Bruce Swedien

The title track on Michael Jackson’s hit album “Thriller” began life as a very different song - called “Starlight.” Jackson and producer Quincy Jones intended for the song to be part of a larger concept album about Jackson’s musical maturity. Ethnomusicologist and Soundcheck contributing producer Patrick Rivers joins us with Bruce Swedien, the recording engineer behind the “Thriller” sessions, to talk about the evolution of “Starlight.”

Michael Jackson was one of the most successful and influential entertainers of the 20th Century. He won 13 Grammys and sold 50 million copies of his 1982 masterpiece, Thriller. But his fame and reputation declined starting in the 1990s. When he died yesterday at age 50, Jackson was attempting a ...