“Thriller” shoots up the chart, making this the sixth consecutive decade in which Jackson has scored at least one top 10 hit.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Two different holidays collide on this week’s Billboard charts as Michael Jackson sets an all-time record. NPR’s Stephen Thompson has the story.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: Before the streaming era, holidays didn’t usually affect Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. You’d get an occasional seasonal novelty hit, but for the most part, December’s charts didn’t look much different from the charts in, say, March. Streaming has changed that in a big way. The December charts are wall-to-wall Christmas, July 4 brings a chart surge for patriotic music, and Halloween streaming has made chart perennials out of old hits by the likes of Rockwell, Bobby “Boris” Pickett and Ray Parker Jr.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “GHOSTBUSTERS”)
RAY PARKER JR: (Singing) If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, who you gon’ call? Ghostbusters.
THOMPSON: The biggest beneficiary of this Halloween surge has been the estate of Michael Jackson. His song “Thriller” has become a staple of spooky playlists, and this week, it zooms all the way back up to No. 10 more than 40 years after its release.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THRILLER”)
MICHAEL JACKSON: (Singing) So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller.
THOMPSON: Despite many listeners’ complicated relationship with Jackson, “Thriller” has returned to the charts many times over the years. But its return to the Top 10 has triggered a major milestone. Michael Jackson is now the only artist in history to score a Top 10 hit in six separate decades, and he’s done it in seven decades if you count his work in The Jackson 5. “I Want You Back” first hit the Top 10 in the very last chart of the 1960s.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I WANT YOU BACK”)
THE JACKSON 5: (Singing) Oh, baby, give me one more chance to show you that I love you. Won’t you please let me back in your heart?
THOMPSON: By this time next week, “Thriller” will have likely fallen out of the Top 10. After all, we’re well into November, which means that spooky season is fully behind us. But there’s something even scarier lurking in the depths of this week’s Hot 100. A different old song re-enters this week’s chart at No. 31. Terrifying us all by arriving earlier than ever, it’s Mariah Carey with “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THRILLER”)
VINCENT PRICE: (Rapping) The foulest stench is in the air. The funk of 40,000 years.
THOMPSON: Stephen Thompson, NPR Music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THRILLER”)
PRICE: (Rapping) From every tomb…
JACKSON: (Singing) I’m gonna thrill you tonight.
PRICE: (Rapping) Are closing in…
JACKSON: (Singing) Ooh, baby.
PRICE: (Rapping) …To seal your doom.
JACKSON: (Singing) Oh, yeah.
PRICE: (Rapping) And though you fight…
JACKSON: (Singing) Ooh.
PRICE: (Rapping) …To stay alive…
JACKSON: (Singing) I’m gonna thrill you tonight.
PRICE: (Rapping) …Your body starts to shiver.
JACKSON: (Singing) I’m gonna thrill you tonight.
PRICE: (Rapping) For no mere mortal can resist…
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