Songful Style Link Party #54: Songful Style Link Party #54: “Thriller” by Michael Jackson

Another style challenge leads to another outfit!

About Songful Style

Songful Style is a style challenge series hosted by Shelbee on the Edge, Marsha in the Middle, and Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette. Each month we will share a song with the lyrics and video and we invite you to use whatever aspect of the song that inspires you to create an outfit. 

It is similar to Style Imitating Art where we use artwork to inspire our outfit creations. Except Songful Style gives you lyrics, music, video, and album artwork to inspire your fashion creativity. You may even find inspiration in a memory triggered by the selected song. It is all open to your own personal interpretation and just a fun way to discover new music and get a little bit more creative with your wardrobe.

Anyone is welcome to join us on a permanent basis or you can just play along without any obligation to do anything other than feel inspired. We are flexible and fun and just want to find more ways to play dress up because it’s what we enjoy doing! 

We will be posting on the last Monday of each month and will announce our song choice for the following month at the end of each post. You are welcome to style your own song inspired outfit and add it to the link party or link anything that you want to share even if it has nothing to do with the song.

It was my turn to choose our song inspiration. Since Halloween is at the end of this week, I thought Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller” was a fun pick to help us create autumn outfits for the spooky season. In the end, my inspired outfit didn’t turn out to be spooky at all but that’s okay because I liked the combination nonetheless.

The Video

The Lyrics

It's close to midnight
And something evil's lurking in the dark
Under the moonlight
You see a sight that almost stops your heart
You try to scream
But terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze
As horror looks you right between the eyes
You're paralyzed

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
And no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike
You know it's thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight, yeah

Ooh, ooh
You hear the door slam
And realize there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand
And wonder if you'll ever see the sun
You close your eyes
And hope that this is just imagination
Girl, but all the while
You hear a creature creepin' up behind
You're out of time

'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
There ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl
Thriller, thriller night
You're fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight

Night creatures call
And the dead start to walk in their masquerade
There's no escaping the jaws of the alien this time (they're open wide)
This is the end of your life, ooh

They're out to get you
There's demons closin' in on every side
They will possess you
Unless you change that number on your dial
Now is the time
For you and I to cuddle close together, yeah
All through the night
I'll save you from the terror on the screen
I'll make you see

That this is thriller, thriller night
'Cause I can thrill you more than any ghoul would ever dare try
Thriller, thriller night
So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller
Chiller, thriller here tonight
'Cause this is thriller, thriller night
Girl, I can thrill you more than any ghoul would ever dare try
Thriller, thriller night
So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller, ow

I'm gonna thrill you tonight
Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'all's neighborhood (I'm gonna thrill you tonight)
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell

I'm gonna thrill you tonight
Thriller, ooh baby (thriller)
I'm gonna thrill you tonight (thriller night)
Thriller, all night, oh baby
I'm gonna thrill you tonight
Thriller, thriller night (oh baby)
I'm gonna thrill you tonight
Thriller, all night (oh baby)
Thriller night, babe (thriller night, babe), ooh

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller

About the Artist: Michael Jackson

Unless you’ve been living in complete and total isolation for the last 40 or 50 years, you should be familiar with Michael Jackson, his long musical career, his unique sense of style, and his weird fascination with children. Just in case someone reading this post has been under a rock for a half century, I’ll try to highlight a bit about the man, the myths, and the legends that still carry weight in the music industry 17 years after his death.

He was born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, the eighth of ten children to Joseph Walter and Katherine Esther Jackson. His mother was an aspiring country musician who played the clarinet, cello, and piano, while working part time at Sears. His father, a former boxer and crane operator, was also a guitarist for a local rhythm and blues group. In 1964, six year old Michael and his seven year old brother Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers, a band formed by his father that already included their three older brothers, Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine. The following year, they changed the band name to the Jackson 5, and were eventually nominated for three Grammy Awards and had three songs inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

From 1976 through 1984, Michael was the group’s main songwriter releasing six new albums and continuing to tour internationally. In 1977, Michael relocated to New York City to star as the Scarecrow in the musical film The Wiz, which was a box office failure. However, Jackson’s performance was one of the few universally praised performances of the film.

Jackson continued writing music and releasing hugely successful solo albums throughout the 1980s until his death in 2009. As one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century, he has been dubbed the “King of Pop” and is often credited as the greatest entertainer of all time. With over 900 awards and other industry recognitions, he has accumulated 15 Grammy Awards including the Grammy Legend Award in 1993 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, 26 American Music Awards, 40 Billboard Music Awards, among many others. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame, the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He received Presidential Honors from President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and from President George H.W. Bush in 1990 and 1992 and has held 26 verified Guinness World Records.

