Thriller is the sixth studio album by American
recording artist Michael Jackson . It was
released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records,
as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and
commercially successful 1979 album Off the
Wall. Thriller explores similar genres to
those of Off the Wall, including pop, R&B,
rock, post-disco, funk, and adult contemporary
music. Recording sessions took place between
April and November 1982 at Westlake Recording
Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a
production budget of $750,000, assisted by
producer Quincy Jones.
Of the album's nine tracks, four were written
by Jackson. Seven singles were released from
the album, all of which reached the top 10
on the Billboard Hot 100. Three of the singles
had music videos released. "Baby Be Mine"
and "The Lady in My Life" were the only tracks
that were not released as singles. In just
over a year, Thriller became—and currently
remains—the best-selling album of all time,
with sales of 51 to 65 million copies worldwide
according to various sources.T In the United
States, it also tied with the Eagles' Their
Greatest Hits as the best-selling album at
29 millions shipped. The album won a record-breaking
eight Grammy Awards in 1984, including for
Album of the Year.
Thriller enabled Jackson to break down racial
barriers in pop music via his appearances
on MTV and meeting with President of the United
States Ronald Reagan at the White House. The
album was one of the first to use music videos
as successful promotional tools—the videos
for "Thriller", "Billie Jean", and "Beat It"
all received regular rotation on MTV. In 2001,
a special edition issue of the album was released,
which contains additional audio interviews,
demo recordings and the song "Someone in the
Dark", which was a Grammy-winning track from
the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial storybook.
In 2008, the album was reissued again as Thriller
25, containing re-mixes that feature contemporary
artists, a previously unreleased song, and
a DVD, which features the short films from
the album and the Motown 25 performance of
"Billie Jean".
Thriller was ranked number 20 on Rolling Stone
magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
list in 2003, and was listed by the National
Association of Recording Merchandisers at
number three in its Definitive 200 Albums
of All Time. The Thriller album was included
in the Library of Congress' National Recording
Registry of culturally significant recordings,
and the Thriller video was included in the
National Film Preservation Board's National
Film Registry of "culturally, historically,
or aesthetically significant films". In 2012,
Slant Magazine listed the album at number
one on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".
Background
Jackson's previous album Off the Wall received
strong critical acclaim and was also a commercial
success, eventually selling over 20 million
copies worldwide. The years between Off the
Wall and Thriller were a transitional period
for the singer, a time of increasing independence.
The period saw the singer become deeply unhappy;
Jackson explained, "Even at home, I'm lonely.
I sit in my room sometimes and cry. It's so
hard to make friends ... I sometimes walk
around the neighborhood at night, just hoping
to find someone to talk to. But I just end
up coming home." When Jackson turned 21 in
August 1979, he hired John Branca as his manager.
Jackson confided in Branca that he wanted
to be the biggest star in show business and
"the wealthiest". The singer was upset about
what he perceived to be the under-performance
of Off the Wall, stating, "It was totally
unfair that it didn't get Record of the Year
and it can never happen again." He also felt
undervalued by the music industry; in 1980
when Jackson asked the publicist of Rolling
Stone if they would be interested in doing
a cover story on him, the publicist declined,
to which Jackson responded, "I've been told
over and over that black people on the cover
of magazines doesn't sell copies ... Just
wait. Someday those magazines are going to
be begging me for an interview. Maybe I'll
give them one, and maybe I won't."
Recording
Jackson reunited with Off the Wall producer
Quincy Jones to record his sixth studio album.
The pair worked together on 30 songs, nine
of which were eventually included. Thriller
was recorded at Westlake Recording Studios
in Los Angeles, California, with a production
budget of $750,000. The recording for Thriller
commenced on April 14, 1982 at 12:00 noon
with Jackson and Paul McCartney recording
"The Girl Is Mine", and the album was completed
with the final day of mixing on November 8,
1982. Several members of the band Toto were
also involved in the album's recording and
production. Jackson wrote four songs for the
record: "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", "The
Girl Is Mine", "Beat It", and "Billie Jean".
Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write
these songs on paper. Instead, he would dictate
into a sound recorder; when recording he would
sing from memory.
