Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

From EW:

How do you top the best-selling album of all time? Well, you don’t. But Michael Jackson sure gave it an epic effort when he followed up his 1982 juggernaut Thriller with another blockbuster, Bad, which was released 30 years ago today on Aug. 31, 1987.

While Bad couldn’t measure up to its predecessor commercially or artistically, it was still a regal achievement for the late King of Pop, becoming the first LP to score five consecutive No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 — that’s three more chart-toppers than Thriller.

And just consider the fact that Jackson’s final collaboration with super-producer Quincy Jones was released just two days after the singer’s 29th birthday, which means that he gave the world Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad before he even turned 30.

In honor of the LP’s 30th anniversary, EW ranks all 11 tracks on the last album of MJ’s ’80s domination.

11. “Just Good Friends”
After pairing up with Paul McCartney on Thriller’s “The Girl Is Mine,” Jackson teamed up with Stevie Wonder for this song, written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, the duo behind Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It.” But this meeting of Motown legends didn’t live up to its star billing. As hard as Jackson and Wonder try to funk it up, this track — which sounds as if it would have been better suited for their teen-phenom selves — isn’t worthy of them. They fared better later in 1987 on their duet “Get It,” off Wonder’s Characters album.

10. “Speed Demon”
Between 1982’s Thriller and 1987’s Bad, Prince had arrived in a big way. And, in his first post-Purple Rain effort, Jackson attempted to strike an edgier pose on tracks like this funk-rock ode to driving fast, which he wrote after reportedly getting a speeding ticket and consequently arriving late to the studio. With the production — and MJ’s agitated vocal — being better than the actual song, it never quite shifts into high gear.

9. “Leave Me Alone”
Musically, this was an obvious rewrite of the superior Bad track “The Way You Make Me Feel.” But lyrically, it tapped into the growing paranoia that Jackson was feeling at the time. It’s a bit sad to hear that now, knowing how it all ended up for Jackson, but it was still a bit of a revelation to hear him opening up about his struggles with being the King of Pop.

8. “Liberian Girl”
This song was especially important to Bad because it was the only real R&B ballad on the album. And while it’s not in the same league as Thriller’s “The Lady in My Life” or Off the Wall’s “I Can’t Help It,” it had the same kind of soulful sumptuousness, while also nodding to his global impact and vision.

7. “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”
The first single from Bad was also the first of its five No. 1 hits. A duet with Siedah Garrett — who stepped in after both Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston reportedly passed on this chance to sing with MJ — it melted their voices together in romantic unison. Maudlin, yes, but only the biggest hater could resist.

6. “Another Part of Me”
Originally featured in Captain EO — the 3D short film directed by Francis Ford Coppola that was shown at Disney theme parks — this song sets out to unite the planet with “a major love.” The infectious groove — punched up with some of Jackson’s trademark “hee-hees”—makes his mission undeniable.

5. “Bad”
When Jackson threatens that “your butt is mine” at the beginning of Bad’s title track, your first thought is, “Really, dude?” As a badass, he is utterly unconvincing. But despite the suspense of disbelief that it requires, the second single — which spawned an iconic video directed by Martin Scorsese — sizzles on the sheer enormity of Jackson’s and producer Quincy Jones’ talent.

4. “Dirty Diana”
No, Bad’s fifth and final No. 1 hit wasn’t about Jackson’s mentor Diana Ross. Nor was it about Princess Diana, although she reportedly told MJ that it was her favorite of his songs. Instead, the lyrics are about a groupie who won’t “just let me be.” Taking the rock of Thriller’s “Beat It” to the next level — with help from Billy Idol guitarist Steve Stevens — it is a headbanging blast.

3. “The Way You Make Me Feel”
While Bad sometimes may have felt like Jackson was trying too hard after Thriller, the third single is effortless bliss. From the moment those pistons set it off, that rubbery bounce just makes you feel all kinds of good. A soulful update of the classic Motown sound, it also displayed a sexual urgency that gave a little more meaning to those crotch grabs.

