Michael Jackson and Ola Ray "Thriller" music video still

Interestingly, Thriller might not have happened if the late director Sidney Lumet (1924–2011) did not request Jones to score the film adaptation ofThe Wiz (1978). It was on the set of The Wiz that Jackson garnered the confidence to ask Jones to produce his next solo album, what became the ten-million seller Off the Wall (1979).3 The professional and personal relationship that developed between the two experienced artists during The Wiz would be essential to the success of their future collaboration.

To address the significance of the unheralded contributors to studio recordings, Zak puts forth the notion of recordists, that is, those persons generally involved in the sound aesthetic of a recording. This group includes producers, musicians, sound engineers, and arrangers in addition to the artist and songwriter.4 From his many years in the recording industry Jones had assembled a team of recordists that included the "Q posse" and the "A Team." The former consisted of songwriter Rod "Worms" Temperton and engineer Bruce "Svensk" Swedien, and the latter included keyboardist Greg "Mouse" Phillinganes, trumpeter and arranger Jerry Hey, bassist Louis "Thunderthumbs" Johnson, drummer John "J.R." Johnson, and percussionist Paulinho DaCosta.5 Warming up with Off the Wall and following through with Thriller, these recordists added to Jones' and Jackson's vision and helped them realize it through their diverse backgrounds in multiple genres of music.

In an industry culture of "more" that demands an artist must improve on their previous successes, the sales of Off the Wall augmented the industry's expectations of the A-Team and of an artist still transitioning from child star to adult icon. In 1982, the financial situation at CBS Records, the parent company of Jackson's label Epic Records, was dire. The profits at the company had fallen to their lowest in eleven years and Epic was beginning to be perceived as CBS's black sheep.6 The pressure to produce industry shifting hits was intense and, like many top-down operations, the burden funneled down to the actual creators. Pressure from CBS to eclipse the success of Off the Wall, impelled Jones, Jackson, and the A-Team to make sure that every track was close to perfect, despite Jones' statements about the happenstance of music industry success.

"Thriller" did not lead the Billboard singles chart stampede from the album, in fact, it was the last single released to radio. The song was significant because it shares its name with the entire project and is arguably the most memorable track and video from the album, competing with "Billie Jean" and its visual companion of Jackson's moonwalk performance at the Motown 25 celebration. Therefore, imagining "Thriller" as anything else can be puzzling, even unfathomable. In crafting Jackson's anticipated follow-up to Off the Wall, though, nothing was left to chance and "Starlight" is the only demo that was radically changed for its final version. Recording began on 14 April 1982 at Westlake Studios in West Hollywood; at the time the project did not have a name. In an interview with engineer and A-Team member Bruce Swedien he described the scene:

When we first started Thriller, the first day at Westlake, we were all there and Quincy the producer walked in followed by me, Jackson, and Rod Temperton, and some other people. Quincy turned to us, and I'll never forget this, Quincy turned to us and said, "Ok guys, we are here to save the recording industry." Now that's a hell of a mandate.7

It was in the late summer of 1982 when CBS demanded that the album be completed within three months, in time for the holidays.8 Jones and Jackson's work on the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial soundtrack (1982) and their scouring of hundreds of demos submitted by songwriters delayed work on the album. When they reconvened, one of the nine demos chosen for the project was Temperton's "Starlight," a funky R&B/disco groove that featured lyrics about the need for starlight to illuminate the dark of the night for two lovers. Jackson recorded the demos at his home music studio.9 Then, as Temperton discussed in his commentary onThriller: Special Edition (2001):

At that point we kind of step back from it for a minute and had a listen to everything and realized that three or four of the cuts, not that they were bad, but were just not fitting in with the way the album appeared to be going. Right from the beginning Jackson had written "Billie Jean," and everybody knew that was going to be a cornerstone of the album. And the style of that and "Starting Something," which is another track that Jackson had written for it, plus what was to become "Thriller," were kind of giving the whole thing an edge and a direction that some of the other tracks didn't have, they seemed a little too poppy and too straightforward for where we appeared to be going.10

The edge they aspired to communicate through the album was intended to represent Jackson's unveiling as an adult recording artist, which was accomplished with the subject matter of "Billie Jean." When Jones asked Temperton to title the project following the formulation of the album's theme he initially chose Midnight Man out of two to three hundred titles.11 This title unequivocally communicated an image of Jackson as a man, a night owl, who inhabited a time and place inappropriate for little Michael in the Jackson 5 or even the twenty-year-old, afro-wearing Jackson from Off the Wall. In addition, with a similar temporal reference, Midnight Man now appears to have perhaps been Temperton's way of putting the premise of "Starlight" into context.

