Entertainment

MAN IN THE MOONWALK

THE MUSIC BIZ has always traded in outlandish superlatives – every popular album is proclaimed a “classic,” every decent songsmith a “genius.” But somehow even the grandest claims can’t do justice to the impact and universal appeal of Michael Jackson’s 1982 masterwork “Thriller.” From late 1982 through to 1987’s release of “Bad,” there was no corner of the world cloistered enough to avoid the onslaught of “Thriller” and the ephemera – spangled gloves, moonwalking kids, red leather jackets – that it spawned while becoming the best-selling album in history.

“That’s when, if you weren’t a Michael fan, you became a Michael fan,” says soul crooner Pharrell in a video teaser commemorating the album and touting Sony’s new 25th anniversary edition, due out Feb. 12. The new package will feature the original nine tracks, remixes by the likes of will.i.am and Kanye West, a bonus DVD and more.

Remembering “Thriller” asks us to think about Jackson as he was before his court cases, weird marriages and financial problems. It’s also a chance to recall him when he still had most of his nose. But mostly it’s a great excuse to relive a record filled with groundbreaking sounds and grooves that have kept dance floors filled for decades. Not to mention the videos that changed the way the music business works. Here’s how Jackson created his masterpiece and turned the whole world into his fan base.

THE STAR

It’s easy to forget that Michael Jackson was a star for well over a decade by the time “Thriller” came out on Nov. 30, 1982. He and his brothers had scored huge hits with “ABC” and “I Want You Back,” and 1979’s “Off the Wall” set a record by making Jackson the first solo artist ever to spawn four Top 10 hits from one album. But 25-year-old Jackson was still living with his parents in Encino, Calif., where he’d spend a few hours a week walking door to door, talking to neighbors about God’s word. And to think people slammed doors in his face.

THE SOUND

Wisely, Jackson reconvened the “Off The Wall” team to create his new album, a core of talent that producer Quincy Jones called his “Killer Q Posse.” Englishman Rod Temperton had written “Rock With You” and he now co-wrote several new numbers for “Thriller,” including the title cut. With the help of superband Toto, Temperton helped Jones sort through almost 600 songs before settling on the final lineup.

The painstaking preparations paid off, as the actual sessions covered “a little more than two months . . . like riding a rocket” as Quincy Jones put it in his 2002 autobiography, “Q.” Anyone who remembers the ’80s pop as a kitschscape of gated drums and synth pads might want to dust off their copy of “Thriller.” It’s alive and fresh – still bright with the sparks of that rocket ride.

Most of Jackson’s tunes were neither funk nor rock. It was Thriller Music, an amalgam of styles so familiar in the wake of the album that it’s impossible to convey how different it sounded when new. Its biggest difference, of course, was that it blurred color lines.

THE GUEST STARS

While Jones, Temperton and the members of Toto who helped craft the album were themselves big names among music fans, part of what made “Thriller” such a cultural sensation was Jackson’s then-unusual penchant for involving celebrity “guest stars” in his music.

Paul McCartney, who had composed “Girlfriend” for “Off The Wall,” was one of the few entertainers who understood the enormous fame Jackson enjoyed, and there seems to be a genuine warmth to their corny exchanges on “The Girl Is Mine” – before Jackson poisoned the relationship by buying the Beatles’ publishing catalog out from under Sir Paul.

But in the early ’80s, far more surprising than a guest Beatle was Eddie Van Halen’s solo on “Beat It,” the song that Jones and Jackson wanted to have a rock feel. Van Halen was the reigning guitar god of heavy metal, and his band’s videos were in constant rotation on MTV (then, notoriously, unwilling to feature “black music” until serious pressure from CBS records broke that barrier once and for all with the video for “Billie Jean”). Later “strange bedfellows” collaborations – such as Aerosmith with Run-DMC or Public Enemy with Anthrax – made news of their own. But Eddie’s shredding on Michael’s tune was a genuine breakthrough.

“Thriller’s” real wild-card participant, though, was actor Vincent Price, who came aboard to . . . rap. Of course! If Price’s contribution seemed goofy when the album first debuted (had served in a similar capacity on Alice Cooper’s 1975 album “Welcome to my Nightmare”), it seemed perfectly natural by the time John Landis directed the album’s title-track video (see related story).

