Books interview: Jed Pitman on his biography of Rod Temperton, the songwriter who wrote '˜Thirller'

He was the songwriter made a fortune from composing some of the best-known funk, pop and R&B tunes of the 1970s and 80s yet lived in closely guarded privacy, well away from the kind of attention that the likes of Michael Jackson, George Benson and Chaka Khan received from singing his songs.
Songwriter Rod Temperton wrote hits such as Thriller, Rock With You, Boogie Nights and Yah Mo B There. Picture: PASongwriter Rod Temperton wrote hits such as Thriller, Rock With You, Boogie Nights and Yah Mo B There. Picture: PA
Songwriter Rod Temperton wrote hits such as Thriller, Rock With You, Boogie Nights and Yah Mo B There. Picture: PA

He was the songwriter made a fortune from composing some of the best-known funk, pop and R&B tunes of the 1970s and 80s yet lived in closely guarded privacy, well away from the kind of attention that the likes of Michael Jackson, George Benson and Chaka Khan received from singing his songs.

To his death last year few knew much about Rod Temperton, the Cleethorpes-born writer of hits such as Thriller, Rock With You, Yah Mo B There and Boogie Nights beyond regular credits in sleevenotes but now a new book aims to shine a light his life and contribution to records which sold in their millions.

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The Invisible Man: The Story of Rod Temperton, the Thriller songwriter was written by Jed Pitman, a radio producer and broadcaster who managed the rare feat of interviewing Temperton for an audio documentary in 2006.

Jed Pitman based much of his biography of Rod Temperton on a radio documentary he made for the BBC.Jed Pitman based much of his biography of Rod Temperton on a radio documentary he made for the BBC.
Jed Pitman based much of his biography of Rod Temperton on a radio documentary he made for the BBC.

“It came about because Rod Temperton was a bit of an obsession,” Pitman says, explaining that Temperton’s 70s band Heatwave had been one of his favourites when he 12 or 13 years old. In 1979 he bought Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall album. “I remember putting it on in my bedroom and the second song came on, Rock With You, came on and I thought ‘Gosh, that sounds just like Heatwave’.”

Closer investigation revealed Temperton had also contributed the album’s title track and Burn This Disco Out. “I’d then buy records based on anything that Rod Temperton had written a song on,” Pitman says.

When the internet took off in the late 1990s Pitman searched for information on Rod Temperton, yet found remarkably little.

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Finally he did manage to track the enigmatic songwriter down via a music publisher and, after a smoke-filled four-hour meeting in a London cafe, persuaded him to talk. However when Pitman suggested a book and CD to accompany the documentary he found his subject unwilling. “He looked at me and said ‘Why would anyone want a book on me? No one would read it, no one cares’.”

Jed Pitman based much of his biography of Rod Temperton on a radio documentary he made for the BBC.Jed Pitman based much of his biography of Rod Temperton on a radio documentary he made for the BBC.
Jed Pitman based much of his biography of Rod Temperton on a radio documentary he made for the BBC.

Thankfully, the radio documentary proved simpler to put together, with many famous names including Quincy Jones happy to contribute. “Everyone you spoke to was thrilled that at last someone was doing something on this guy because he wasn’t ever going to push himself forward,” Pitman recalls.

It proved the same for The Invisible Man, which includes memories from the likes of George Benson, Patti Austin, Herbie Hancock and the late Johnnie Wilder Jr of Heatwave. What emerges is a portrait of man devoted to music – to such an extent he left a job in computing to head to Germany to eventually join the funk band Heatwave – but one who was deeply shy of publicity. Pitman relates how Temperton quit performing with Heatwave after two albums but continued to write songs for them behind the scenes before being whisked away permanently by Quincy Jones to Los Angeles to write and arrange albums he was producing.

Their greatest success of all came with Thriller, an album that’s estimated to have sold more than 100 million copies. Temperton wrote three songs for the record, including the title track which began life as a song called Starlight but Jones asked Temperton to come up with new lyrics to fit the tougher theme that was emerging from other tracks around it.

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“Rod knew he wanted one word because that fitted in with the song,” says Pitman. “He said about writing lyrics that the meaning of them didn’t necessarily matter, the lyrics to him would disappear into the melody of the song. The lyrics themselves were all about how many syllables they were for each word to fit lyrically and melodically with the song structure. He’s effectively using the words as another musical instrument rather than sending a message. He wrote about 300 words down and then he wrote the word ‘Thriller’ and that was it, he stopped and went ‘wow, I can see it on top of the Billboard charts, I can see the merchandising, I can see everything – Thriller by Michael Jackson.’”

The song’s rap section was famously penned by Temperton in the back of a taxi on the way to the studio where the actor Vincent Price was due to narrate it.

“How you come up with that when you’re not a wordsmith, music is your thing? It seemed incongruous,” Pitman marvels. “I don’t know how on earth you can write a rap like that, that not only fits the rhythm so well and then having the absolute luxury of having Vincent Price to do it, it would not have been the same had it been anyone else. He was very famous at the time, he had one the greatest voices, along with Richard Burton, of any actor in history, it all fitted in.

“That was the thing about Thriller. He said it was just one of those perfect storms where it wasn’t necessarily the music, it wasn’t necessarily the songs, but everything just fitted in to make it what it is today. Let’s face as long as our grandchildren are our alive it will be the biggest selling album of all time.”

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Despite his huge success in the States, Temperton remained “incredibly British”. “When I interviewed him I couldn’t believe that having lived in America for a long time he sounded like William Hague, who had not long been leader of the Conservatives. He sounded very northern. He didn’t come in dressed smart, he just looked like a very average Joe. There were other things that weren’t normal, he loved Formula 1 racing, so he could go to Monaco every year and he had a house there, and he invited Herbie Hancock to the first Bahrain Grand Prix.

“He had houses all over the world, there were rumours that he owned a Fijian island – that’s how rich he was. That’s why I think he turned down requests for interviews all the time; he didn’t think anyone cared.”

Such was Temperton’s indifference to celebrity, his death through cancer aged 66 was only announced in a simple press release after his funeral. “The final thing about Rod’s life, how typical of him that people suggest he may be the third most successful British songwriter in musical history and he dies and the press release only comes out after he’s been buried – that sums him up,” says Pitman. “He didn’t want any fuss, he didn’t want any stars turning up at his funeral, ‘just bury me and then let everyone know’.”

The Invisible Man: The Story of Rod Temperton by Jed Pitman is published by The History Press, priced £20.

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