The title Midnight Man, though, did not last long. Remembering the renaming of the project, Swedien explains, "Rod woke up the next morning and the title was Thriller. He said he could visualize the merchandising for the music and all of that, and it just jumped off the pages as Thriller."12 In his comments given toTelegraph journalist Peter Lyle, Temperton infers that the project was renamed before the song was. Without the framing idea of the Midnight Man, the lyrical drama of Jackson seeking starlight now appears to have had no prospect of gaining traction with Jones. Swedien notes: "You know Rod played the ‘Starlight' thing for Quincy and Quincy said, ‘that isn't good enough, but the song and melody is great.' He didn't like the ‘Starlight' thing; he didn't think it was heavy duty enough."13

Changing the title of the album from a specific characterization of Jackson to a type of drama featuring ebbs and flows of sudden emotions and sensations demoted the subject matter of "Starlight." With a title conveying the theme of emotional excitement, Jones requested the macabre from Temperton. As to the matter whether it was Temperton's intent to write a horror themed song, Swedien remarked in our interview, "No, but I do remember the words ‘Edgar Allen Poe' going between Quincy and Rod. Quincy saying it should be more Edgar Allen Poe. And that ‘Starlight' isn't, ‘Thriller' is. ‘Thriller' is Edgar Allen Poe." For the album to attract as many consumers as possible, Jones required it balance several genres and subjects. Disco dominated the charts in the early eighties, and in a seldom-used practice at the time the R&B, pop, disco, rock, and funk radio formats commingled on Thriller. Furthermore, the subject matters of "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)," "Lady in My Life," "Beat It," and "Human Nature" are quite distinct from one another. "Starlight" needed to become "Thriller" to include another element of stylistic diversity to the album.

Jones had no issue with the groove or melody that Temperton produced. In listening, only the sound quality, the weaker performance of the synthesizer motifs, and the lack of sound effects differentiate the instrumentals for "Starlight" and "Thriller," which is understandable considering the former's demo status. It is the lyrics that transition the song to the horror genre but there is also an accompanying shift in the perspective of the character inhabited by Jackson's voice. The latter aspect was directly impacted by the move from Midnight Man to Thriller and gave the song its menacing aura that was deftly translated by John Landis into a music video. The use of the pronouns ‘we' and ‘us' in "Starlight" give insight into Temperton's original position of Jackson's character in the narrative of the song, conceivably as the midnight man. The fi rst verse of "Starlight" ends with "deep in the night, we're holding on to someone else's dream / girl can't you see." In this context, Jackson, as a character in the song, is a participant in the late night excursion and is also in dire need of escaping the impending threat. In contrast, at the same point in "Thriller" the lyrics are "you start to freeze, as horror looks you right between the eyes / you're paralyzed." The use of ‘you' and ‘you're' suggests that Jackson's character is a spectator to and possibly catalyst of the events of the night. A fascinating aspect of this shift is that Jackson goes from being represented as a heroic man to an omnipresent demon or ghoul. While the rest of the album fl eshed out Jackson's mature persona, this song puts an air of fi ction around Jackson, which, for better or worse, became more associated with his persona as his career developed.

The second verse of "Starlight" ends with "high in the night, this magic's gonna keep us close together, yeah / we'll start to fly, cause this is the beginning of your life / this is the night." Though this is not horror, there is a semblance of mysticism in "Starlight"; however, the narrative's connection to magic did not have the dramatic presence that the title Thriller was going to denote. Thus, in "Thriller" these lines became "you close your eyes, and hope that this is just imagination, girl / but all the while, you hear the creature creeping up behind / you're out of time." The mysticism and ambiguous peril is replaced with a tangible, close approaching threat. A similar dynamic is seen in the choruses, "there ain't no second chance we got to make it while we can" in "Starlight" became "and no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike." The bridges work the same way, but the one in "Starlight" does not lead into a third verse. Instead, Jackson just repeats the first verse. By the third verse of "Thriller," though, Jackson's character is prepared to intervene in the narrative: "now is the time for you and I to cuddle close together / all through the night I'll save you from the terror on the screen / I'll make you see." This deceptive shift in the intentions of Jackson's character is the main thematic message of the music video, which is settled in the last scene, revealing that Jackson is indeed presiding over the ghoulish activities. Even with "Starlight," Temperton envisioned the spoken word section made famous by Vincent Price, but it is missing from the demo. The place where Price's poetic recitation eventually resided was held by Jackson singing ad-libs in the same manner that he did in "Thriller."

