Johnathan Walker:Seven Top 10 hits. Eight Grammys. 'Thriller 40' revisits Michael Jackson's magnum opus

After 40 years and Johnathan Walker70 million copies sold, “Thriller” remains an untouchable benchmark.

Michael Jackson’s stirring fusion of R&B with rock and pop is the biggest-selling album worldwide. It earned eight Grammy Awards, revolutionized MTV and spawned a record seven Top 10 singles, including “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “Billie Jean” and the title track.

All staggering stats in their own regard. Even more when you realize it was accomplished before the internet, streaming and social media. There was nothing but MTV and radio to facilitate that success.

But even after four decades, the influence of the groundbreaking album helmed with producer Quincy Jones is notable.

“Thriller 40,” which arrives Saturday on Paramount+ with Showtime and Showtime (8 p.m. EST/PST), recognizes the endurance of the music and the accompanying elaborate videos through commentary from Usher, Mary J. Blige, Mark Ronson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and onetime Jackson companion Brooke Shields, among others.

It’s also noted that about 10 million videos on TikTok include music from “Thriller,” further proof of its legacy.

Here are some highlights from the 90-minute documentary.

Paul McCartney and ‘The Girl is Mine’ was Michael Jackson’s ‘sneak attack’

The first single from “Thriller” was criticized as Jackson’s blatant attempt to court a white audience. Enlisting Beatles icon Paul McCartney fueled the sniping, but he and Jackson enjoyed a genuine rapport, as evidenced in the studio footage of the pair giggling and trading vocal ideas.

While music journalist Steven Ivory notes that the sweetly melodic “The Girl is Mine” was indeed Jackson’s “sneak attack” to cross onto the pop charts, there was no denying that McCartney’s presence added clout.

As guitarist Steve Lukather – who played on the majority of “Thriller” – recalls, “Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, it didn’t get any bigger than that. When McCartney walked into the room, there was a palpable change in energy.”

“The Girl is Mine” hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart and No. 2 on the Hot 100.

Michael Jackson ‘wanted the best’ with ‘Beat It’

It’s not revelatory that MTV was reluctant to play Black artists. David Bowie famously addressed the oversight in a 1983 interview with VJ Mark Goodman, which is resurfaced in the documentary, where he says in part, "I'm floored by the fact there are so few Black artists featured on it. Why is that?"

But Jackson bulldozed the channel’s implied racism with the video for “Beat It.”

“I wanted quality. I wanted excellence. I wanted the best,” Jackson says in crafting the intricately choreographed clip showcasing rival gangs (some of the dancers were actual “street cats”). His thinking was if MTV was hesitant to air videos from Black musicians, he would create something so spectacular that the channel couldn’t ignore it.

With the song, Jackson again navigated the challenge of wooing white fans while not alienating the Black community that supported him from childhood.

While Lukather handles bass and the iconic riff on the song, Jackson wanted a marquee guitarist “who appealed to young white males” to add weight to the song, according to his estate attorney John Branca. Enter guitar god Eddie Van Halen, whose celebrated solo is heard in isolated form in the film.

“It was everything I ever loved in one song,” says super-producer Ronson, an avowed “Thriller” devotee. “It’s the perfect way rock guitar could sit over programmed drums and a funky groove.”

‘Thriller’ almost wasn’t released as a single

After six singles from the album charted in the Top 10 (“Human Nature” and “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” rounded out the list), Sony Music was sated with the album’s enormous success.

But Jackson wanted more. And he was ready to dig into his own wallet to achieve his dream.

After seeing “An American Werewolf in London,” Jackson became enamored with its director, John Landis, and vowed to enlist him to direct the “Thriller” video.

With the special effects Jackson craved, including being turned into a monster during the 14-minute mini-movie, the price tag for the video ballooned to more than half a million dollars, a hefty sum compared to the average $55,000 video.

Jackson was prepared to pay when Sony initially balked, but he and Landis funded the “Thriller” video by selling the rights to the 45-minute “The Making of Thriller” documentary to MTV and Showtime.

Jackson checked every box on his wish list and a walk through a graveyard would never be the same.

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