THE SUPER-SELLING SINGLE

The mere mention of “Billie Jean” to music executives can inspire transports of rapture – memories of a time when record-store cash registers rang like the very bells of heaven. The second hit single from “Thriller” astounded everyone upon its release, particularly after the far more modest pleasures of “The Girl Is Mine.” Hit-hungry teens and hipster critics alike instantly succumbed to the song’s long, insinuating intro and anguished emotionality.

Famously, the song was inspired by a true incident involving a crazed fan who insisted that Jackson, upon whose property she trespassed, somehow fathered one of her twins. Yes, read that again. Given the probability that such weirdness had surrounded Jackson’s life since the age of 5, it’s easy to understand the paranoia crackling through “Billie Jean.” But the lyrics also indicate that Jackson, while firmly denying paternity, seemed content to invite the interpretation that he did indeed “dance… on the floor… in the round” with an adult female.

THE MOVES

The way he tilted his hat, punctuated moves by balancing on his toes, thrust his pelvis forward and effortlessly drifted across the floor – “Thriller” was as much about Michael’s moves than it was his sound.

“It was the first time we saw [him] dance as Michael, not as the Jackson Five, but as Michael,” says Mary J. Blige on the new release’s video teaser. “Oh god, it was electrifying.”

He was both smooth and robotic at the same time, a makeup-less mime whose movements seemed to echo the dizzying heights of his falsetto sound.

“He would watch tapes of gazelles and cheetahs and panthers to imitate the natural grace of their movements. He wanted to be the best of everything – to take it all in,” Jones wrote in “Q.”

The album also spawned the infamous “moonwalk,” a move Jackson may have defined but did not invent. He first showed off the backwards-moving footwork during his March 1983 performance of “Billie Jean” on the “Motown 25” TV special, but several dancers had already beat him to what was then known as the backsliding.

In 1981, Electric Boogaloos member Timothy “Popin Pete” Solomon “moonwalked” in the Talking Heads video “Crosseyed and Painless,” and Jeffrey Daniel of Shalamar performed a version on “Top of the Pops” in 1982.

But once Jackson’s feet – in those black loafers and white socks – backslid across the stage, the world was hooked. Street dancers brought their boomboxes to the sidewalks, attempting to mimic the move. Grade-school kids used recess to practice in school playgrounds. Even the most uncoordinated, no-rhythm fools found themselves boogieing backward behind closed doors.

From contemporary artists such as Justin Timberlake and Chris Brown, to Filipino prisoners in orange jumpsuits and bridesmaids in taffeta gowns, Jackson’s moves continue to be influential on all types of movers and shakers.

THE FASHION

No one could explain why he wore it. Sure, they wondered. But no one really cared. As soon as Jackson started wearing that white rhinestone glove on his right hand during that infamous appearance on “Motown 25,” fans followed suit. How many, exactly, we can’t possibly guess. But the number of gloves discarded so that youngsters could wear only one, just like Michael, are informally reported “in, like, the high jillions.”

And it didn’t stop there.

“The red jacket in ‘Beat It’ – I don’t think you could walk down the street and see a kid that didn’t have that. I mean, I had one,” says Blige.

Whether you were a beat-boxing badass from the ‘hood or a stylish mom from suburbia, you wanted to dress like Michael Jackson. From the flood pants and white socks, to the zippered leather jacket and Jheri curls, he was suave, but edgy; completely over-the-top, but yet still understated.

“It sold Michael Jackson 43 million records,” rapped Missy Elliott on her song “Work It.” “Shoot, everyone had a zipper jacket, and half these thugs had the glove to match, ya feel me?”

“It was more than a song, more than a music – it was a movement,” says Ne-Yo, who’s actually penning tracks for Jackson’s much-talked-about comeback album.

THE FUTURE

So here we are, 25 years after this massively successful release, wondering what has and will become of our revered Gloved God.

In the two decades since “Thriller,” Jackson has changed. For one, he’s practically white. His nose can almost be plucked from his face. And fans have been exposed to a very odd and questionable private life, which included the highly controversial child-molestation charges brought against him. But while many music lovers have found it hard to divorce the man from his music, his impact on popular music is undeniable. And whenever he releases this comeback album, the fans will, well, come back.

“Whether he’s 90 years old and moonwalking at 1 mph,” says Pharrell, “the world will be right there to watch.”