By request!
Note: the CD I listened to was the 2001 "Special Edition" with 7 bonus tracks.
I hate to compare this album to its predecessor, Thriller, but I'm gonna do it anyway: it's just not as good. No matter; being MJ's third best album (after Thriller and Off the Wall) is still something fantastic. Quincy Jones does yet another great job and it makes me wonder why the Jackson/Jones team ever split. Most of the material on this was written by Jackson and while MJ puts out some excellent tunes here, he's no Rod Temperton when it comes to songwriting. However, MJ the performer brought his A game to this album so the charts loved Bad:
| Song | Hot 100 | R&B | AC | Dance |
| I Just Can't Stop Loving You | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Bad | 1 | 1 | 33 | 1 |
| The Way You Make Me Feel | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 |
| Man In the Mirror | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Dirty Diana | 1 | 5 | ||
| Another Part Of Me | 11 | 1 | 44 | 18 |
| Smooth Criminal | 7 | 2 | 10 |
Not bad, Michael. Throw in two Grammies to the mix then (Best Engineered Recording – Non Classical and Best Music Video for Leave Me Alone), add 30+ million-plus in global sales and you've really got something there. While I rarely listen to this album from top-to-bottom, I always enjoy the good tracks when they shuffle around on iTunes.
Update: In its 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone ranked Bad at #194.
Press of the time:
- Rolling Stone: "even without a milestone recording like 'Billie Jean,' Bad is a better record"
- Smash Hits (7 out of 10): "get beyond all the swish, impressive production tricks and the impressive arrangements, and the songs are not always entirely wonderful."
- Robert Christgau (B+): "the strongest and most consistent black pop album in years"
- Stereo Review: "good enough to keep him well ahead of his imitators"
Album chart peaks:
- US Billboard Top 200: #1 (6 consecutive weeks, Sept 26 - Oct 31, 1987)
- Billboard Pop CD: #1 (1 week, Oct 3, 1987)
- Billboard R&B: #1 (18 weeks)
- CashBox CD: #1 (1 week, Oct 17, 1987)
- Rolling Stone: #1 (2 weeks)
Tracks: My favorite cut on this album is easily The Way You Make Me Feel, an infectious, danceable shuffle with overbearing electronic drums. It's beyond the scope of this blog, but I just love that song's video for two reasons: 1) MJ acting tough while using a hair ribbon for a belt, and 2) model Tatiana Thumbtzen, who made my eyes pop out of my head like I was in a Tex Avery cartoon. Coming in second, third and fourth place are, respectively, Another Part Of Me, Smooth Criminal, and I Just Can't Stop Loving You. I was never much for Dirty Diana or Leave Me Alone. While Thriller was completely devoid of filler, this album has Speed Demon, a track that I'd put in that category. On the other hand, there are songs like Just Good Friends that are funky enough that they shoulda been released as a single.
Bonus tracks: some Quincy Jones interviews, a Spanish language version of I Just Can't Stop Loving You, and two previously unreleased tunes including one that probably should have been put on the album: Streetwalker.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: This is one of those albums I didn't feel the need to own upon its release because I could hear the songs constantly on the radio and see the videos on MTV. The local radio station would play all the tracks, even those not officially released as singles, so it wasn't uncommon to hear Liberian Girl, which I originally thought was Librarian Girl (that would make it a different song altogether, wouldn't it?)
Previously revisited for the blog:
The Jacksons - Story: Number 1's (2007)
Thriller (1982)
Off the Wall (1979)
For the longest time, my baddest memory of this album was hearing it in every stereo store I frequented at the time as it quickly replaced Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon and Alan Parsons Project's Eye In The Sky as the go to demo disc of stereo salesmen everywhere. It had more bass, more nuances and was just better sounding than any other disc out there.
ReplyDelete"I don't know, I don't know if I really need all that bass."
"Oh, I think you need all that bass."
(Dirk, that's your cue to bring even more employee of the month Buck Swope quotes and references.)
It wasn't until the mid-90s, when I brought up the Bad album with a former stereo salesman that he let me in on their dirty little secret: they usually weren't playing the Bad CD (at least not all the time), they were more than likely playing the The BAD Mixes, a special "audiophile" promo CD mixed and mastered to highlight the "benefits" of Monster Cables. In truth, the tracks on the CD had been remixed to be brighter, louder and deeper so when played after the regular CD and the Monster Cables had been connected and "swtiched on", it sounded undeniably better. Further confusing the listener/potential stereo buyer was the fact that all but two of the tracks were different versions of the original album tracks. The tracklist of that thirteen track CD is below. (There is an alternate nine track version as well - it lacks the four "Smooth Criminal" mixes.) I've never seen a copy for sale for less than $150 and I'm fairly certain I read that someone paid $500 for a sealed copy. To the best of my knowledge, all of the mixes were eventually released on other discs, either vinyl or CD. Whether or not they were these specially remixed Monster versions, I cannot say. I parted with my copy several years before MJ passed for a price within the above listed range.
1 Another Part Of Me (7" Version) 3:47
2 Another Part Of Me (Extended Dance Mix) 6:11
3 Dirty Diana 4:42
4 Man In The Mirror 4:55
5 The Way You Make Me Feel (7" Version) 4:26
6 The Way You Make Me Feel (Dance Extended Mix) 7:53
7 Bad (7" Version) 4:05
8 Bad (Dance Extended Mix) 8:24
9 I Just Can't Stop Loving You (7" Version) 4:10
10 Smooth Criminal (7" Version) 4:10
11 Smooth Criminal (Annie Mix) 5:35
12 Smooth Criminal (Dance Mix Dub Version) 4:45
13 Smooth Criminal (A Cappella Mix) 4:12