Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson,

bringing the past to life through striking first-hand testimony.

This week, America's War Hero General Patton remembered by his grandson.

This car drives up and this man gets out with these boots and pistols, big cigar and a helmet,

and I'm sitting there with a little army pedal car and he turns and looks at me and he says,

who the hell are you?

Also a publishing scandal from the 1950s.

Lowlita, light of my life, fire of my loins, my sin, my soul, lo-leader.

And it's a wonderful life, the all-time Christmas classic film.

A bell rings and I say,

Daddy, teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.

And he says, that's right.

That's all to come.

But we're going to begin with one of those marker posts on the long and winding road which is popular music.

We're going back to the winter of 1982 and to the release of Michael Jackson's

album Thriller. It was to become and still remains the best-selling album of all time.

It's very likely that some of its tracks will have prompted

office workers at staff Christmas parties around the world this past week to

have shed their inhibitions and embarrassed themselves on the dance floor.

With singles such as Beat it and Billy Jean,

it cemented Jackson's title as The King of Pop.

Fahanahythe reports. Michael Jackson's thriller album was released at the end of November 1982.

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