At #10 on the latest Billboard Hot 100 chart is a song that first entered the chart 42 years earlier: Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller.’
This is an example of one of the exceptions to Billboard’s new Hot 100 rules, which allow a perennially popular track to return to the chart due to seasonal popularity. ‘Thriller’ has become a Halloween staple, popping onto the chart on an annual basis during spooky season.
The week of March 10, 1984, was a great one on the Billboard Hot 100.
In the top spot you had Van Halen’s ‘Jump,’ followed by Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.’ Rounding out the top three was Nena’s ’99 Luftballons,’ a rare hit not in the English language.
What a great mix of songs. What a great decade!
Today we throw back 40 years to the week of May 14, 1983, when a song called ‘Beat It’ by little-known pop singer Michael Jackson topped the Billboard Hot 100.
I was surprised to see I hadn’t featured ‘Beat It’ on the blog through 5,432 Songs of the Day. The closest I’ve come is a Random Weekend feature of ‘Beat It 2008,’ a bonus track on the 25th anniversary re-release of Thriller that remixed the song and added vocals by Fergie. Exhibit A of why Throwback Weekends are already better than Random Weekends.
My #2 album of 1982 may well have been the #1, were it not for a classic record by a personal favorite. But Michael Jackson’s Thriller will have to settle for being the world’s all-time top selling album.
All these years later, after Jackson’s many scandals and unseemly death, it’s hard to recall what a fresh and dominating presence he was in the music world. Taylor Swift could only wish for his level of cultural dominance.
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