2. “Smooth Criminal”
If there was one song on Bad that truly captured the sense of artistic freedom that Jackson felt after Thriller, it was this track. Making the evil spirits of “Thriller” look pretty soft, it’s a menacing tale of a woman named Annie being struck down by an assailant in her apartment. As MJ spits out the gory details, the beat attacks you relentlessly. This is pop music as suspense drama.

1. “Man in the Mirror”
In addition to crooning with Jackson on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” Siedah Garrett made an even more important contribution to Bad by co-writing its fourth single with Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill). Surpassing another message song that Jackson had penned with Lionel Richie — 1985’s all-star anthem “We Are the World” — this is a towering tune that defined Jackson’s career as much as “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough,” “Billie Jean” or “Beat It.”

It showed just how much he had learned from both Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. For five glorious minutes — with MJ taking it to church midway through — it really feels as if a song could change the world.

http://ew.com/music/2017/08/31/micha...-song-ranking/

I remember this album was huge. You couldn't turn on the radio or MTV without hearing or seeing a song from this album being played.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I always liked the album, particularly the titular track. Though I got the impression it was a massive disappointment to casual Jackson fans that wanted Thriller II. It certainly never made the cultural impact that Thriller had at its peak.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I liked this album better.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Even_Worse.jpg

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Yeah, I can see why this was a little disappointing compared to Thriller.

I really like Smooth Criminal, Leave Me Alone, but Man In the Mirror, while a great song, comes across as way too preachy. If it feels like a PSA or something. Beautiful song though, and I love the way he delivers the chorus/hook.

The only two albums I have of his are Off The Wall and Thriller. I still think Off the Wall is his best album.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

It might've been low on the list but, sonically, Speed Demon was a demon.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Stvn1974, yeah...the Weird Al Eat It parody video is a classic, so wonderful.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Great, great album. Slash is all over it.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Too bad Prince never appeared in the Bad video.

That would have been epic.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

You're thinking of his next album, Dangerous.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Huh? The album IS Thriller II. It follows pretty much the exact same formula as Thriller. The disappointing element of it was that the songwriting wasn't as stellar as it was on Thriller.

I do enjoy the album but it's not as perfect as Thriller nor did it have anything to prove like Dangerous.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Michael Jackson didn't "drop" anything 30 years ago. That's a lame-ass term from this century. :nopanic:

He released Bad which was a kick ass album and still one of the greatest concerts I've ever seen.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

My sentiments as well, but looking and hearing this album after all these years, I'm surprised and happy how well these songs hold up. Still pretty damn good Jackson music.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Smooth Criminal is easily the best song in the lot. But I definitively enjoy this album as a whole.

"Dangerous" was the bigger disappointment.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

First thing I thought of too. :lol:

Michael has become one of those artists that, if I hear it on an classic pop/rock station, I'll listen to it. But I don't have any of his CDs and I don't go looking for him on Pandora, Youtube, etc. Just didn't age well for me.


But Alien Ant Farm's cover of Smooth Criminal is a constant presence on my iPhone's music library.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

One thing I clearly remember : this was one of the very early albums I got on CD (got my first CD player Christmas 1986). I remember being blown away by the production of many of the tracks, listening on my headphones. I'd never heard intricately produced layered tracks that clearly before. I was very impressed (though I only really dug Man in the Mirror and Smooth Criminal ; never really liked the title track).

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Just picked this up on vinyl and listened to it three times yesterday. I had no idea until just now that it was the 30th anniversary, very weird!

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

:lol: My teen-age self had such a crush on the woman in this video.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I've always preferred Bad to Thriller. Mostly because I enjoy the deep cuts on Bad far more than everything other than the top three singles on Thriller.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Still a great album, but you don't top Thriller. It's like asking Pink Floyd to put out another Dark Side of the Moon album. Man in the Mirror is still one of my favorite MJ songs.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Love Smooth Criminal.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Tatiana Thumbtzen

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I heard he dropped a digit on an eight year old.

Jokes aside this is the only MJ album I own. It came out when I was 9 and the wake of the album extended for years. Singles were still dropping and Moonwalker was happening for 5 years. So it covers a huge swath of my formative years. Indeed you couldn't escape this music.

