000 for his contribution, and when he tried to raise this with Michael Jackson, the singer refused to take his calls.

7. Price's rap includes the line "Must stand and face the hounds of hell." This was inspired by the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

8. Jackson, who was a Jehovah's Witness at the time, insisted on a disclaimer at the beginning of the video reading: "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult."

9. The album and video versions differ. On the album, the song begins with a series of spooky sound effects.

10. In 2008, it reached #35 in the UK after 1,227 people gathered in Nottingham on Halloween to perform the dance dressed as zombies. It has been a staple of the UK charts at Halloween ever since.