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View Full Version : The song "Thriller" was originally titled "Starlight Sun" & was written by this dude


RobMoney$
07-02-2009, 05:22 PM
Starlight Sun (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSvLUV8rzR8)

Pic of Rod Temperton (http://srv0204-06.sjc3.imeem.com/g/p/85145d23758d6b6b37246ec28a1c2fba_web.gif)


Michael Jackson: How Rod Temperton invented Thriller

The songwriter behind Thriller, Michael Jackson's most successful album, is a man from Cleethorpes called Rod Temperton.

He came up with the title Thriller after being asked to work on the album by Quincy Jones, the American music producer.

Originally Temperton had called it Starlight but Jones asked him to come up with another title.

"I went back to the hotel, wrote two or three hundred titles and came up with Midnight Man."

"The next morning I woke up and I just said this word. Something in my head just said, 'This is the title'.

"You could visualise it at the top of the Billboard charts. You could see the merchandising for this one word, how it jumped off the page as 'Thriller'."

Thriller has sold an estimated 109 million copies worldwide.

Jones had got it touch after hearing Boogie Nights, which Temperton had written as the debut single for Heatwave, a disco band he joined after spotting a local newspaper advertisement.

At the time he joined Heatwave, Temperton had been working in a much less glamourous industry - in the Ross Foods frozen fish factory in Grimsby, Lincs.

Now 61, Temperton has made himself rich by writing a string of hits not only for the King of Pop but also for other stars including Donna Summer, Mariah Carey and Mica Paris.

He lives on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, which boasts the actors George Clooney, Jack Nicholson and Bruce Willis as residents.

He also has homes in the South of France, Switzerland, Fiji, and a Kent.

Guy Incognito
07-02-2009, 05:41 PM
i knew he had written thriller but never knew he wrote boogie nights (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-V9P03APl4), class tune, didnt know he was british either(y)

kaiser soze
07-02-2009, 06:24 PM
it'd be awesome to have a cut of this version

damn Michael's producers for changing it....it would've been a hit!

RobMoney$
07-02-2009, 07:22 PM
I think the Thriller version sounded much better than the Starlight version.


However I do think the video makes much more sense with him singing for Starlight while being hunted by Zombies.

Lex Diamonds
07-02-2009, 09:10 PM
Yeah, that makes sense. Almost all groundbreaking music comes from British people.

b i o n i c
07-02-2009, 09:24 PM
everyone knows black people win at music

Bob
07-02-2009, 09:40 PM
or white people ripping off black people

b i o n i c
07-02-2009, 09:45 PM
its nice to see an asian girl ripping off the white man for once(y)

kaiser soze
07-03-2009, 07:50 AM
Here's a better version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3SUyAxtvlo&feature=related

This has to be on a Japanese b-side somewhere

ericlee
07-03-2009, 01:39 PM
its nice to see an asian girl ripping off the white man for once(y)

Because it's THLIRREL!! THLIRREL NIGHT!

mickill
07-03-2009, 03:21 PM
Thriller isn't exactly the best song or anything.

Guy Incognito
07-03-2009, 03:33 PM
Thriller isn't exactly the best song or anything.

"rod temperton now lives on mulholland drive and has houses in ..." i think thats what rob started this thread for, just to say hey this guy came from grimsby (the clue is in the name) and thriller played a big part in completely changing the guys life, and that it was called summat else. I dont think it was a critique on the tune.

However I do actually agree with you, i think its one of the weaker tracks on the album.

mickill
07-03-2009, 03:39 PM
Yeah, I was just sayin.

Guy Incognito
07-03-2009, 03:45 PM
Yeah, I was just sayin.

i know but rod temperton aint gonna lose any sleep in his solid gold house because mickill thinks thriller is a bit bobbins. i think its a nice story that some really obscure geezer is responsible for one of the biggest songs EVER. and yeah its more the video than the song that made it famous

mickill
07-03-2009, 03:55 PM
Rod Temperton wrote songs for Off The Wall too. He's actually pretty well known as a songwriter, largely for that reason. He's no Burt Bacharach, but he's not really that obscure.

Guy Incognito
07-03-2009, 04:04 PM
Rod Temperton wrote songs for Off The Wall too. He's actually pretty well known as a songwriter, largely for that reason. He's no Burt Bacharach, but he's not really that obscure.

well i meant that he worked in a food factory and wrote a song that quincy jones liked etc. from small acorns and all that, rags to riches.

RobMoney$
07-03-2009, 05:44 PM
Just though it was kind of strange to hear one of the most popular songs in my lifetime with different lyrics.
The song is what, 25 years old, and I've never heard of this version.


I had no idea Mickill was not fond of it.
I'll make sure to ask his approval before I make a thread discussing music again.

mickill
07-03-2009, 07:00 PM
Seems a bit dramatic, but if you think it'll help you.

Documad
07-03-2009, 07:18 PM
I hate that song. Always did. That album had a few good songs on it and that wasn't one of them.

I don't know why I know this guy. I used to study the liner notes on LPs in my youth, so that must have something to do with it.

I'll celebrate the guy for writing Love is in Control for Donna Summer. I loved that song when I was a kid.

b i o n i c
07-03-2009, 09:28 PM
Because iss THRIRRER!! THRIRRER NIGH!

haha(y)