I still say that the long version of Smooth Criminal is the best music video ever made.

Also, my 6 and 9 year old love Smooth Criminal.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I never got the adulation for this cover. It takes out all the tension and atmosphere of the original.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

The cover gives it the ferocity and harder edge that the subject calls for.

Heck, I can barely remember how the original sounded anymore. The cover has been part of my music life for so long.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

To me the cover sounds monotonous, like the band is on speed and doesn't know how to slow it down.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I'll agree with mallet. I don't mind the AAF version, but it lacks the punch of the original. Kinda in the same way that Rascal Flatts turned Life is a Highway into a flat monotonous mess.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

That's what punk rock sounds like.

That being said the original is better.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

From Rolling Stone:

How Michael Jackson's 'Bad' Scored a Staggering Five Number Ones.

When Michael Jackson released Bad in 1987, he accomplished something astonishing: One after another, the singles "I Can't Stop Loving You," "Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana" shot to the top of the Hot 100.

Quincy Jones on the Making of Michael Jackson's 'Bad'
"I thought it was time for him to do a very honest album," producer says of 1987 smash that spawned "Man in the Mirror" and four other Number Ones.

Chris Anokute, then a kid in New Jersey, was wowed by the hit parade. "It was godlike to watch Michael Jackson's videos and hear those songs," he says. "I never imagined an artist could do that kind of magic."

Only one other artist has ever matched Jackson's feat: Katy Perry, who scored her fifth Number One from Teenage Dream when "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" topped the Hot 100 in 2011. Anokute – now Senior VP of A&R for Epic Records – helped sign Perry to Capitol a decade ago, and he served as an A&R on Teenage Dream.

To achieve five Number Ones, he suggests an artist requires three key ingredients: "momentum, clarity of vision and chemistry with your collaborators."

With these elements in mind, we look back at Bad in honor of its 30th anniversary.

Jackson had a strong tailwind propelling him into Bad: Its predecessor Thriller featured seven Top 10 hits and went on to become the best-selling album of all time.

But even during the era of super-sales, one LP flying off the shelves was not a guarantee of an equally explosive follow-up – take the example of Fleetwood Mac, who famously dominated with Rumours and then shipped several million fewer units of Tusk.

Jackson was keenly aware of the stakes. In Spike Lee's 2012 Bad documentary, his collaborators remember him writing "100 million" on a mirror to keep his album-sales goal front and center.

"There was a lot of pressure on Michael," producer and songwriter Bill Bottrell tells Rolling Stone. Bottrell worked closely with keyboardist John Barnes and Jackson at his home studio creating demos for Bad. "He was a great motivator – he would motivate me, and part of that was this has to out-sell Thriller and things like that."

Many of the same collaborators that had aided Jackson on Thriller were still in his orbit for Bad, adding to the star's impetus. This group included keyboard player Greg Phillinganes, engineer engineer Bruce Swedien, synth player Michael Boddicker, trumpeter Jerry Hey, percussionist Paulinho Da Costa, and the guitarists David Williams and Paul Jackson Jr.

Add to that list legendary producer Quincy Jones, already three decades into a wildly varied career that included collaborations with some of history's greatest singers, like Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.

Jackson had another force in his favor as he ramped up for Bad: Music technology was developing quickly during the mid-Eighties, and the Jackson braintrust rapidly incorporated the latest electronic wizardry into their compositions.

"When you listen to that album, they just went insane for Yamaha DX7s and Roland D-550s," says Stephen Bray, who worked as a producer and writer on Madonna's Eighties juggernauts (Like a Virgin, True Blue and Like a Prayer).

"It was, 'Oh, my god, we can create sounds no one has ever heard before.' I can emulate the sound of Bootsy Collins or Larry Graham plucking a bass and mix that into a huge, Moog-sounding, Stevie Wonder Music of My Mind thing now.

I can have the sound of 500 people clapping. It was this convergence of the most advanced technology in the known universe at your disposal mixed with old-school musicality."

