{^Off the Wall} was a massive success, spawning four Top Ten hits (two of them number ones), but nothing could have prepared {$Michael Jackson} for {^Thriller}. Nobody could have prepared anybody for the success of {^Thriller}, since the magnitude of its success was simply unimaginable -- an album that sold 40 million copies in its initial chart run, with seven of its nine tracks reaching the Top Ten (for the record, the terrific {&"Baby Be Mine"} and the pretty good ballad {&"The Lady in My Life"} are not like the others). This was a record that had something for everybody, building on the basic blueprint of {^Off the Wall} by adding harder {\funk}, {\hard rock}, softer {\ballads}, and smoother {\soul} -- expanding the approach to have something for every audience. That alone would have given the album a good shot at a huge audience, but it also arrived precisely when {@MTV} was reaching its ascendancy, and {$Jackson} helped the network by being not just its first superstar, but first black star as much as the network helped him. This all would have made it a success (and its success, in turn, served as a new standard for success), but it stayed on the charts, turning out singles, for nearly two years because it was really, really good. True, it wasn't as tight as {^Off the Wall} -- and the ridiculous, late-night house-of-horrors title track is the prime culprit, arriving in the middle of the record and sucking out its momentum -- but those one or two cuts don't detract from a phenomenal set of music. It's calculated, to be sure, but the chutzpah of those calculations (before this, nobody would even have thought to bring in {\metal} virtuoso {$Eddie Van Halen} to play on a {\disco} cut) is outdone by their success. This is where a song as gentle and lovely as {&"Human Nature"} coexists comfortably with the tough, scared {&"Beat It,"} the sweet schmaltz of the {$Paul McCartney} duet {&"The Girl Is Mine,"} and the frizzy {\funk} of {&"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)."} And, although this is an undeniably fun record, the paranoia is already creeping in, manifesting itself in the record's two best songs: {&"Billie Jean,"} where a woman claims {$Michael} is the father of her child, and the delirious {&"Wanna Be Startin' Something,"} the freshest {\funk} on the album, but the most claustrophobic, scariest track {$Jackson} ever recorded. These give the record its anchor and are part of the reason why the record is more than just a phenomenon. The other reason, of course, is that much of this is just simply great music. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide