The Two-Year Reign — Michael Jackson

THE FACT

Thriller is the only album in the history of the Billboard 200 chart to be the year-end best-selling album of two consecutive calendar years. It topped the year-end chart in 1983 and again in 1984 — a feat unmatched in the 70+ years of the chart.

WHAT MOST DON'T KNOW

Thriller spent 37 non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 — also a record at the time — and was certified Platinum in 23 separate countries. CBS Records had to bring on three additional pressing plants in the US alone to keep up with demand. At peak, the album was selling one million copies a week. The first wave of cassette piracy in 1983 was triggered partly by Thriller: stores in major cities couldn't keep the album in stock, and bootleg cassette copies sold openly on New York street corners for $5. CBS settled with the Department of Justice over its inflated retail pricing during this period (settlement disclosed in 2000). The album was the first to use a 24-bit digital recording master on a CBS major release and the first to be commercially issued on the new CD format at full price in 1985 — establishing CD pricing for the next decade. Estimated worldwide sales now exceed 70 million copies, making it the best-selling album of all time by a margin no other release has come close to.

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THE MOMENT

Making Michael Jackson's Thriller (1983 Documentary) — The 60-minute behind-the-scenes film that itself sold 9 million VHS copies.

SOURCES

Thriller (album) — Wikipedia ↗