Much thought went into the lyrics for "Thriller" and it paid off, as the song is ever relevant around Halloween. But does "Starlight" have a role in the lore of the Thriller album? Of course it does, and considering Sony Records' and Jackson enthusiasts' perceptions and dealings with "Starlight," a picture is revealed of a company attempting to conceal unpolished representations of their artist that have not been through their corporate fi lter and a section of the public thirsting for more from that artist. Demos and other unreleased recordings are not generally available to everyone. When they are, it is typically through an anniversary or enhanced special edition rerelease of a popular album. Thriller has had a special edition release in 2001 and a twenty-fifth anniversary release in 2008, with each release featuring demos and unreleased material. "Starlight," though, is absent from both and came into public view through unoffi cial channels. Bootleg collectors distribute music not previously released by a legitimate music label; this distinguishes them from people involved in piracy. In general, these collectors view the industry as a barrier to musical experience. Concurrently, the industry views the group as a threat to offi cial sales. But in reality, bootleg collectors are obsessive fans who give value to offi cial musical commodities through their patronage of live events, support of merchandising, and ability to bestow a cool mystique on artists.14

Although record company security can be notoriously lax, it took some time for the Thriller demos to reach the public through bootleg exchanges on the Internet. On 29 December 2008, the first YouTube video featuring "Starlight" was uploaded. Subsequently, several more videos with "Starlight" or "Thriller Demo" in the heading have appeared, but only two have over 13,000 hits and many are below 5,000 hits. "Starlight" never proved as popular as the offi cial "Thriller" video, which has received many millions of hits.

Major music companies go through much effort and marketing money to ensure that major artists are presented in a favorable way and framed through their discourse.15 As a result, outtakes and demo versions are deemed risky to constructed conceptions of pristine performance, steadfast decision-making, and narratives of music genius, creating the possibility of devaluing the earning power of an artist. A demo like "Starlight," however, is valuable because of its rarity from the standpoint that the industry's manipulations did not produce and disseminate it to the public, and it is actually the original conception Temperton had for his infectious groove.

While "Starlight" is interesting to hear, it can really disturb prior understandings of Jackson's career and image, a fact that I have come to know well after playing the song for friends, colleagues, and students who were confused about what they were hearing. "Starlight" did not and does not fit the product or artist that is Michael Jackson. But, as an artistic endeavor of Jackson, Jones, and the A-Team, it elucidates the calculated decisions made in the creation of commercial popular music and is evidence to the fact that hit making is not a flash in the pan that will illuminate every studio session.

—Patrick Rivers
CUNY Graduate Center

Notes

• 1 Quincy Jones, "Interview With Quincy Jones: About Thriller's Songs (Bonus Track)," Thriller: Special Edition, Epic 504422-2, 2001, compact disc.
• 2 Albin J. Zak III, The Poetics of Rock: Cutting Tracks, Making Records (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), xvi.
• 3 Quincy Jones, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 231.
• 4 Zak, The Poetics of Rock, 17.
• 5 Jones, "Interview With Quincy Jones: About Thriller's Songs (Bonus Track)."
• 6 Fredric Dannen, Hit Men (New York: Vintage Books, 1991), 226.
• 7 Bruce Swedien, interview with author, 21 June 2010.
• 8 Dannen, Hit Men, 227.
• 9 Swedien, interview with author.
• 10 Rod Temperton, "Interview With Rod Temperton: About "Carousel" (Bonus Track)," Thriller: Special Edition, Epic 504422-2, 2001, compact disc.
• 11 Peter Lyle, "Michael Jackson's Monster Smash," The Daily Telegraph, 25 No vember 2007, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3669538/Michael-Jacksons-mon ster-smash.html (accessed 10 May 2010).
• 12 Swedien, interview with author.
• 13 Ibid.
• 14 Lee Marshall, "For and Against the Record Industry: An Introduction to Bootleg Collectors and Tape Traders," Popular Music 22, no. 1 (January 2003): 57–72.
• 15 Antoine Hennion, "The Production of Success: An Anti-Musicology of the Pop Song," Popular Music 3 (1983): 159–93.