Ranking: Songs from Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)

  In the U.S. Thriller is the biggest selling studio album ever.  Worldwide it's the best-selling album in history. Some prefer the more R&B/Disco tracks on Off The Wall.  But in 1982, my ears fell for the more Pop leaning sounds of Thriller.  After Off The Wall, Michael Jackson to make the biggest album ever.  Thriller covers a lot of bases.  Pop, R&B, Rock, Quiet Storm.  It's a compact 9 songs at 42 minutes.  This is the pre-CD era.  Before everyone put out 1 hour albums that dragged to the finish line.  7/9 of these songs hit the Hot 100 Top 10.  MJ also took advantage of the new music video era.  Even if MTV dragged its behind playing "Billie Jean"  and other videos by black artists.  3/7 of the singles had classic videos.  Those no doubt played a part in the album taking off sales wise.  

Overall these tracks weren't hard to rank:

1.  Billie Jean

2.  Beat It

3.  Wanna Be Startin' Something

4.  Human Nature

5.  Lady In My Life

6.  Thriller

7.  P.YT.  (Pretty Young Thing)

8.  The Girl Is Mine

9.  Baby Be Mine

For more on my thoughts about Thriller, check out the podcast I was a guest on last July about the 2023 documentary Thriller 40: