Tomorrow, 2nd of July, musicblessing.blogspot.com celebrates one year of good music!
And what is a better way of celebrating but also through music. The best songs of all times and their meanings will be presented here in the next weeks. And that's not all: in August 2009, Woodstock '69 festival will be honoured on this blog.

Unfortunatelly, the first song posted in these celebration days is a commemorative one: Michael Jackson's Thriller, one of the most spectacular songs off all times, with one unforgatable video.

This is a rare Pop song with a horror theme. Halloween novelty songs like "The Monster Mash" had been around for a while, but this was the first hit song with year-round appeal containing lyrics about creatures of the night who terrify their victim. At the time, Michael Jackson was one of the least frightening people on Earth, so the video had to sell it. John Landis, who worked on the 1981 movie An American Werewolf In London, was brought in to direct. Landis had Jackson turn into a Werewolf in the video.

Vincent Price, an actor known for his work on horror films, did the narration at the end, including the evil laugh. Price's rap includes the line "Must stand and face the hounds of hell." This was inspired by the most popular Sherlock Holmes novel to date, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in which Sir Henry Baskerville's family is supposedly cursed by a bloodthirsty, demonic hound. Price's personal friends, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (who appeared in several Hammer horror films with him), starred in a loose 1959 film adaptation of it. It was the first Sherlock Holmes film shot in color.

The 14 minute video is one of the most popular ever. It started the trend of group dance scenes in pop videos, and was named the #1 video of all time in the VH1 100 Greatest Videos countdown.

Rod Temperton wrote this. Once a member of Disco group Heatwave, he also wrote Jackson's "Off The Wall" and "Rock With You." This won for Best Performance Video, Best Choreography, and Viewers Choice at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984.

Thriller was the biggest-selling album ever until it was surpassed by The Eagles Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975. Both albums have sold over 26 million copies. These days, along with Michael's recent death, Thriller became again the best selling album of all times. The song Thriller was the last of 7 US Top 10 hits from the album.

Jackson, a Jehova's Witness, insisted on a disclaimer at the beginning of the video reading: "Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult."

The UPC code on the album cover contained 7 digits that were rumored to be Jackson's telephone number. People with that number in many different area codes got swamped with annoying calls.

In 2008 Thriller 25, a special 25th anniversary edition of Thriller, was released. The re-recorded album debuted at #2 on the Top Comprehensive Albums chart, where catalog titles mix with current best-sellers. This made it the highest-charting catalog album in the history of the Top Comprehensive Albums survey. Despite selling 166,000 copies in its debut week, it was not eligible for the main album chart as Billboard considered it to be a catalog or oldies album, and Billboard publishes a special chart just for catalog albums. (source: Songfacts)

Few know that Thriller was very close to be named "Starlight love". Quincy Jones, the producer of the album, stated that they came across Thriller theme and they loved the ideea of a horror song and video.

Other songs of Michael Jacksons' and their meanings will follow on this blog so stay close.