What's the best track on "Thriller"?

Voted for the title track. Pretty sure "Billie Jean" will win though.

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'

PYT!

I like songs with cartoon vocals.

Xgau OTM about how "Wanna Be Startin' Something" always starts something on the dance floor.

"you're a vegetable"

i always thought that was a misheard lyric, but no...

great tune anyway.

MAMASEMAMASAMAMAKOSA

My evil ex-boss thought they were singing "I want the same sound that Michael's got" there. Anyway, that song.

I voted for the most underrated instead: "Baby Be Mine."

LOL@"The Girl is Mine"

How in the HELL could anybody have thought he was singing "The chair is not my son"!?

Too Low To Get Under

went with PYT 'coz why not but of course it's really Billie Jean

How in the HELL could anybody have thought he was singing "The chair is not my son"!?

We were 4.

going with title track too, just for huge intro notes

YMO's "Behind the Mask"

IF YOU CAN'T FEED YOUR BABY
THEN DON'T HAVE A BABY
AND DON'T THINK MAYBE
IF YOU CAN'T FEED YOUR BABY

YOU'RE A VEGETABLE
YOU'RE A BUFFET

BEST OPENING TRACK EVER

MAMA SAY MAMA SAH MA MA KOO SAH

This is a no-brainer for me. Which is pretty amazing considering this is an album jam-packed with things I consider completely classic. "The Lady In My Life" is the only dud....well, that and "Billie Jean" but only because I've heard it ten thousand times.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Wanna Be" is stunning: A great dance track, a great production effort, one of the high points of pan-African music, and utterly unique and weird in a way that only a great artist surfing the Zeitgeist Pipeline could pull off. It's not only the best track on Thriller, it's the absolute high point of Michael Jackson's career.

Was between Startin' Something and PYT, I went with PYT.

human nature

"Billie Jean", not a risky choice I know

How in the HELL could anybody have thought he was singing "The chair is not my son"!?

-- Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, October 3, 2007 1:26 AM (6 days ago) Bookmark Link

Maybe the chair of a committee - the song could be about nepotism

human nature

btw this is the only acceptable answer that is not "Wanna Be Startin' Somthin'"

"The Girl Is Mine" is the only really unacceptable answer.

HI DERE YOUR PENCHANT FOR HYPERBOLE HAS GONE TOO FAR, IF ANY POLL HAS SEVERAL ACCEPTABLE ANSWERS THIS IS IT

'Beat It', although I could've gone for anything except 'The Girl Is Mine' and maybe the last song.

I think every song on this album is an acceptable answer. OK, maybe nok "The Girl Is Mine", but that one is way better than "Say Say Say" at least.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

For once, the lurkers didn't manage to beat the thread favourite. :)

Disappointing showing for my pick, I must say.

People who hate "The Lady In My Life" hate love.

THEY EAT OFF YOU
YOU'RE A BUFFET

yay poll winner

YAY

(Come on guys, there are a bunch of fantastic songs on this album that all follow one of the 100 greatest songs ever recorded.)

To be honest this is an album I'm both afraid to listen to again and also feel I NEED to listen to again (I'm certain I haven't since 1983) It's just cutting a little too hard into my memories of prepubescent adolescence or something for me to be totally comfortable with. Strangely enough, though when I visited St. Louis this past Spring/Summer, I heard it playing very loud in a park for awhile where a bunch of people were having a big gathering with kids. And just off the top of my head, before I've yet heard it in its entirety again (I really want to, believe it or not) I would vote for "Human Nature". If I change my mind later, I'll let you know.

i voted human nature. i'm quite sure thriller was the first album i heard in its entirety, it came out the day of my best friend's 5th birthday sleepover party, it hit the block like sound crack. i'm pretty sure i wouldn't have picked human nature back then.

i'm pretty sure i wouldn't have picked human nature back then.

Amen to that!

when I was little I couldn't believe that "Say Say Say" had been quarantined off onto "Pipes of Peace", i thought it a horrible, cruel trick

now I know better

"The Man" is the best song they wrote together though.

The Lady in My Life 0

songs that sample this cannot go wrong however

I'm simultaneously impressed that even Gier will admit that "The Girl Is Mine" is the worst song on Thriller, but unsurprised that he's also underrating "Say Say Say."

The title track is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite song on the album, shame it's kind of overshadowed by the other hits and even its own video.

