Bad

Sources : My personal research, Wikipedia, Michael Jackson: For The Record by Chris Cadman & Craig Halstead, Twitter account of Damien Shields and the amazing archives of the MJCast.

ERA

1985-1989 : Bad era

RECORDING DATE

Recorded in October 1986.

Quincy Jones and MJ planned to duet on “Bad” with musician Prince, but Prince declined the invitation. in a later interview, Prince said: “The first line of that song is ‘your butt is mine’. Then I said ‘Who’s going to sing that to who?’ … because you sure aren’t singing that to me, and I sure ain’t singing it to you.” Prince instead submitted his song “Wouldn’t You Love To Love Me”, but Jackson rejected it, so it was instead given to Taja Sevelle.

STUDIO(S)

Westlake Studios, Los Angeles, California

SONGWRITER(S)

Michael Jackson

PRODUCER(S)

Quincy Jones

RELEASE DATE :

August 31, 1987 (album version “Bad”)

September 7, 1987 (single version)

LABEL

Epic Records

LENGTH

4:07 (album version)

ALTERNATE VERSIONS RECORDED BY MJ (covers and remixes by other artists are not included)

7″ single mix (new album version) – 4:06
Dance extended mix includes “false fade” – 8:23
Dance remix radio edit – 4:56
Dub version – 4:06
A cappella – 3:49

Bad (short film soundtrack version) : Mixed done in 1986 for the “Bad” short film. Remains unreleased.

Bad (Pepsi Commercial with new lyrics) : Recorded in 1986 & used in Pepsi commercials in 1987. Remains unreleased. A longer version leaked in 2020 but remains unreleased.

MUSICIANS

???

PEAK ON HOT 100 BILLBOARD :

1

SHORT FILM

Music video directed by Martin Scorsese

Date of shooting : November 19-29, 1986

Date of premiere : August 31, 1987

Official release : Released on DVD in 1995 (History), in 2003 (Number Ones) and in 2010 (Vision) and on Michael’ You Tube official page

PEPSI COMMERCIALS

April 1987 : Michael shoots a 4 minute commercial for Pepsi directed by Joe Pytka titled “The Chase”. The first version of “The Chase” featured a Pepsi version of the song “The Price Of Fame”. Later the song is replaced by a Pepsi version of “Bad”. The Chase premieres during the 1988 Grammy Awards broadcast on March, 1, 1988.

Michael shoots a new Pepsi commercial with a special version of the song “Bad”. During the filming he meets 9 years old actor Jimmy Safechuck.

LIVE PERFORMANCES ON TV SHOWS

Never performed on TV

LIVE PERFORMANCES IN CONCERTS

Bad World Tour 1987-1989

Dangerous World Tour 1992 (first and second leg)