This pushed Jackson to greater heights, as did the confluence of once-in-a-lifetime artists making music at the same time he was – Madonna, Whitney Houston, Prince, Michael's sister Janet and George Michael.

Over the course of the Eighties, more than 30 LPs yielded four or more Top Ten singles on the Hot 100; no other decade has produced half as many steamrolling pop records. Producer Narada Michael Walden, who teamed up with Whitney Houston on many of her Eighties Number Ones, describes the atmosphere during the decade as "a healthy rivalry" for chart dominance.

Bray likens the sense of one-upmanship to "the way that the Beatles and the Beach Boys had this wonderful 'whoa, did you hear Pet Sounds? Now what are we gonna do?'"

"You always wanted to bring in your A-game," remembers Glen Ballard, who co-wrote Bad's "Man in the Mirror." "Believe me."

Jackson handled the majority of songwriting on Bad. He wrote or co-wrote three of the 10 tracks on Off the Wall and four of the nine on Thriller, but both LPs also featured multiple standout contributions from Rod Temperton ("Rock With You," "The Lady in My Life") and others. In contrast, Jackson penned eight of the 10 songs on the original version of Bad, including four of the five Number Ones.

His new position as writer-in-chief was immediately apparent during the demo sessions. "The vision came from Michael," Bottrell says. "He beat-boxed the grooves and I would try to make it happen; same with John Barnes. Michael's grooves came out of his mouth into my cassette recorder, and they were awesome from the beginning. It was brilliant to soak up his approach, which was one of extreme focus on the song and the outcome of the song."

The notable exception to Jackson's writing monopoly was "Man in the Mirror," which Siedah Garrett penned with Ballard. It's a testament to the power of their demo that it was able to stand out from the heap of other tracks that Jones was sifting through at the time. "Every songwriter in L.A. was sending Quincy songs for Patti [Austin] and Michael," Garrett remembers. When she finished "Man in the Mirror," she personally drove the demo to Jones' house and pressed it into his hand.

"He called me back a couple hours later like, 'This is the best song I've heard in, like, 10 years,'" Garrett recalls. Not longer after, she ended up on the phone with Jackson himself. "The first thing he said to me was, 'I love this song,'" she recounts. "The next thing he said to me was, 'I love your voice.'" Then he asked her to add four more bars to the song's hook.

Jackson and Jones had strong ideas about where they wanted to take the sound of Bad, too. There's a notable absence of live bass on the album relative to Thriller; more than half the low-end was played on a synth. This helped turbocharge one of Quincy Jones' production strategies.

"Quincy's philosophy was an outhouse bottom with a penthouse view," says Walden, who credits Jones with encouraging him to move into production. "It's gotta have a stank on the bottom, and then be pretty with a skyline view on top. "Then you can play it in the bar, the club, the yacht," he continues. "It works everywhere."

Jackson developed many of the Bad songs in the comfort of his own home in an environment Bottrell describes as "a creative lab where Michael could work out what he wanted to do." "

There were not a lot of people; no egos to deal with; a lot of sidetracks down rabbit holes, but that was the point," Bottrell continues. "I think Michael was quite relaxed the whole time.

We had months and months of me sitting in the control room with him just having lunch, talking, watching movies on a rainy day when we didn't feel like doing something. It was really magic."

Ballard has similarly fond memories of the album's creation. "Some people really want things to happen right away," he explains. "The way we were making records was a slow process, but he was such a positive person and very patient with the process.

It was pure fun; it was never work." Of course, no bond mattered as much as the one between Jackson and Jones, who had known each other for close to a decade at this point.

"It's like a great actor with a great director," says Diane Warren, an ace songwriter who has written 32 Top 10 hits over the last three decades. "It's hard to direct yourself. Put Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese together – it's like that with Michael and Quincy.

Any great artist needs someone to draw out their best, that can understand them and help take them to the next level."

For Bray, the best demonstration of the Jackson/Jones mind-meld is the background vocals on Bad. "Normally you put three-part background vocals on the track, and it sounds good," he explains. "You go with a more-or-less gospel approach: a fifth or a third of a chord singing behind the melody.