Michael Jackson was married twice. His first marriage to Lisa Marie Presley (her second of four marriages) lasted from 1994-1996. The couple had no children together. He was married to Debbie Rowe from 1996-2000 and the couple had two children, Prince Michael Jackson Jr., born on February 13, 1997, and Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, born on April 3, 1998. A third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (aka Bigi Jackson), was born in 2002 via an undisclosed surrogate.

The world was shocked on June 25, 2009, when the news broke that 50 year old Michael Jackson died from cardiac arrest caused by an overdose of propofol and benzodiazepine. As the tragic story spread online, web traffic increased by up to 20%, causing sites like Google, AOL, Twitter, and Wikipedia to crash from overload. The overdosed drugs that led to Jackson’s death were administered by his personal physician, Conrad Murray, who was eventually charged and found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He served one year and eleven months of his four year prison sentence.

About the Song: “Thriller”

Our inspiration song was released by Epic Records on November 11, 1983, the seventh and final single from Michale Jackson’s sixth solo studio album, Thriller. The song is characterized as a disco song featuring a synthesizer bassline, lyrics, and sound effects that are reminiscent of horror films. The song was written by Rod Temperton, produced by Quincy Jones, and includes a spoken word poem performed by Vincent Price. The music video was directed by John Landis and has been named the greatest music video of all time by various industry polls and publications which helped it to become the best selling album in music history.

As a novelty song, “Thriller” was never supposed to be released as a single. However, once it was released, it spent months at the top of the Billboard 200. Between 1983 and 1985, the song charted in at least 18 different countries with subsequent re-releases of the song continuing to rank on international charts between 2006 and 2026.

I could share so much more about Michael Jackson, his Thriller album, and the “Thriller” song, but there really is too much to share. But it’s all out there on the interwebs, easily findable if you’re interested in reading more.

About My Outfit

My outfit may have come as a bit of surprise for this song inspiration. The video is filled with tattered dancing zombies and creepy Halloween creatures which could have inspired a ghoulish outfit for All Hallows’ Eve. However, I’m not really into things of a scary or ghoulish nature, so I focused my styling on the outfits worn by Michael Jackson and actress Ola Ray in the “Thriller” video.

My inspiration came primarily from Ola’s 1950s style outfit featuring a purple poodle skirt and a pink sweater layered over a white collared blouse. But I also added a red leather jacket to pay homage to Michael Jackson’s signature 1980s style.

Since I don’t own a purple skirt or a poodle skirt, I settled on a new white skirt that has a full A-line silhouette that is reminiscent of the long circle skirts popular in the 1950s. I also don’t own any dainty little short sleeved pink sweaters, so I popped on an oversized pink sweater instead and gave it a quick front tuck to create some waist definition. I did try a wide black belt similar to Ola’s but it didn’t really work with the interesting waistline of the skirt. I topped it off with an old red faux leather bomber jacket and added my red cowgirl boots to coordinate while also maintaining my personal style aesthetic.

Sadly, I just discovered that the faux leather on my jacket is getting all crackly from age and may require retirement soon. I also recently discovered that the real leather of my boots is also starting to crack. But that is entirely my own fault because I have all the leather treatment products to prevent this from happening but I have never taken the time to treat all my boots. Ugh. I really need to do that soon!

Finally, I added a cowboy skeleton cabochon necklace with black tassel earrings. You can’t really see the necklace or earrings that well in the photos, mostly because my necklace was flipped backwards for a majority of the pictures! The jewelry is all gold-based to reflect the gold color on Jackson’s letterman jacket in the video. And my hat has no relation to the song at all. It’s just the hat that coordinated best with the outfit.

While this outfit didn’t catch the spooky “Thriller” vibe that one might have expected, it’s still unequivocally inspired by the song while remaining in tune with my personal style.

I hope you have enjoyed this Halloween round of Songful Style. Won’t you check out how my musically inspired friends have styled their Thriller outfits. Just click the links to their blogs below for more fashion inspiration. 

Marsha of Marsha in the Middle
Suzy of Suzy Turner, The Grey Brunette

Featured Favorite from Songful Style Link Party #53: Any Song from The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber

If you enjoyed this musical dress up game, remember to stop by again on November 30, 2026, when we will be sharing our outfits inspired by Suzy’s very appropriate song choice, “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses. This is another really long video at just over 9 minutes, but there is definitely some fun outfit inspiration in those 9 minutes. Won’t you join us for the next round of dress up? Until then, happy styling!

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee