Tomorrow is Halloween, and you can bet you’ll hear it at least once. The song builds, the beat keeps rolling and then, near the very end, comes that deep, creepy laugh.
That laugh belongs to Vincent Price.
If you never sat through the old monster movies, Price was one of the most famous horror actors in Hollywood. On Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” he speaks a spooky poem near the end of the song and then lets loose with the laugh that still gives people goosebumps.
How he landed on the record is a sweet little story. Quincy Jones, the legendary producer who made “Thriller” with Michael, was married at the time to actress Peggy Lipton. She suggested her friend Vincent Price for the part. He came in and recorded it in just two takes.
Here’s the official video, so you can hear his part near the end.
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” with Vincent Price’s voice and laugh
Price was in his 70s when he did “Thriller,” and the song brought him a whole new generation of fans.
His daughter, Victoria Price, talked about him with Fox News Digital in 2024. She said her father was often busy working at Halloween.
But some years he got the night off to take her trick-or-treating.
And he didn’t hang back on the sidewalk like most dads.
“My girlfriends and I would run up eagerly to get the candy, and my dad would come along,” Victoria said.
Then the man behind all those scary movies did exactly what you’d hope he’d do.
“And he would jump out and scare the owners, so he had fun with that,” she said.
That means some lucky neighbors opened the door to a bunch of little girls in costumes and got a fright from Vincent Price himself. They got a better show than anyone else on the block.
Victoria says the record made her dad live on, because it kept introducing him to new fans. “So, in that sense, it was fantastic,” she said.
Price even did his part live on television. In 1987 he performed it on “The Tonight Show,” and you can see the old horror master deliver it himself.
Vincent Price performs his “Thriller” part live on TV in 1987
It’s easy to forget that the laugh comes from a real person with a real family. Victoria’s memories bring that side of him back: the dad who liked a good scare on his night off.
She thinks plenty of kids will keep discovering him the same way. She pictures some kid hearing that laugh and asking, “Who did that laugh?” and then going off to learn all about him.
So when the song comes on tomorrow night, you’ll know a little more about the man laughing at the end. “As long as there’s Halloween, there’ll be ‘Thriller,'” Victoria said.