Michael Jackson’s Thriller became the biggest-selling album of all time. According to producer Quincy Jones, however, it initially seemed like the record would be a resounding failure. They struggled to stick to their schedule and, when they finally listened to the finished album, it sounded terrible.
Jones said Jackson was so shocked and disappointed that he began to cry. Michael Jackson was shocked at how bad one album sounded on the first listen As Jackson and Jones worked on Thriller , they constantly found themselves behind schedule. “With two months to get Thriller done, we dug in and really hit it,” Jones wrote for the LA Times after Jackson’s death.
“Michael, Rod [Temperton], the great engineer Bruce Swedien and I had all spent so much time together by now that we had a shorthand, so moving quickly wasn’t a problem.” They managed to get it done on time, though. “We finished the album the morning we needed to deliver the reference copy,” he wrote.
“We had three studios going all night long. Michael in one putting final touches on ‘Billie Jean,’ Bruce in another, and Eddie Van Halen, who I brought in, in yet another recording his parts for ‘Beat It.’” When they finally sat down and listened to the finished product, Jones said they were all stunned.
It sounded so awful that Jackson began to cry. “We all gathered in Studio A to listen to the test pressing with this enormous anticipation,” Jones explained. “This was it, the eagerly antic.