Match the song title: Thriller

 

People don't listen to albums anymore.

I've heard that more than once over the last few years. It makes sense, I guess. With everyone's attention spans evaporating and the advent of stuff like Tik Tok, it's not a surprise that we're all hooked on the need for speed. No one has time to lie on their bed and let an LP wash over them. Or they don't think they do.

I fall into that camp, too. Albums once were the objective when it came to music. I saved my money, walking into the record store was a religious experience, almost overwhelming. I worked in a department store in the mall in the mid-1980s. The record store was three stores away. I made many, many trips and bought many albums. Some bad decisions there, and some great ones, too.

 

This was ritual and that ritual lasted decades until the record stores closed and I changed my habits amid ipods shuffling and services streaming. I now have to force myself almost to listen to a whole album at once. In 2022, I finally succeeded, listening to 70-plus albums released that year.

That took a lot out of me, I don't know if I can do that again this year (I'm on 8, so far). Plus, there are all the old actual vinyl albums in my collection from 40-plus years ago, plus all those CDs that still need more listens. (And, good gosh, cassettes. I have nothing to play those now).

I love those old albums. Many of them are older than I want to believe. For example, Michael Jackson's Thriller is 40 years old.

Released in late 1982, this album was the soundtrack to my senior year in high school (that's right, my 40th HS reunion is this year). "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" played at the senior dance. Then, after graduation, I got that job at the department store. I worked in the mens/boys department, which was across from the Home Entertainment section. More than a year after the album's release, the video for "Thriller" played on a loop across from where I worked for months.

MJ was everywhere. I had never seen an album encapsulate the public like that one. Probably haven't since. In the store, we sold Michael Jackson jackets and gloves (but I don't know if anyone ever bought any). It's even difficult for me to believe that everyone living today didn't experience that in '83-'84. The album was that pervasive. Virtually every song on it takes me to a particular place in time, and I never even bought the thing.

 

My wife bought it though, before I knew her, and it's in with all the other albums in our collection, some in my card room (that's where the turntable is) and some in the attic.

 

This album broke so many boundaries at the time, made Michael Jackson an icon and influenced music for decades. It's time for me to show some respect for that album, never one of my favorites, but still a titan of all-time, something people who weren't even born at the time probably know by heart.

 

Join me in Match the Song Title, where I try to find a card to go with every song.

 

Let's start something:

 

Match the Song Title: "Thriller," Michael Jackson

 

 Track 1: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'

This post is going to document exactly how much we were slaves to the radio back then. Since I never bought the album, I heard the songs as they came on the radio, or periodically on MTV (my family didn't have cable at the time). "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin" was the fourth song released, in the summer of 1983 and that's what I think of when I hear it -- particularly that time between the end of high school and the start of college.

Rickey Henderson was the first thought for this song, and this card was the first thought after that. It's Rickey. He wants to start something.

 

 

Track 2: Baby Be Mine

 

One of just two songs on the album that were not released as singles. I can barely recall what it sounds like because of that.

 

John Baby is displaying the uniform of the short-lived Cleveland Barons (the fact I remember the California Golden Seals, who existed before the Barons, and don't recall the Barons is totally attributed to what I had in hockey cards as a kid). Baby played for two years in the NHL. I'd like this card to be mine.

Track 3: The Girl Is Mine

I do understand why this was the first single released from the album -- Paul McCartney is on it -- but how was this first? With the hits on this album, "The Girl Is Mine" is just about at the bottom. Cringy song, even then. McCartney was bridging the racial divide at the time with this song and "Ebony and Ivory" with Stevie Wonder earlier, but neither are great even if both were big hits. I enjoy "Say Say Say" a little bit more.

 

TCDB tells me I have three Paul McCartney cards. I had no idea.

 

 

Track 4: Thriller (yeah, I linked to the 13-and-a-half minute version)

Iconic song, even more iconic video. Introduced a whole new generation to Vincent Price. The video was an E-vent. But it was insanely overplayed until ghouls dancing in time didn't even register anymore for me. As a youngster, I didn't have much of a clue that MJ might be a bit of an oddball, but this song sealed it, and is also exceptionally cool.

Will The Thrill is a natural for this song, but I don't like the guy at all so here's a card where you can't see much of his annoying face.

 

 

Track 5: Beat It

OK, for those of you who bought albums back in the day or are doing it now amid the vinyl resurgence, this is the first song on Side 2. Again, as a radio listener, this song was the third single released and the song, along with the video, is what made me sit up and take notice. Mixing R&B with RNR (i.e. Eddie Van Halen) was unheard of at the time. So out of the box and then everyone started copying it like crazy. ... Plus, the song led to Eat It.

This card is from the J2 Classic Rock set from a few years ago. I still need to get more of these cards.

 

 

Track 6: Billie Jean

"Beat It" was my favorite song from the album then, "Billie Jean" is my favorite now. Distinctively funky and insanely catchy, the song signaled that Thriller was more than a hit album. The video was played repeatedly on MTV. I knew the song would be No. 1 on the pop charts and I remember actively rooting for it to replace the No. 1 song at the time ("Baby Come To Me").

I have zero Billie Jean King cards. I need to do something about that, too.

Track 7: Human Nature

If you're a youngster and know "Human Nature," it might be because it's been sampled abundantly by rap artists. This song was released around the same time as "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". MJ was wearing on me a little by now -- it's been four singles already and now a fifth? But the song is a nice change of pace.

Nothing is more human nature in baseball than making an error. Showing it on the player's own baseball card? Well, that's human cruelty.

Track 8: P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)

The song that brought "tenderoni" to the mainstream. On a normal album, this song probably would not have been released and been relegated to a "back of the album" track. But not Thriller. P.Y.T. was the sixth single released and it made the Top 10 as well.

In 2018, Topps High Tek released an insert set called "PyroTEKnics," because that's how it's spelled. The card "number" on the back starts with a PYT prefix. I wonder if the Jackson estate knows this?

Track 9: The Lady In My Life

Thriller ends with a quiet fizzle as this song was never released and there have been several times where I stopped the record after PYT. It's a long, slow jam number. Just not my thing then.

But it does give me the opportunity to make a Lady Byng reference, first with the glorious trophy card, and also with this Masterpieces card that I somehow didn't know existed:

It's THE Lady Byng!

And that's where the needle comes off the record.

The last time I wrote a post on this series, I threatened to showcase an album that many people don't know, and then instead I go with one that everybody knows.

So who knows what will happen the next time?