It reached number eight on the UK chart, and the album sold well, but certainly not in the manner that the man who’d delivered Off the Wall should have done.
The playful duet with Paul McCartney, chosen no doubt to emulate the success McCartney had had earlier the same year with Stevie Wonder on Ebony and Ivory, was simply not what the listeners were expecting. In choosing the album's most lacklustre track, The Girl Is Mine, as its lead single, the postcard delivered was mildly disappointing. „It’s hard to believe now, but when Michael Jackson’s Thriller was released in the UK in time for Christmas 1982, there was an initial sense of misfire. The album features the singles 'Billie Jean', 'Beat It', 'Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'', 'Human Nature', 'P.Y.T (Pretty Young Thing)', 'Thriller', and the duet with Paul McCartney 'The Girl Is Mine'. The sixth studio album from the late American singer-songwriter and musician and also the best-selling album of all time with over 45 million copies sold worldwide.
