Today, 34 years ago, Michael Jackson‘s landmark album “Thriller” was released.

The nine-track album features hits “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin',” “Billie Jean,” “P.Y.T.” and, of course, “Thriller.”

Jackson’s sixth album “Thriller” still remains the best-selling album of all time with an excess of 65 million copies sold worldwide.

To commemorate, 10 “Thriller” facts you might not of known:

  1. The “Thriller” video lost the Best Video at first-ever1984  MTV Video Music Awards.

  2. Real gang members were brought in to be extras in the “Beat It” video.

  3. The album “Thriller” was originally titled “Starlight.”
  4. Jackson was almost excommunicated by the Jehovah’s Witnesses when they found out his “Thriller” video violated strict rules about occult imagery.
  5. MJ’s famous red jacket worn in the “Thriller” video was sold for $1.8 million at an auction in 2011.

  6. The “Thriller” video was the most expensive video made at the time for half a million.
  7. Hollywood legend Fred Astaire, a fan of Jackson's dancing (Jackson personally taught him to moonwalk), attended a "Thriller" rehearsal.
  8. Michael Jackson had a dream of making the biggest-selling album ever. He wanted Thriller to resemble Tchaikovsky’s suite, where “every song is a killer.”
  9. Jackson was sued for his song "Wanna Be Starting Something." Cameroon musician Manu Dibango recorded “Soul Makossa” in 1972. The song, sung in the Cameroonian language of Duala, elongated the phrase “mamako mamasa” as “ma ma ko/ma ma sa/ma ko ma ko sa.” Jackson changed it to “ma ma se/ma ma sa/ma ma ku sa,” but the similarity was obvious.

  10. The “Don’t think twice!” lines in the second verse of “Billie Jean” was Jackson singing through a 5 foot long cardboard tube.