Michael Jackson’s classic ‘Thriller’ album has just been certified 34x platinum.
This news means that the 1982 album has sold over 34 million copies in the US alone, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
‘Thriller’ was the late Jackson’s sixth studio album and is currently the second best-selling album in US history. The Eagles’ ‘Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)’ album remains the country’s best-selling record of all time with 38 million copies sold.
Michael Jackson’s diamond-certified 1987 album ‘Bad’ has also moved up from 10x to 11x platinum according to RIAA data. The singer’s ‘Number Ones’ album has also secured its fifth platinum certification.
It was recently revealed that Duran Duran once turned down an opportunity to collaborate with Jackson before his passing.
Duran Duran appeared on What Happens Live with Andy Cohen earlier this month, where Cohen inquired as to whether there were ever friends with Jackson in the 80s.
Keyboardist Nick Rhodes revealed that he had once received a phone call from the King of Pop: “We go home after a tour – it must have been 1983, I think. I get home and the phone rings and my mum says, ‘There’s somebody on the phone for you, he says his name’s Michael Jackson’.”
Rhodes recalled immediately thinking the call was a prank orchestrated by one of his bandmates: “After about a minute I thought, ‘Oh my God, it is Michael Jackson isn’t it’,” he remembered.
Jackson was allegedly “keen to make a record” with the band following the release of their 1984 record ‘The Reflex”.
“I go to everyone, ‘Hey Michael Jackson called last night. Do you fancy maybe doing a song with him?’” he explained. “And they all went, ‘Nah’.”