The relationship between Jackson and Jones
became strained during the album's recording.
Jackson spent much of his time rehearsing
dance steps alone. When the album's nine songs
were completed, both Jones and Jackson were
unhappy with the result and remixed every
song, spending a week on each.
Jackson was inspired to create an album where
"every song was a killer", and developed Thriller
with that in mind. Jones and songwriter Rod
Temperton gave detailed accounts of what occurred
for the 2001 reissue of the album. Jones discussed
"Billie Jean" and why it was so personal to
Jackson, who struggled to deal with a number
of obsessed fans. Jones wanted the long introduction
on the song to be shortened; however, Jackson
insisted that it remain because it made him
want to dance. The ongoing backlash against
disco made it necessary to move in a different
musical direction from the disco-heavy Off
the Wall. Jones and Jackson were determined
to make a rock song that would appeal to all
tastes and spent weeks looking for a suitable
guitarist for the song "Beat It". Eventually,
they found Eddie Van Halen of the rock band
Van Halen.
When Rod Temperton wrote the song "Thriller",
he originally wanted to call it "Starlight"
or "Midnight Man", but settled on "Thriller"
because he felt the name had merchandising
potential. Always wanting a notable person
to recite the closing lyrics, Jones brought
in actor Vincent Price who was an acquaintance
of Jones' wife, who completed his part in
just two takes. Temperton wrote the spoken
portion in a taxi on the way to the recording
studio. Jones and Temperton said that some
recordings were left off the final cut because
they did not have the "edginess" of other
album tracks.
Songs recorded by Jackson for consideration
included "Carousel", "Nite Line", "Trouble",
and "Hot Street". Jackson also cut a version
of "Starlight". Demos of all these songs exist
and have leaked onto the internet. "Carousel"
and "Hot Street" were completed, but left
off the final version of the album. A short
clip of "Carousel" appeared as a bonus track
on the 2001 reissue of the album; the full
version was later released on iTunes in 2013
as part of The Ultimate Fan Extras Collection.
Composition
Thriller is a post-disco album. According
to Steve Huey of AllMusic, it refined the
strengths of Jackson's previous album Off
the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more
aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads
were softer and more soulful. The album includes
the ballads "The Lady in My Life", "Human
Nature", and "The Girl Is Mine"; the funk
pieces "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin'
Somethin'"; and the disco set "Baby Be Mine"
and "P.Y.T." and has a similar sound to the
material on Off the Wall. "Wanna Be Startin'
Somethin'" is accompanied by a bass and percussion
background and the song's centerpiece, a climaxing
African-inspired chant, gave the song an international
flavor. "The Girl Is Mine" tells of two friends'
fight over a woman, arguing over who loves
her more and concludes with a spoken rap.
The album's songs have a tempo ranging from
80 beats per minute on "The Girl is Mine",
to 138 on "Beat It".
Despite the light pop flavor of these two
records, Thriller, more so than Off the Wall,
displayed foreshadowings of the contradictory
thematic elements that would come to characterize
Jackson's subsequent works. With Thriller,
Jackson would begin his association with the
subliminal motif of paranoia and darker themes,
including supernatural imagery in the album's
title track. This is evident on the songs
"Billie Jean", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
and "Thriller". In "Billie Jean", Jackson
sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he
has fathered a child of hers; in "Wanna Be
Startin' Somethin'" he argues against gossips
and the media. In the former song, Jones had
Jackson sing vocal overdubs through a six-foot-long
cardboard tube, and brought in jazz saxophonist
Tom Scott to play a rare instrument, the lyricon,
a wind-controlled analog synthesizer. Bassist
Louis Johnson ran through his part on a Yamaha
bass guitar. The song opens with a long bass-and-drums
introduction. In the song "Thriller", sound
effects such as creaking door, thunder, feet
walking on wooden planks, winds and howling
dogs can be heard.
The anti-gang-violence "Beat It" became a
homage to West Side Story, and was Jackson's
first successful rock cross-over piece. Jackson
later said of "Beat It", "the point is no
one has to be the tough guy, you can walk
away from a fight and still be a man. You
don't have to die to prove you're a man".
