Liner Notes · No. 019
"Thriller" by Michael Jackson: the B-side
Quick hall pass: the most famous music video ever made got a rom-com remake, a 1,500-man prison yard version and a billion-dollar biopic. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- At Mark Ruffalo's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, he and Jennifer Garner did the 13 Going on 30 routine again for the photographers. (PureWow)
- Thriller 3D, the original film restored and converted to 3D, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2017. (Live for Live Music)
- The 4K restoration went up on YouTube in November 2022, for the album's 40th anniversary. (Thriller40)
- MJ the Musical, the Broadway show, lists a 2026 Asia tour and a 2027 UK tour. (Wikipedia)
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
A rom-com, a prison yard and a biopic
13 Going on 30 made the zombie dance a rom-com moment, 1,500 inmates made it a YouTube hit, and the 2026 biopic remade the video.
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The party: 13 Going on 30, 2004. Jennifer Garner's character walks into a dead party, asks the DJ for "Thriller" and drags Mark Ruffalo into the dance until the whole room joins in. It's the best scene in the movie. Nobody involved seemed to think so at the time. Director Gary Winick said the studio insisted on it and called the dancing "horrible." Garner says Ruffalo nearly quit the film after the first rehearsal. Hollywood: where a grown man almost walks off a movie because of a zombie shoulder shrug.
The prison yard: In 2007, about 1,500 inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines performed the zombie dance in their yard. The idea came from prison chief Byron Garcia, as an exercise program. The YouTube video passed 26 million views, back when most of us were still uploading blurry cat clips.
The remake: Michael, the Lionsgate biopic, opened April 24, 2026, with Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson in his acting debut. It recreates the video, reportedly on the same streets as the 1983 shoot. Early reactions called it uncanny. Imagine your first acting job being "redo the most famous music video in history, please, no pressure."
Before any of that, the song needed a name. Quiz time.
Pop quiz: before it was "Thriller," what was Rod Temperton's demo called?
Freebie if you watched the pop-ups. No Googling.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- Thriller live: the 1987 Bad tour in Yokohama, a zombie chorus line for 90,000 in Bucharest, and the 3D graveyard built for London in 2009.
- Covers that go places: a 1930s jazz version with Wayne Brady, two metal versions, and a Halloween dance that set world records.
- Where the story is now: the billion-dollar biopic, a possible sequel, and a video with a billion views of its own.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
Yokohama, Bucharest and the London graveyard
Yokohama on the Bad tour, 90,000 fans in Bucharest, and a 3D graveyard film shot for London shows that never happened.
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1987, Yokohama: "Thriller" on the Bad tour in Japan, his first solo world tour, is one of the most-cited performances of his career. Proof that a 14-minute movie can be squeezed onto a stage, as long as you're the guy who made it.
1992, Bucharest: October 1, 1992, the Dangerous tour, National Stadium, about 90,000 people. By now "Thriller" was a full set piece, with a zombie chorus line and lightning cues. It came out on DVD on July 25, 2005, and the estate later put the whole concert on YouTube. Ninety thousand people doing the claw hands at once. Seismologists in the region would like a word.
2009, the graveyard that never opened: For his planned 50-show This Is It run at London's O2, Jackson and director Kenny Ortega shot a new 3D "Thriller" graveyard film to play behind the stage. The shows never happened. The rehearsal footage became the film Michael Jackson's This Is It, released in October 2009.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
Jazz, metal and 22,000 zombies
22,571 dancers in 33 countries, a metal tribute album and a 1930s jazz version with tap-dancing zombies. Vote below.
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- 2007 · Thrill the World. An annual event, the Saturday before Halloween, where people around the world do the Thriller dance at the same time. It grew out of a 2006 Toronto Guinness record. A 2009 tally counted 22,571 dancers in 264 cities across 33 countries. Your office Halloween party had four people and one of them was the IT guy.
- 2013 · Chuck Billy (Testament). Sings the title track on Thriller: A Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson, a full album of metal covers. Somebody had to ask what the zombies sounded like with double kick drums.
- 2018 · Postmodern Jukebox feat. Wayne Brady. A 1930s jazz version with a Cab Calloway-style opening and tap dancers standing in for the zombies. Later on PMJ's Essentials II. The undead, but make it a supper club.
- 2019 · Leo Moracchioli feat. C.J. Pierce (Drowning Pool). Heavy metal, extra guitar, extra howling. Vincent Price would have approved of the howling.
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Thriller" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Where the story is now
Michael Jackson died in 2009, at 50. The 2026 biopic Michael passed $1 billion, and the video joined YouTube's Billion Views Club.
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In memory: Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at 50. More than four decades after this video, his work is still the standard others are measured against.
The biopic: Michael, starring Jaafar Jackson, opened April 24, 2026, to $97 million in North America and $217 million worldwide. It became the first biopic to pass $1 billion worldwide, overtaking Bohemian Rhapsody. It ends in 1988 at Wembley Stadium with the title card "His Story Continues." Freddie had a good run at the top. It lasted until the moonwalk showed up.
The sequel: Lionsgate's Adam Fogelson said the studio hopes to start production in late 2026 or early 2027. Not officially announced. Hollywood saying "we hope" about a billion-dollar franchise is like your kid saying they "hope" to eat the cookie.
The views: In September 2024 the video joined YouTube's Billion Views Club, his fourth after "Beat It," "Billie Jean" and "They Don't Care About Us." A billion views for a 14-minute video. Most of us can't finish a 30-second ad.
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