Michael Jackson's "Thriller" - It was Toto Album...

Their names were in the sleeve credits. They got all due recognition. They got paid for their work.

There's only one name above the title in the case of Thriller, and only one belongs there.

 

OK, just pulled Thriller out of the bin -- looks like the Toto boys are fully credited. So what's he moaning about? Just upset that the name on the cover is better known than the musicians in the credits? You'd think a music pro would get how that works.
Edit: Dang, Cheepnik made the same point while I was "researching" and typing : )

 

David Paich from Toto... his dad is Marty Paich who did a ton of arrangements for west coast jazz artists and pop artists as well in the 50s, 60, 70s...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Paich

Marty arranged one of my all-time favorite albums, "Mr. Easy" by Jesse Belvin.

 

In that role, you're a session guy. How many great records did Leon Russell play on? Did Billy Preston ever bitch about not getting recognition on Beatle records?

As mentioned earlier, the radio hits like Africa did more harm than good, as did their name IMHO. Cats that are named 'Puff-Puff' get very little respect.

 

Uh...

 

I sit corrected.

 

You could say the same for the Brothers Johnson and their contribution to the album Off The Wall, Louis Johnson is all over that album and he cowrote Get On The Floor.

Also Quincy Jones produced the Brothers Johnson and in my opinion Off The Wall sounds exactly like the first 2 BJ albums. Most of the general public are probably unaware of The Brothers Johnson albums,
in fact they even did a cover version of Come Together before MJ did.

 

Remember getting exposed to both One Nation Under A Groove and Blam! visiting a friend one day around 1978 or 79. In my early teens, the cover of ONUAG made quite an impression.

 

And in the same way that Metal Machine Music is not considered a Texas Instruments album.

 

Kinda, sorta. Yeah, David Paich and a couple of Porcaro brothers are no Silk Degrees. David Hungate's bass is featured more prominently on there than on Toto IV, so go figure. Now, there's somebody who'd have a legitimate complaint about getting sold short. Lukather wasn't backing Boz Scaggs at that time.

 

I'm pretty sure the musicians on that album were listed on the paper sleeve that came with it.

I knew the guys from Toto were on that list - but to my ears - the album always sounded more
like Heatwave (because of the involvement by Rod Temperton) than anything else...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Temperton


Wikipedia has the musicians from Thriller listed (in alphabetical order). I think that's
how it was on the album.

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

 

The lyric sheet had individual musician credits for each song.

I remember an online discussion in the 90's where someone thought Eddie Van Halen played all of the guitars on "Beat It." I mentioned that Lukather played them except for the solo.

 

As I remember, the interview conversation/moaning isn't really about Thriller. Thriller comments were to reinforce Steve's gripe that Jan Wenner carries a grudge towards the band and that's why they'll never get into the Hall of Fame. Despite the band being so involved with famous stuff..... like Thriller. But then a few minutes later in the interview, I think Steve then says that he doesn't really care if the band is in the Hall of Fame.... but he feels baffled at why they aren't.

Or something to that effect.

As far as I remember, the entire planet understood in 1982-84 that Toto was playing on bazillions of famous tracks. Including Thriller. The interviews, gigs, and awards were pouring in. It certainly wasn't a mystery to anyone as I remember. I got to hang out with the band around 84 or so, met Jeff a few times separately, and the group was receiving its fair share of notoriety..... no doubt about that.

I think this is the same interview where Steve rants about musicians he knows who are starving. I don't remember all the details of that part of the interview, but I seem to remember it also set off some nasty comments in various parts of the web.

 

I don't understand why Thriller is even considered a "real" album. Odd thread.

 

The Funk Brothers are all over Motown.

 

I always wondered why Thriller sounded so good and put together. It's like Bob Daisley doing all the Ozzy stuff. Someone is always behind the scenes making it work.

 

True, it's basically a compilation of tracks released on 45s, with the bonus track Lady of My Life (my personal favorite).

 

It's an album because that's what it was connived as. It just so happens that the singles were all successful, so they kept putting more songs out as singles (because.. well, they knew they'd get a lot of radio airplay and sell).
That doesn't make it any less of an album.

I'm not sure I understand your point.

 

I listen to it too. I'll check out Lady of My Life.

 

Did you know that Toto was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame?

In the same year when Toto cleaned up at the Grammys, Lukather himself won another Grammy for "Best R&B Song" by co-writing George Benson's "Turn Your Love Around". Probably not "Thriller"-level royalty, but this was a major hit on both the Billboard pop (#5) and R&B charts (#1).

 

I was basically making your point but in the form of a joke.

 

This guy from Toto sounds like he's been eating a lot of sour grapes to me.

Isn't it enough that he got to be on the best selling album of all time and perform music that so many people love?

 

Oh!! Okay, sorry.

Phew, I'm really glad you weren't being serious because I was really confused...

 

Me not a fan of jackson or thriller

 

It's easy to forget that Toto had many more than just a couple of Billboard Top 40 hits. To wit:

Hold The Line -- #5
99 -- #26
Rosanna -- #2
Africa -- #1
I Won't Hold You Back -- #10
Make Believe -- #30
Stranger in Town -- #30
I'll Be Over You -- #11
Without Your Love -- #38
Pamela -- #22

All told, they had 15 Hot 100 singles from 1978-88. Not a bad 10-year run. There's a reason that in addition to their success as a group, these guys remained A-list studio musicians individually for so long. They could play, write and arrange pop music with the best of them.