Thriller is an album by pop icon Michael Jackson, released by Epic Records on December 1, 1982. It is Jackson's most popular album and catapulted him to international stardom when it was released. In 2007, the NARM and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ranked Thriller third on their "Definitive 200" list, a compilation of what they believed to be the greatest albums ever.
According to the Guinness World Records, Thriller is the world's best-selling album of all time. Sales of the album are estimated at 104 million copies. The album is also notable for being one of only three albums to remain in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 for one full year (along with Falling Into You by Celine Dion and Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette), spending 80 consecutive weeks in the Top 10, 37 of which were at number one. "Thriller" is also the first album of only three in history to produce seven Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles, and the first and to date only album to be the best-selling album of two years (1983 and 1984) in the United States, according to Billboard. The album continues to sell an estimated 60,000 units in the United States per year .
In February 1984, Jackson was nominated for twelve Grammy awards — of which he won eight — breaking the record for the most Grammy awards won in a single year. Seven were for Thriller and the other for the E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial storybook. The most important in terms of record sales was the 1984 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, which was awarded for Thriller. That same year, Jackson also won eight American Music Awards and the "Special Award of Merit" and three MTV Video Music Awards.
At 25, The New York Times called Jackson a "musical phenomenon," further commenting that "in the world of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and there is everybody else." Time Thriller also helped to bring music from African-American artists back into mainstream radio for the first time since the mid-1970s.