"Human Nature", co-written by Steve Porcaro
of the band Toto, is moody and introspective,
as conveyed in lyrics such as, "Looking out,
across the morning, the City's heart begins
to beat, reaching out, I touch her shoulder,
I'm dreaming of the street".
By the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as
a vocalist were well regarded; Allmusic described
him as a "blindingly gifted vocalist". Rolling
Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless,
dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis
was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbred
tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides
smoothly into a startling falsetto that's
used very daringly". With the release of Thriller,
Jackson could sing low—down to a basso low
C—but he preferred to sing higher because
pop tenors have more range to create style.
Rolling Stone was of the opinion that Jackson
was now singing in a "fully adult voice" that
was "tinged by sadness". "P.Y.T.", credited
to James Ingram and Quincy Jones, and "The
Lady in My Life" by Rod Temperton, both gave
the album a stronger R&B direction; the latter
song was described as "the closest Jackson
has come to crooning a sexy, soulful ballad
after his Motown years" by Taraborrelli. The
singer had already adopted a "vocal hiccup"
which he continued to implement in Thriller.
The purpose of the hiccup—somewhat like
a gulping for air or gasping—is to help
promote a certain emotion, be it excitement,
sadness or fear.
Release and reception
Thriller was released on November 30, 1982,
and sold one million copies worldwide per
week at its peak. Seven singles were released
from the album, including "The Girl Is Mine"—which
was seen as a poor choice for the lead release
and led some to believe that the album would
be a disappointment, and to suggestions that
Jackson was bowing to a white audience. "The
Girl Is Mine" was followed by the hit single
"Billie Jean", which made Thriller a chart-topper.
Success continued with the single "Beat It",
which featured guitarists Eddie Van Halen
and Steve Lukather. The album's title track
was released as a single and also became a
hit internationally.
Thriller was well received by most critics.
Christopher Connelly in a January 1983 review
in Rolling Stone described it as "a zesty
LP" with a "harrowing, dark message". Comparing
the songs on the album with the life challenges
that the 24-year old Jackson had faced since
Off the Wall, Connelly remarks that he has
"dropped the boyish falsetto" and is facing
his "challenges head-on" with "a feisty determination"
and "a full, adult voice". John Rockwell in
a December 1982 review in The New York Times
also commented on Jackson's age, comparing
his youth with his experience as an entertainer,
feeling that perhaps he is a "sometimes too
practiced ... performer", and that at times
Quincy Jones may "depersonalize his individuality"
with his "slightly anonymous production",
and that Jackson may be hiding his true emotions
behind "layers of impenetrable, gauzy veils".
The bulk of Rockwell's review concentrated
on how he felt that the album was helping
breach "the destructive barriers that spring
up regularly between white and black music",
especially as "white publications and radio
stations that normally avoid black music seem
willing to pretend he isn't black after all".
He feels that Thriller is "a wonderful pop
record, the latest statement by one of the
great singers in popular music today", and
that there are "hits here, too, lots of them".
In his consumer guide for The Village Voice,
Robert Christgau gave the album an A– rating
and commented that "this is virtually a hits-plus-filler
job, but at such a high level it's almost
classic anyway". He later revised it to an
A, and commented in retrospect, "what we couldn't
know is how brilliantly every hit but 'P.Y.T.'
would thrive on mass exposure and public pleasure."
A year after the album's release, Time summed
up the three main singles from the album,
saying, "The pulse of America and much of
the rest of the world moves irregularly, beating
in time to the tough strut of "Billie Jean",
the asphalt aria of "Beat It", the supremely
cool chills of "Thriller".
The album won Jackson a record-breaking eight
Grammy Awards in 1984, including Album of
the Year. The eighth Grammy went to Bruce
Swedien. That same year, Jackson won eight
American Music Awards, the Special Award of
Merit and three MTV Video Music Awards. Thriller
was recognized as the world's best-selling
album on February 7, 1984, when it was inducted
into the Guinness Book of World Records. It
is one of four albums to be the best-seller
of two years in the US.
