Which legendary horror film actor performed the rap on Michael Jackson's hit single "Thriller"?

"Thriller" is a song recorded by American singer Michael Jackson, composed by Rod Temperton, and produced by Quincy Jones. It is the seventh and final single released by Epic Records from his 1982 studio album of the same name. A 14-minute video showing Jackson in a horror-themed performance premiered on November 14, 1983. It was first shown on MTV on December 2, 1983. The song was not released as a single until January 23, 1984.

"Thriller", along with other songs from Thriller, was recorded by Jackson over the course of eight weeks, in 1982. Jackson recorded the song at Westlake Recording Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

Swedien and Jones stated that Vincent Price recorded his introduction and voice-over rap for the song in two takes; Jones, acknowledging that doing a voice-over for a song is "difficult", praised Price and described his recording takes as being "fabulous". Swedien said of Jackson recording the song, that, "I tried all sorts of things with Michael, for instance, he would sing the main vocal part and we'd double it one time and then I'd ask him to step away from the mic and do it a third time and that really changed the acoustics in the room so it gave Michael's vocals a unique character … We recorded some of those background vocals in the shower stall at Westlake."

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36 Comments

Spike Holmes

Whenever someone says the word "RAP", to me, - in terms if music, I smile, and tell them that "There's a 'C' missing from the start of that description!"

Marcella Kosse

I recognized Vincent Price’s voice the first time I heard Thriller.

stellaclaude

Spike Holmes, just because you don’t like something, doesn’t mean it’s crap. It’s simply something that you don’t care for.

Lori S. Jansen

While I agree that Mr. Price's voice over in the song is not rap in any way, I do think we can say so without disparaging the artform of rap itself. You may not like it and that's fine, but like any music form, it has its place and satisfies the needs and desires for people to express themselves.

Ken Putnam

Need to check your definitions Vincent Price's voice over IS NOT RAP Your reference even disagrees with you " It ends with a spoken-word sequence performed by horror actor Vincent Price."

goosenbuster

Spike Holmes, it's an art, your dislike is clear, every time rap is mentioned you add the c. I love rap. Eminem if you stop and listen is awesome

Rebecca Woods

Vincent Price had the perfect voice for that kind of thing.Spooky.

Noelito

Spike Holmes, How original 🙄

Mother of Dogs

Who is Swedien?

Andrew

Lori S. Jansen, In the seventies we used to say “Well at least pop music can’t get any worse than disco...”

dsneed

I love this video, and I really appreciated Michael Jackson. Where do you purchase these videos? There are several I would like to own.

Char

Got ut

layne

SOHLMAN,...RAP is an acronym, it stands for "Rhythm and Poetry" and actually has its roots in Ancient Rome. It is the spoken word (poem) done in a rhythmic manner, sometimes done with musical accompaniment. You can see an example of it in the 1960 film "Spartacus", performed by Tony Curtis as "Antoninus".