Michael Jackson - Bad (1987)

"Bad" was a 1987 hit recording by American singer Michael Jackson. The song was the second of five Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit singles from the album Bad, (the first a time a recording artist achieved this feat) and was his seventh number-one single overall.

The song was originally intended as a duet with longtime rival Prince, which one can infer with the song's lyrics. Quincy Jones, in an interview included in the special edition of Bad, said that Prince told Jackson and him that he had not wanted to participate because "it would be a hit without (him)". In a 1996 interview with German TV, Prince also humorously said that the reason he didn't want to participate was the first line "Your butt is mine", and that he said to Jackson; "I ain't saying that to you... and you sure ain't saying that to me!"

In his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk, Jackson wrote: 'Bad' is a song about the street. It's about this kid from a bad neighborhood who gets to go away to a private school. He comes back to the old neighborhood when he's on a break from school and the kids from the neighborhood start giving him trouble. He sings, 'I'm bad, you're bad, who's bad, who's the best?' He's saying when you're strong and good, then you're bad." In a 1988 interview to Ebony and Jet magazines released on "Hulu" shortly after his death, Jackson said he got the idea from a true story. "This kid who went to school upstate [New York], in the country, whatever, who is from the ghetto and he tried to make something of his life and he would leave all his friends behind and when he came back, on spring break or whatever, thanks giving break, his friends became so envious, jealous of him they killed him. But in the film [Bad's music video] I don't die of course. So it was a true story that was...we had taken from Time or Newsweek magazine, and he's a black kid like me and...it's a sad story."

In 2006, the single, as well as the video, was re-released as part of the Visionary - The Video Singles package.

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