On August 21, 2009 Thriller was certified
29× platinum by the Recording Industry Association
of America, for shipments of at least 29 million
copies in the US. The album topped the charts
in many countries, sold 4.2 million copies
in the UK, 2.5 million in Japan, and was certified
15× Platinum in Australia. Still popular
today, Thriller sells an estimated 130,000 copies
in the US per year; it reached number two
in the US Catalog charts in February 2003
and number 39 in the UK in March 2007. Outside
the US, the album has sold over 20 million
copies.
Influence and legacy
Music industry
Blender described Jackson as the "late twentieth
century pre-eminent pop icon", while The New
York Times gave the opinion that he was a
"musical phenomenon", and that "in the world
of pop music, there is Michael Jackson and
there is everybody else". Jackson changed
the way the industry functioned: both as an
artistic persona, and as a financial, profitable
entity. His attorney John Branca observed
that Jackson achieved the highest royalty
rate in the music industry to that point:
approximately $2 for each album sold. As a
result, Jackson earned record-breaking profits
from compact disc sales, and from the sale
of copies of the documentary, The Making of
Michael Jackson's Thriller, produced by Jackson
and John Landis. Funded by MTV, the film sold
over 350,000 copies in its first few months.
In a market then driven by singles, Thriller
raised the significance of albums, yet its
multiple hit singles changed perceived notions
as to the number of successful singles that
could be taken from an individual album. The
era saw the arrival of novelties like the
Michael Jackson doll, that appeared in stores
in May 1984 at a price of $12. Thriller retains
a position in American culture; biographer
J. Randy Taraborrelli explains, "At some point,
Thriller stopped selling like a leisure item—like
a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and
started selling like a household staple".
At the time of the album's release, a press
statement from Gil Friesen, the then President
of A&M Records, read that, "The whole industry
has a stake in this success". Time magazine
speculated that "the fallout from Thriller
has given the [music] business its best years
since the heady days of 1978, when it had
an estimated total domestic revenue of $4.1 billion".
Time summed up Thriller's impact as a "restoration
of confidence" for an industry bordering on
"the ruins of punk and the chic regions of
synthesizer pop". The publication described
Jackson's influence at that point as, "Star
of records, radio, rock video. A one-man rescue
team for the music business. A songwriter
who sets the beat for a decade. A dancer with
the fanciest feet on the street. A singer
who cuts across all boundaries of taste and
style and color too".
When Thriller and "Billie Jean" were searching
to reach their market demographic, MTV and
cable TV had a smaller market share than the
much larger reach of broadcast television
stations in the United States. A national
broadcast TV audience on ABC, NBC, and CBS
affiliate stations, as well as major independent
TV stations, was desired by CBS/Epic Records
to promote Thriller. The national broadcast
TV premiere of the Thriller album's first
video, "Billie Jean", was during the week
of Halloween in October 1984 and was the idea
of Video Concert Hall executive producers
Charles Henderson and Jerry Crowe. Video Concert
Hall, the first nationwide music video TV
network, taped the one-hour special in Hollywood
and Atlanta, where the TV studios of Video
Concert Hall were located. The Thriller TV
special was hosted by Thriller video co-star
Vincent Price, distributed by Henderson-Crowe
Syndications, Inc., and aired in the top 20
TV markets and much of the United States,
including TV stations WNEW, WFLD, KTTV, WPLG,
WQTV, and WXIA, for a total of 150 TV stations.
Music videos and racial equality
Before the success of Thriller, many felt
Jackson had struggled to get MTV airing because
he was black. In an effort to attain air time
for Jackson, CBS Records President Walter
Yetnikoff pressured MTV and declared, "I'm
not going to give you any more videos and
I'm going to go public and fucking tell them
about the fact you don't want to play music
by a black guy."
His position persuaded MTV to begin airing
"Billie Jean" and later "Beat It", which led
to a long partnership and later helped other
black music artists to gain mainstream recognition.
MTV denies claims of racism in their broadcasting.
The popularity of his videos, such as "Beat
It" and "Billie Jean", helped to place the
young channel "on the map", and MTV's focus
shifted in favor of pop and R&B. Jackson transformed
the medium of music video into an art form
and promotional tool through the use of complex
story lines, dance routines, special effects
and cameo appearances by well known personalities.
