Chapter 4
Fame and Fortune
Now that Joe wasn’t managing Michael’s career, Michael needed to hire someone smart to help him. The first person he hired was a lawyer named John Branca. Over the next several years, Branca helped Michael get the best deals a record company had ever offered a singer up to that time.
Michael’s first solo album with CBS was a big success. Four songs from the album were in the top ten on the music charts. In 1980, Michael won a Grammy Award—the highest award in the music business.
But was he happy?
No. Michael was upset because he only won one Grammy.
Michael was angry because the award was for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. “R&B” stands for “rhythm and blues.” Most R&B singers are African American. Michael felt the Grammys were saying, “That’s a great album—for a black singer. But it’s not good enough for the rest of pop music.”
Michael was determined to win Record of the Year next time.
With Quincy as the producer, Michael went into the studio in 1982 and started recording new songs. He recorded four he had written himself. One song was a duet. Paul McCartney sang it with him. It was called “The Girl Is Mine.”
The album, called Thriller, also had other huge hits on it. “Billie Jean” and “Beat It”—both written by Michael—each went straight to number one on the charts. So did the song “Thriller,” which was written by someone else.
Before long, Thriller became the best-selling album of all time. It sold ten million copies the first year it came out, 1983. Over the years, it sold over one hundred million copies. No album has ever sold more copies than Thriller. In just four years, Michael earned more than $190 million.
What made Thriller such a huge success? Many things. First, Quincy and Michael worked so well together. They made musical magic happen. Second, Michael was at the peak of his powers as an entertainer. He had been in the music business for nineteen years. He was a pro. He knew he needed to take his time—just as Berry Gordy had taught him—recording the songs over and over until they were perfect.
Sometimes Michael stayed up all night memorizing lyrics. Then the next day, they turned the lights out in the studio and recorded in the dark. That put Michael in a private mood, so he could put all his emotions and feelings into the song.
Michael and Quincy spent many months recording the album. They remixed the music over and over again, to get the sound just right.
Another reason Thriller was such a huge hit was because of its music videos. Michael thought of them as mini movies. He put all his energy and talent into them. The first one was for “Billie Jean.”
At first, though, Michael couldn’t get his videos on television.
Why not?
MTV, the new music-video channel, had only been around for one year. MTV thought their viewers only wanted to see white performers.
The president of CBS Records called up MTV. He gave them a warning. He said that MTV wouldn’t be allowed to play music videos by famous white stars at CBS— like Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel—unless they played Michael Jackson.
So MTV gave in. They played the “Billie Jean” video. That made all the difference. Thriller suddenly became a number one album on all the music charts—not just the “black music” charts!
Michael made two more incredible videos from Thriller. The first one was for the song “Beat It.” It was a video about street gangs. Michael used real gang members from Los Angeles to act in it.
His best, biggest, and most expensive music video was for the song “Thriller” itself. Michael wanted it to look as if he were changing into a werewolf. He hired a director of horror movies. The video even had a dance scene with zombies.
When it was time for the Grammy Awards, Michael got twelve nominations for the Thriller album. He was so happy, he whooped and screamed and danced around the house.
On the night of the Grammy Awards, he won eight times! “Beat It” won Record of the Year. Thriller won Album of the Year.
Shortly after that, Michel was invited to the White House to meet President Ronald Reagan. Would this be enough to make Michael Jackson happy? Was he finally satisfied with his success?
