Every October it comes back around. The creeping beat, the howl, that laugh at the end. “Thriller” is the sound of Halloween for a lot of us.
So here’s something that might surprise you. The man who wrote it couldn’t stand the title at first.
His name was Rod Temperton, and he wrote the song for Michael Jackson’s 1982 album. Michael even recorded an early version of it. But that early version had a completely different name, and it was far gentler than the one we know.
Quincy Jones and his team liked the music right away. They just felt the title wasn’t strong or spooky enough to match what the song was becoming.
So Temperton went back to work. He tried a second name, “Midnight Man,” and Quincy told him that one was going in the right direction. Then Temperton landed on the word that stuck.
He hated it. He flat out called it a really bad word to sing, and said “it sounded terrible!”
Hear the early version, back when it had a softer name
This is the demo, and it’s a real treat. Michael is singing the same tune you know by heart, but the words and the title are different. Fans waited 40 years to hear it, until it was finally released on the “Thriller 40” set in 2022.
What changed Temperton’s mind about that title he disliked so much?
Michael did. Temperton said the word only started to work once Michael stepped up to the microphone and spat it out a few times. In Michael’s voice it stopped sounding silly and started sounding dangerous.
That first, softer name was “Starlight.” Hard to imagine kids dancing to “Starlight” in their costumes every October, isn’t it.
Once you’ve heard the gentle demo, go back to the real thing and feel the difference.
The song the way the whole world came to know it
Watch how much bigger it all is. The short film, the famous moves, that voice selling every word of a title its own writer once wanted to throw out.
Funny how the thing he almost tossed became one of the most famous song titles ever written.