Last week we told you Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was in a race to be America’s most-played Halloween song on Spotify. The Halloween numbers are in now, and the finish was a lot closer than anyone expected.
This whole push started with Michael’s oldest son, Prince Jackson. He spent the weeks before Halloween asking fans to help his dad’s spookiest song finally get to the top. As big as “Thriller” is, the single only reached No. 4 back in 1984. It never got its No. 1.
Prince didn’t hide what he was after. He told KTLA, “we are trying to get my father another number one.”
He even gave fans a simple to-do list: “request the play from radio stations, buy the single, buy the vinyls.”
It’s sweet to hear a son talk about his father’s music this way.
So did the fans show up? They sure did.
On Spotify’s US chart, “Thriller” sat at No. 10 on Oct 29. A day later it had jumped all the way to No. 2, with 1,361,856 plays on Oct 30. During Halloween week it also reached No. 1 on Apple Music and iTunes in the US, the fan site MJVibe reported.
Then came Halloween itself. That was the day that really counted.
Our post last week named Tame Impala’s “Dracula” as the rival to watch. It never got close. “Dracula” finished No. 12 on Spotify’s US chart for Oct 31, with 1,071,751 plays.
The real fight was up at the top. “Ghostbusters” came within 3,678 plays of passing Michael for second place. “Thriller” hung on with 2,963,144 plays.
Before you find out what beat him, give yourself a few minutes with the song that started this whole race. Michael’s official channel now has it in a crisp 4K version, and it’s still a joy to watch him move.
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” short film in 4K
So which song finished No. 1 in America on Halloween?
It was “Monster Mash.”
Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s goofy novelty song came out in 1962. That’s about 20 years before “Thriller.” On Halloween it pulled in 3,057,422 plays on Spotify in the US, which put it roughly 94,000 plays ahead of Michael.
Close. But not quite enough.
If you haven’t heard the old monster dance tune in a while, here it is with the words right on the screen, so go ahead and sing along.
“Monster Mash” with the lyrics on screen
Don’t count Michael out yet, though. Every number here comes from Spotify. The Billboard Hot 100 is the race we wrote about last week, and it counts the whole Halloween week. That answer is expected next week.
So Prince and all the fans who answered his call still have a few more days to wait. We’ll bring you the Billboard result as soon as it’s out.