Thriller | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| C#5 | C#5 | C#sus2 | C#sus2 |
| C#m | C#m | C#sus4 | C#sus4 |
| C#dim | C#dim | C#m C#m7 | C#m7 F# E |
||: C#m bass riff :|| x8
Verse 1
||: C#m (bass riff) | C#m (bass riff) :||
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.
||: C#m (guitar riff) | C#m (guitar riff) :||
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.
Chorus 1
| C#m C#m7 | C#m7 F# E |
‘Cause this is thriller, thriller night.
| F# | F#m |
And no one’s gonna save you from the beast about to strike.
| C#m C#m7 | C#m7 F# E |
You know it’s thriller, thriller night.
| F# | A F# B |
You’re fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight, yeah
Instrumental
||: C#m (guitar riff) | C#m (guitar riff) :||
Ooh, ooh.
Verse 2
||: C#m (guitar riff) | C#m (guitar riff) :||
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.
Chorus 2
‘Cause this is thriller, thriller night.
There ain’t no second chance against the thing with forty eyes, girl.
(Thriller) Woo-hoo (thriller night).
| F# | A F# B | C#m F#7 |
You’re fighting for your life inside a killer, thriller tonight.
Middle 8
| F#7 | F#7 | Amaj7 | Amaj7 A B |
Night creatures call and the dead start to walk in their masquerade.
| C#m | C#m/B | A#m7b5 | Amaj7 |
There’s no escaping the jaws of the alien this time (they’re open wide)
| G#sus4 | G# |
This is the end of your life, ooh.
Verse 3 (as verse 2)
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.
Chorus 3
That this is thriller, thriller night.
‘Cause I can thrill you more than any ghoul would ever dare try.
Thriller, thriller night.
| F# | A F# B | D#m7b5 Dmaj7 B11 | B11 |
So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller, chiller, thriller here tonight.
Chorus 4 (as chorus 1)
‘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!
Breakdown
||: C#m (guitar riff) | C#m (guitar riff) :||
(I’m gonna thrill you tonight)
Outro
||: C#m (guitar riff) | C#m (guitar riff) :||
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.
Thriller Chords: Learn the progressions
Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones’s masterpiece Thriller does have some serious chords lurking in the arrangement.
The intro, which is played by the keyboard player is based around a C#m chord, it has one note moving up from the root – 2nd – m3rd – 4 – b5.
This is then followed by the two-bar chorus chords that outline the melody. You may think this is just a cool intro created by accident, no chance!
The King of Pop knew exactly what he was doing. Designed for the radio, a DJ can talk over the intro, leave a gap for the big chords, talk again as the bass line kicks in, and then leave it to Michael.
Thriller was designed to be a radio hit. Michael and Quincy thought of everything!
I’ve designed some TAB for how to play all this on the guitar, including that creepy intro, meaning you could play Thriller in a band without keyboards.
We also look at the bass line, guitar riff and of course, analyze all chords.
After understanding how to play Thriller in this much depth, it’ll be easy for you to design a guitar part no matter the size of your band.
Here’s a link to the TAB lesson: Thriller – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Once you’ve got the riffs down, let’s take a look at the chords in this lesson.
The chorus starts with what you played during the intro, all chords are this for chorus 1.
| C#m (VI) C#m7 | C#m7 F# (IIx) E (I) | F# (IIx) | F#m (II) |
| C#m C#m7 | C#m7 F# E | F# | A (IV) F# (IIx) B (V) |
Apart from the IIx chord (F#) Thriller’s chorus chords are all diatonic.
Chorus 2 is the same until the last few bars as we prepare to go to the middle 8, like this:
| F# | A F# B | C#m F#7 |
Chorus 3‘s end is again different as we prolong it, like this:
| F# | A F# B | D#m7b5 Dmaj7 B11 | B11 |
Chorus 4 is the same as chorus 1, although, on the record, the guitar now plays the riff, which it continues to do for the outro.
Thriller’s middle 8 section has the most chords, it took me the longest to work out, this is what I believe it is:
| F#7 | F#7 | Amaj7 | Amaj7 A B |
| C#m | C#m/B | A#m7b5 | Amaj7 |
| G#sus4 | G# |
As you play along with the original recording, using the chords and lyrics provided above, aim to play all chords on three or maybe even just two strings.
Try different chord shapes until you feel you picked out the best notes for a part that will sit nicely in the mix.
Should you be lucky enough to play Thriller with a band that has keyboards, a horn section, and three singers, you certainly can’t play big chords! Instead, you need a small, well-defined part that cuts through and maybe this chord chart.


Thriller Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro
I tried so hard to get Thriller to fit on one page. In the end, I had to surrender to what you find above, a two-page chord chart.
Should you want to download this chart, here’s a PDF: Thriller Chord Chart PDF, page 1 and Thriller Chord Chart PDF, page 2.
This chord chart was created using iReal Pro, here’s a link to that file: Thriller iReal Pro, page 1 and Thriller iReal Pro, page 2. Using these and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
Thriller is the best-selling album of all time!
As a single from the album of the same name, Thriller sold an impressive 10 million copies. This is pretty crazy considering it was the 7th single from the album, you’d think everybody had it by now anyway!
The album Thriller sold a mindblowing 70 million copies worldwide with singles The Girl is Mine (with Paul McCartney), Billie Jean, Beat It, Wanna Be Starting Something, Human Nature, and P.Y.T., all before the title track was even released.
These 7 singles from the album were released between October ’82 and November ’83. Making the album relevant for over a year.
As Michael finally released Thriller as a single, it came with a music video so intense nobody had seen anything like it.
Inspired mainly by the movie An American Warewolf in London, but also by other horror films, it pushed the album to become the best-selling of all time.
As well as the music video which was more like a short film, they also made a making-of documentary which went on to become the best-selling videotape of all time.
In the early ’80s, Michael Jackson really did claim the title the King of Pop!
Thriller Chords | Related Pages
Thriller | Guitar Lesson + TAB
With this guitar lesson, you can learn to play Thriller by Michael Jackson using TAB and chord analysis.
| C#m (bass riff) | C#m (bass riff) |
It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark…
Five similar tunes | Chords + Lyrics
Michael Jackson tunes
The King of Pop became world-famous before he was even a teenager as he signed to Motown with his brothers as The Jackson 5.
After many hits, Michael Jackson embarked on a crazy solo career that would see him become as big as Elvis and The Beatles.
Michael Jackson on the web
About me | Dan Lundholm
This was a guitar lesson about Thriller’s chords, by Dan Lundholm. Discover more about him and how you can learn guitar with Spytunes.
Most importantly, find out why you should learn guitar through playing tunes, not by practising scales or studying theory in isolation.