When the 14-minute-long Thriller video aired,
MTV ran it twice an hour to meet demand. The
short film marked an increase in scale for
music videos and has been routinely named
the best music video ever. The popularity
of the video sent the album back to number
one in the album chart, but Jackson's label
did not support the release of the third music
video from the album. They were already pleased
with its success, so Jackson convinced MTV
to fund the project. Author, music critic
and journalist Nelson George wrote in 2004,
"It's difficult to hear the songs from Thriller
and disengage them from the videos. For most
of us the images define the songs. In fact
it could be argued that Michael is the first
artist of the MTV age to have an entire album
so intimately connected in the public imagination
with its imagery". Short films like Thriller
largely remained unique to Jackson, while
the group dance sequence in "Beat It" has
been frequently imitated. The choreography
in Thriller has become a part of global pop
culture, replicated everywhere from Bollywood
to prisons in the Philippines.
For a black artist in the 1980s to that point,
Jackson's success was unprecedented. According
to The Washington Post, Thriller paved the
way for other African-American artists such
as Prince. "The Girl Is Mine" was credited
for getting interracial love on the radio.
Time noted, "Jackson is the biggest thing
since The Beatles. He is the hottest single
phenomenon since Elvis Presley. He just may
be the most popular black singer ever".
Contemporary appeal
Today, the album is still viewed in a positive
light by critics some three decades later.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic gave the
album the maximum five stars and wrote that
the record had something to interest everyone.
He believed it showcased harder funk and hard
rock while remaining "undeniably fun". He
went on to compliment "Billie Jean" and "Wanna
Be Startin' Somethin'" and said, "The record's
two best songs: 'Billie Jean, ...and the
delirious 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'', the
freshest funk on the album [but] the most
claustrophobic, scariest track Jackson ever
recorded." Erlewine gave the opinion that
it was an improvement on the artist's previous
album, although Allmusic was critical of the
title track, describing it as "ridiculous"
and as having the effect of "arriving in the
middle of the record and sucking out its momentum".
Slant Magazine gave the album five stars and,
like the Allmusic review and the original
Rolling Stone review, paid compliment to the
lyrics of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'". Giving
it five stars in The New Rolling Stone Album
Guide, Rolling Stone journalist Jon Pareles
commented that Jackson "doubled his ambitions
and multiplied his audience" with the album
and wrote of its legacy, "Thriller had extramusical
help in becoming the best-selling noncompilation
album of all time: Jackson's dancing feet
and dazzling stage presence, amplified by
the newfound promotional reach of music video
and the Reagan era's embrace of glossy celebrity.
But especially in the album's seven hit singles,
the music stands on its own."
Culture critic Nelson George wrote that Jackson
"has educated R. Kelly, Usher, Justin Timberlake
and countless others with Thriller as a textbook".
As a sign of the album's longevity, in 2003
Thriller was ranked at number 20 on the Rolling
Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list,
and was listed by the National Association
of Recording Merchandisers at number three
of the Definitive 200 Albums of All Time.
In 2008, 25 years after its release, the
record was inducted into the Grammy Hall of
Fame and, a few weeks later, was among 25
recordings preserved by the Library of Congress
to the National Recording Registry as "culturally
significant". In 2009, music critics for MTV
Base and VH1 both listed Thriller as the best
album released since 1981. Thriller, along
with other critic favorites were then polled
by the public. 40,000 people found Thriller
to be the Best Album of all time by MTV Generation,
gaining a third of all votes.
Reissues and catalog sales
Thriller was reissued on October 16, 2001,
in an expanded set titled Thriller: Special
Edition. The original tracks were remastered,
and the album included a new booklet and bonus
material, including the songs "Someone in
the Dark", "Carousel", and Jackson's original
"Billie Jean" demo, as well as audio interviews
with Jones and Temperton discussing the recording
of the album. Sony also hired sound engineer
and mixer Mick Guzauski to work with Jackson
on creating 5.1-channel surround sound mixes
of Thriller, as well as all his other albums,
for release on the then-new Super Audio CD
format. Despite numerous retries, the artist
never approved any of the mixes. Consequently,
Thriller was issued on SACD only in a stereo
version.
In February 2008, Epic Records released Thriller
25; Jackson served as executive producer.
