Thriller

This is a new, unplayed Stereo/Stereo promo copy, in its original Epic factory sleeve. This special promo for Epic 04364, at 5:11, is still an edited version of the 5:57 album cut, but it's much longer than the 3:56 retail version, as it's marked "With Rap" — meaning that it includes the memorable Vincent Price "rap" that the retail release leaves out. This is probably the perfect edit, since it also leaves off about a minute of unnecessary repetition and over-long fade-out. Note: This promo 45 record has a touch of "bubbling" on the labels, so we're grading the labels Near Mint, while sticking with Mint as the overall grade (because it's new and previously unplayed) and has pristine Mint wax and audio.

On a trivia note, this single was the last from Jackson's classic Thriller album. Although his followup album, Bad, had more #1 hits (5 versus 2), Thriller had more 45 rpm releases. In fact, it probably broke some kind of record for the number of singles generated by an LP to date. Guess how many there were?\r\n

If you guessed Seven, you get a gold star! :-) And here they are:\r\n

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1. The Girl Is Mine (with Paul McCartney), November 1982 (#2p)\r\n
2. Billy Jean, January 1983 (#1p)\r\n
3. Beat It, February 1983 (#1p)\r\n
4. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', May 1983 (#5p)\r\n
5. Human Nature, July 1983 (#7p)\r\n
6. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), October 1983 (#10p)\r\n
7. Thriller, February 1984 (#4p)\r\n

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And all 7 were top 10 hits on the Bilozoard Hot 100 chart. \r\n

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As a side�but related�note, just as the singles from Thriller dried up, Bruce Springsteen began another run of seven 45s from a single album with Born In The U.S.A. But that's a story for another entry...\r\n