If you listen to the backgrounds on Bad, not only are you getting those, you're getting sevenths, you're getting ninths and elevenths. In less experienced hands, it would sound like mud.

But they managed to put in five-note chords. They got background vocals that sound like nothing we had ever heard before in that context."

"The intention was always to make Bad great. Like, all time great." –"Man in the Mirror" co-writer Glen Ballard.

"Michael was at the peak of his power," adds Ballard. "Quincy was at the peak. And we were all in sync to make this really, really special record. The intention was always to make it great. Really great. Like, all time great."

The first single from Bad hit Number One on September 19th, 1987. To Garrett's surprise, Jackson picked their duet, "I Can't Stop Loving You," as the record's initial offering. "I didn't think it was the strongest," she says. But listeners didn't seem to feel the same objections.

The turnover at the Hot 100 was much more rapid during the Eighties, which helped blockbuster albums land hit after hit. In 2017, Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" held the top spot for 12 weeks, and "Despacito" has held it for 16; in contrast, no song in 1987 or 1988 was Number One for more than four weeks.

Jackson struck again with "Bad," which reigned for two weeks in October, and topped his own personal best for Number Ones from a single album (Off the Wall and Thriller both enjoyed a pair) when "The Way You Make Me Feel" reached the top spot in January of 1988.

"Man in the Mirror" was the first Number One single of the spring in 1988 for two weeks, and "Dirty Diana" rose to make history as the fifth Number One from a single album in July.

"It's not that hard to figure out," Warren says of Jackson's chart-topping barrage. "Come up with a bunch of great songs, produce them great, sing them great."

Anokute is sure that no one else will be able to repeat the perfect storm of personnel and timing. "I can say this with confidence: it'll never happen again," the A&R vet declares.

"There are going to be new highlights, new achievements for recording artists. But I can tell you with full certainty that no artist is going to have five Number Ones on an album again."

His new position as writer-in-chief was immediately apparent during the demo sessions. "The vision came from Michael," Bottrell says.

"He beat-boxed the grooves and I would try to make it happen; same with John Barnes. Michael's grooves came out of his mouth into my cassette recorder, and they were awesome from the beginning.

It was brilliant to soak up his approach, which was one of extreme focus on the song and the outcome of the song."

The notable exception to Jackson's writing monopoly was "Man in the Mirror," which Siedah Garrett penned with Ballard. It's a testament to the power of their demo that it was able to stand out from the heap of other tracks that Jones was sifting through at the time.

"Every songwriter in L.A. was sending Quincy songs for Patti [Austin] and Michael," Garrett remembers. When she finished "Man in the Mirror," she personally drove the demo to Jones' house and pressed it into his hand.

"He called me back a couple hours later like, 'This is the best song I've heard in, like, 10 years,'" Garrett recalls. Not longer after, she ended up on the phone with Jackson himself.

"The first thing he said to me was, 'I love this song,'" she recounts. "The next thing he said to me was, 'I love your voice.'" Then he asked her to add four more bars to the song's hook.

Jackson and Jones had strong ideas about where they wanted to take the sound of Bad, too. There's a notable absence of live bass on the album relative to Thriller; more than half the low-end was played on a synth.

This helped turbocharge one of Quincy Jones' production strategies. "Quincy's philosophy was an outhouse bottom with a penthouse view," says Walden, who credits Jones with encouraging him to move into production. "It's gotta have a stank on the bottom, and then be pretty with a skyline view on top.

"Then you can play it in the bar, the club, the yacht," he continues. "It works everywhere."

Jackson developed many of the Bad songs in the comfort of his own home in an environment Bottrell describes as "a creative lab where Michael could work out what he wanted to do."

"There were not a lot of people; no egos to deal with; a lot of sidetracks down rabbit holes, but that was the point," Bottrell continues. "I think Michael was quite relaxed the whole time.

We had months and months of me sitting in the control room with him just having lunch, talking, watching movies on a rainy day when we didn't feel like doing something. It was really magic."

Ballard has similarly fond memories of the album's creation. "Some people really want things to happen right away," he explains. "The way we were making records was a slow process, but he was such a positive person and very patient with the process. It was pure fun; it was never work."