Thriller 25 appeared on CD, USB and vinyl
with seven bonus tracks, a new song called
"For All Time", a snippet of Vincent Price's
voice-over, and five remixes featuring American
artists Fergie, will.i.am, Kanye West, and
Akon. It also included a DVD featuring three
music videos, the Motown 25 "Billie Jean"
performance, and a booklet with a message
from Jackson. The ballad "For All Time" supposedly
dates from 1982, but is often credited as
being from Dangerous sessions. Two singles
were released from the reissue: "The Girl
Is Mine 2008" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
2008".
Thriller 25 was a commercial success and did
particularly well as a reissue. It peaked
at number one in eight countries and Europe.
It peaked at number two in the US, number
three in the UK and reached the top 10 in
over 30 national charts. It was certified
Gold in 11 countries including the UK, received
a 2× Gold certification in France and received
platinum certification in Poland. In the United
States, Thriller 25 was the second best-selling
album of its release week, selling one hundred
and sixty six thousand copies, just fourteen
thousand short of reaching the number one
position. It was ineligible for the Billboard
200 chart as a re-release but entered the
Pop Catalog Charts at number one, with the
best sales on that chart since December 1996.
With the arrival of Halloween that November,
Thriller 25 spent an eleventh non-consecutive
week atop the US catalog chart. This brought
US sales of the album to 688,000 copies, making
it the best selling catalog album of 2008.
This was Jackson's best launch since Invincible
in 2001, selling three million copies worldwide
in 12 weeks.
After Jackson's death in June 2009, Thriller
set additional records. It sold more than
100,000 copies, placing it at number two on
the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. Songs from
Thriller also helped Jackson become the first
artist to sell more than one million song
downloads in a week. According to Nielsen
Soundscan, Thriller was the 14th best selling
album of 2009 in the United States with 1.27
million copies sold.
Track listing
Personnel
Brian Banks – keyboards, synthesizers, programming
Michael Boddicker – keyboards, synthesizers
N'dugu Chancler – drums
Paulinho da Costa – percussion
David Foster – keyboards, synthesizers
Gary Grant – trumpet and flügelhorn
Eddie Van Halen – guitar solo on "Beat
It"
Jerry Hey – trumpet and flügelhorn
Michael Jackson – co-producer, lead and
background vocals, drum case beater, bathroom
stomp board, vocal, drum, horn and string
arrangement
Paul Jackson – guitar
Louis Johnson – bass guitar
Quincy Jones – producer
Steve Lukather – guitar, bass guitar
Anthony Marinelli – synthesizer programming
Paul McCartney – vocals on "The Girl Is
Mine"
David Paich – keyboards, synthesizers,
programming
Dean Parks – guitar
Greg Phillinganes – keyboards, synthesizers,
programming
Jeff Porcaro – drums, horn and string arrangements
Steve Porcaro – keyboards, synthesizers,
programming
Vincent Price – voice-over on "Thriller"
Bill Reichenbach – trombone
Bruce Swedien – recording engineer, mixer
Chris Shepard   - vibraslap on "Beat It"
Rod Temperton – keyboards, synthesizers
David Williams – guitar
Larry Williams – saxophone and flute
Bill Wolfer – keyboards, synthesizers
La Toya Jackson – background vocals on
"PYT"
Janet Jackson – background vocals on "PYT"
Greg Smith - synthesizers
Charts
Thriller was one of the best-selling albums
in many countries during 1983 to 1984, topping
the charts in United States, United Kingdom,
Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Australia,
Sweden, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.
Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
Certifications
See also
List of best-selling albums
List of best-selling albums in Australia
List of best-selling albums in France
List of best-selling albums in Germany
List of best-selling albums in Japan
List of best-selling albums in New Zealand
List of best-selling albums in the United
Kingdom
List of best-selling albums in the United
States
List of number-one dance singles of 1983
Notes
References
Bibliography
George, Nelson. Michael Jackson: The Ultimate
Collection booklet. Sony BMG.
Taraborrelli, J. Randy. The Magic and the
Madness. Terra Alta, WV: Headline. ISBN 0-330-42005-4. 
External links
Thriller at Radio3Net
