Judging the two songs on vocal quality, musicianship, lyrics, and video, which one is the winner?
Vocal quality: Both are peak adult MJ. Tie.
Musicianship: I prefer the harder beat and guitar work of Thriller.
Lyrics: Thriller teaches us to run away when faced with an ass-whooping. I think that’s better than a song about watching a scary movie on TV.
Video: Although the Beat It video was ground breaking, featured rival gangs, and MJ danced like nobody’s business, the Thriller video set a bar so high that nothing could touch it. IIRC, it was the most expensive video ever at the time.
I don’t bother listening to either of them anymore, UNLESS Thriller is up to the Vincent Price part, because Vincent was The Man.
However, Beat It is likely the better song. Check Eddie and that guitar solo!
I remember sitting in a P/X in Munich, Germany on pizza night and someone selected Weird Al’s “Eat It” on the jukebox in what must have been 1984. Good times. A lot of younger people just don’t realize how big Michael Jackson really was back then and what a great album Thriller was. There is only one really bad one was “The Girl is Mine,” his duet with Paul McCartney.
If I had to choose, I’m going to go with Beat It. Thriller is almost a novelty song I only hear in October these days. But if anyone chooses Thriller I’m not going to argue with them. It’s like when someone tells me they prefer Aliens to Alien. I get it.
It was only decades later that I finally listened to the whole album. I found it a disappointing experience, because I was already thoroughly familiar with all but two of the songs from when they were all over the radio in the album’s heyday, and those two new-to-me songs did nothing for me. Although it’s possible I didn’t give them a fair chance.
I don’t understand how you could be disappointed. Out of nine songs, there are six I still hear fairly regularly on the radio. The three I don’t hear includes “The Girl is Mine,” “Baby Be Mine,” and “The Lady in My Life.” Yes, I had to look up those other two, but I’m listening to Baby Be Mine right now and it’s fine. It’s no PYT but it still good.
Eddie inadvertently messed up the tracks. He did the solo at his studio and spliced the tape, which cut the SMPTE code on the tape. The tape had Michael’s final vocals on it as well. Quincy ended up calling Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro to fix it. They cut the bass, rhythm guitar and drum tracks, hearing nothing but Michael’s vocals and Eddie’s solo. You sure can’t tell from hearing it though.
My guitar teacher mentioned Van Halen once and I remarked that I didn’t like many of their songs. He said that neither did he but you had to listen to them anyway if you wanted to hear Eddie play, So,Beat It.
I like Steve Martin’s version of the Beat It video so much it overrides the real version. Hilarious. Thriller just sounds like it’s describing a movie trailer. So Beat It.