Of course, no bond mattered as much as the one between Jackson and Jones, who had known each other for close to a decade at this point. "It's like a great actor with a great director," says Diane Warren, an ace songwriter who has written 32 Top 10 hits over the last three decades.

"It's hard to direct yourself. Put Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese together – it's like that with Michael and Quincy. Any great artist needs someone to draw out their best, that can understand them and help take them to the next level."

For Bray, the best demonstration of the Jackson/Jones mind-meld is the background vocals on Bad. "Normally you put three-part background vocals on the track, and it sounds good," he explains.

"You go with a more-or-less gospel approach: a fifth or a third of a chord singing behind the melody. If you listen to the backgrounds on Bad, not only are you getting those, you're getting sevenths, you're getting ninths and elevenths.

In less experienced hands, it would sound like mud. But they managed to put in five-note chords. They got background vocals that sound like nothing we had ever heard before in that context."

Michael was at the peak of his power," adds Ballard. "Quincy was at the peak. And we were all in sync to make this really, really special record. The intention was always to make it great.

Really great. Like, all time great." The first single from Bad hit Number One on September 19th, 1987. To Garrett's surprise, Jackson picked their duet, "I Can't Stop Loving You," as the record's initial offering. "I didn't think it was the strongest," she says. But listeners didn't seem to feel the same objections.

The turnover at the Hot 100 was much more rapid during the Eighties, which helped blockbuster albums land hit after hit. In 2017, Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" held the top spot for 12 weeks, and "Despacito" has held it for 16; in contrast, no song in 1987 or 1988 was Number One for more than four weeks.

Jackson struck again with "Bad," which reigned for two weeks in October, and topped his own personal best for Number Ones from a single album (Off the Wall and Thriller both enjoyed a pair) when "The Way You Make Me Feel" reached the top spot in January of 1988.

"Man in the Mirror" was the first Number One single of the spring in 1988 for two weeks, and "Dirty Diana" rose to make history as the fifth Number One from a single album in July.

"It's not that hard to figure out," Warren says of Jackson's chart-topping barrage. "Come up with a bunch of great songs, produce them great, sing them great."

Anokute is sure that no one else will be able to repeat the perfect storm of personnel and timing. "I can say this with confidence: it'll never happen again," the A&R vet declares.

"There are going to be new highlights, new achievements for recording artists. But I can tell you with full certainty that no artist is going to have five Number Ones on an album again."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/fe...e-hits-w500109

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I know that most people (and lyrics web sites) agree that 'Your butt is mine' is the opening line of 'Bad' but I remember way way back some radio DJs having a different interpretation. They were doing a show on misheard lyrics and claimed that the line is actually 'Your burden's mine'. (I can understand how they would think this since I've always thought MJ was saying 'Your bird is mine' in the opening..so all of you parakeet owners should beware.) I've never seen the 'burden' version of the line corroborated anywhere and was wondering if anyone else has ever come across this interpretation.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Offering to take on another person’s burden doesn’t sound like a statement that would be all that congruous with the assertion that one is “Bad”.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Could we permanently replace "dropped" with "released" from now on please?

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I was watching Joyful Noise the other day, and Keke Palmer et al performed a gospel-choir version of “Man in the Mirror.” Still a really good song.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Honestly, it's a damn near perfect album. I love nearly every track. I cannot for the life of me recall Just Good Friends though.

It's been awhile, might have to give it a play tomorrow at work.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

Supposedly "Bad" was going to be a duet with Prince, but when Prince heard that lyric, he bolted.

I don't think he wanted to work with him at all and would've found another reason, but that was the story. He apparently offered the excuse to Michael that it was a hit already and didn't need him on the song to be one.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I remember reading many years ago that Prince had unreleased duets with both Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen locked away in his vaults. I hope that was true and that one day we can hear them.

Re: Michael Jackson dropped Bad 30 years ago today.
 

I got out of My Michael Jackson phase when this and Dangerous came out.

The Bad video would have been a classic if Prince was in it.