Many people think that Michael Jackson wrote Thriller, but he didn't. It was another musical genius who penned the epic song that became the title track of the best selling album of all time.

Rod Temperton was an original member of the Funk / Disco band Heatwave who had hits with: Always And Forever, Boogie Nights, Groove Line and Too Hot To Handle. Born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England in 1947, Rod Temperton worked in a frozen fish factory after leaving school, but had big musical ambitions. He moved to Germany in 1972 and formed a soul covers band called Sundown Carousel. It was here that Temperton met Quincy Jones and began working with him. In the early 80's Temperton left Germany and moved to Beverley Hills, California.

In 1979, Quincy Jones enlisted the songwriting of Rod Temperton for Michael Jackson's Off The Wall album. He wrote Rock With You, Burn this Disco Out and the title track, Off The Wall. In 1982 Temperton wrote the title track of what would go on to be the best selling album of all time; Thriller.

Rod Temperton's Thriller demo was originally entitled Starlight. The name Thriller came to him after Quincy Jones had asked him to come up with a title for the album. He spent hours writing hundreds of different names down, and before bed settled on the title, Midnight Man. When he awoke the next morning he had a word in his head that he knew had to be the title; It was Thriller.

Rod Temperton also wrote the Vincent Price part for the Thriller Music Video, he did this on the day of the recording. As Price was on set, Temperton was in a panic in the back of a cab as he hadn't written the lines. He asked his driver to take him to the back entrance of the studio and hastily wrote the part, he handed the words to his secretary to photocopy and Vincent Price nailed it in two takes minutes later.

As well as writing the Thriller title track, Rod Temperton also penned Baby Be Mine and The Lady In My life for the album.

From humble beginnings, Rob Templeton has amassed a multi million pound fortune from his songwriting abilities. He has written for other artists such as:

Quincy Jones / Donna Summer / Herbie Hancock / Aretha Franklin / George Benson / James Ingram / Michael McDonald / Karen Carpenter / LL Cool J / Mica Paris / Mariah Carey / As well as his own band Heatwave.

Templeton owns homes in Los Angeles, Switzerland, the South of France, Kent, England and an island off of Fuiji. He says that he attributes his musical talent due to the fact that his father would place a transistor radio in his cot when he was a baby. Instead of drifting off to sleep listening to a bedtime story or lullaby, Rod Temperton was listening to Radio Luxembourg as a child. When he got older, he would skip school and stay at home playing drums along to the tv while his father was at work.

Rod Temperton rarely gives interviews and shuns publicity, preferring instead to enjoy his riches in private. Not bad for a boy from Cleethorpes who left school and worked in a frozen fish factory huh?