"The Girl Is Mine" isn't bad at all though. No bad songs on "Thriller". "Say Say Say" is close to a bad song, but might have sounded better with Quincy Jones producing it. George Martin was the perfect guy for "The Man" though.

the "hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo"s in "Say Say Say" are fantastic actually. maybe seven-year-old me was right!

"the Girl is Mine" is insipid in comparison - no tautness, no tension, none of the things that make Michael Jackson great.

i have the title track on a red vinyl 45 and play it every chance i get.

Maybe the person who voted for "The Girl Is Mine" would step forward and defend it? ;)

justlookatmyfacethesetearsI'mcrying

TS: "The Girl is Mine" vs "Say Say Say"

"The Man"

Back in the day I would have picked "Beat It" or "Human Nature".

Is it too late for me to say that they all fuckin' suck?

It's never too late to make yourself look like a joyless tool, Alex.

Is it too late for me to say that they all fuckin' suck?

Well, it wasn't an option anyway, so I guess it's not too late. :)

Alex in NYC OTM

apparently hes taking paul mccartneys vocals off the girl is mine for the new remastered version.

...which probably still won't make it a listenable song.

paul always sounded odd on it but its a good song. there are no bad songs on thriller.

always thought thriller was a bit too over-edited in places. takes out some of the nautral flow of the material.

I voted for The Girl Is Mine. I'm sure if I listened to the album in a year I'd make a different choice, and in another year I'd pick something else instead, but at the moment I love that song. I've been listening to it a lot this year (as well as Just Good Friend - the best song on Bad?) which is perhaps because I'd disregarded it before. Anyway, not at all embaressed by my choice. I can quite understand that people wouldn't vote for it, but i do find the hating on it a little unfair.

i listened to a MJ hits collection over the holidays -- first time in years -- and oh man the songs from Thriller just sounded so perfect. I always loved Michael, up thru Bad anyway, but seriously thought I'd never want to hear the likes of "Billie Jean" again. rong. "Bad" itself is kinda silly tho: "Im really really bad." OK.

of course major suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy MJ at this late date.

so "billie jean" gets my belated symbolic voet

I heard Human Nature for the first time in many years about a month ago and found I couldn't stop playing over and over for awhile. Truly a beautiful song.

Indeed.

Baby Be Mine after "Wanna Be Starting Something"

So the relationship between Paul and Michael is worse than ever?

But then, wouldn't it just make perfect sense to have them bitching on a track?

Well, there is no point remastering "Thriller" once more either, as no new technology has arrived since the last remaster. And I have to say I really dislike the kind of revisionism it is when something that once was on a classic album is taken off it. I have never quite forgiven them for removing the spoken bit at the start of "I Just Can't Stop Loving You". Yes, it was weird. Extremely weird. But it was there - it belongs in the album. It is part of history, like it or not.

I wouldn't have liked Beach Boys to take "Student Demonstration" time off "Surf's Up" either, or Simon & Garfunkel to take "Voices Of Old People" off "Bookends".

Are we sure McCartney's being taken off the original disc, and not just the new version with will.i.am or whoever on disc 2?

Boring results

Why? "I Wanna Be Startin' Something" on top isn't exactly in agreement with the Canon. There, it'll be "Billie Jean" ahead of "Beat It" and "Thriller".

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/47370-jackson-reissues-ithrilleri-with-kanye-william-akon

i heard the remixes.

jesus.

they are all so awful.

why must MJ let idiots remix some of his best material?

or why must his stupid label think no one will care unless its remixed by kanye and will i fucking am?

No need to call them "idiots" but yeah, this entire project is unnecessary.

i like kanye as a rapper/producer (although i am tired of him at this point) but theres no need for him - or anyone - to be remixing billie jean. so if i say 'idiots', its just because the remixes arent good at all.

Baby Be Mine got robbed. I wouldn't have voted it for best, but it certainly shouldn't be tied with the godawful "The Girl is Mine".

I love Human Nature...funny that essentially, Toto wrote that even though as musicians they were credited individually.

HI DERE YOUR PENCHANT FOR HYPERBOLE HAS GONE TOO FAR, IF ANY POLL HAS SEVERAL ACCEPTABLE ANSWERS THIS IS IT

― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, October 9, 2007 8:41 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Baby Be Mine got robbed.

Yeah, it's a quintessential track 2 track.