the king.

August 31, 1987: Michael Jackson released his seventh studio album, BAD.

Shortly after it’s release Bad started its six-week run on top the US album chart in that small time it managed to achieve five No. 1 singles. The singles that reached the top were “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” “Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Man in the Mirror” and “Dirty Diana.” No other artist had been able to beat that level of success until Katy Perry matched his record in 2010 with her album Teenage Dream.

Michael Jackson was nominated for six Grammy Awards after the release of Bad, “Album of the Year”, “Best Pop Vocal Performance – Male” and “Best R&B Vocal Performance – Male” as well as “Record of the Year” for “Man in the Mirror” that following year. In the end Bad won Grammy’s for “Best Engineered Recording” and “Best Music Video Short Form” for “Leave Me Alone” in 1990. 

(Leave Me Alone wasn’t included in the original release of BAD, but was later released on the CD version then LP.)

And during all this time BAD World tour ended up breaking world records. 

One for a record-setting revenue of over $124 million made during the tour.

The other for most successful concert series which sold out seven nights at Wembley Stadium in London in1988 with a total of 504,000 fans attending the shows.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Bad nine time platinum for having shipped nine million copies in the United States alone. Internationally, Bad was commercially successful. In the United Kingdom the album sold 500,000 copies in its first five days of release, and as of 2008 is certified 13× platinum, for sales of 3.9 million, making it Michael’s second biggest-selling album in the United Kingdom.

Happy 28th Birthday BAD…..~

Thank you to all the amazing people who worked on the album, (Thanks to wikipedia for the long list!) 

Writer, composer, vocal arrangement, co-producer, solo and background vocals: Michael Jackson

Producer: Quincy Jones

Engineer, executive producer, mixing, speaking part: Bruce Swedien

Background vocals: Siedah Garrett, The Winans and The Andraé Crouch Choir

Bass guitar: Nathan East

Hammond B-3 organ solo: Jimmy Smith

Synthesizer solo: Greg Phillinganes

Drums: John Robinson, Miko Brando, Ollie E. Brown, N'dugu Chancler, Bill Bottrell, Bruce Swedien

Drum programming: Douglas Getschal

Guitar: David Williams, Bill Bottrell, Eric Gale, Danny Hull, Steve Stevens, Dann Huff,Michael Landau, Paul Jackson, Jr.

Trumpets: Gary Grant and Jerry Hey

Sounds engineered: Ken Caillat and Tom Jones

Percussion: Paulinho da Costa, Ollie E. Brown

Keyboards: Stefan Stefanovic

Saxophones: Kim Hutchcroft, Larry Williams

Synclavier keyboards, digital guitar and rubboard: Christopher Currell

Synthesizers: John Barnes, Michael Boddicker, Greg Phillinganes, Christopher Currell, Rhett Lawrence, David Paich

Piano: John Barnes

Rhythm arrangement: Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones and Christopher Currell

Horn arrangement: Jerry Hey

Synthesizer programming: Larry Williams, Eric Persing, Steve Porcaro

Michael Jackson films in Brazil (1996) 

The airport had never been that crowded, there were hundreds of fans waiting for Michael. Some of them had cameras and posters, some of them were dressed up like him. All the fans were singing “you are not alone”.

Michael and the kids were the last ones to walk out of the plane, he had a black mask on. He tried to stay a little at the airport but there was way too many confusion, so he got inside the car and left to his hotel. All the rooms of the 11th floor at the Tropical Hotel were reserved for Michael and his staff; he asked for white towels, water, fruits and orange and apple juice.

Michael arrived to Pelourinho on Saturday; he had an umbrella with him to protect him from the sun and a black shirt. He went inside a room to change his clothes. When he came out he was wearing a pair of jeans, Olodum t-shirt and a black waistcoat. 

While Michael was filming on the roof of a house, a fan tried to run to him but was stopped by bodyguards, when Michael noticed, he asked them to let her in to meet with him. She was inside the house with him for about one hour. When she came out she told the press: ‘I was shakinga lot. I can’t believe I was with him. He’s so humble… So nice. I didn’t understand anything he was telling me, but everyone can tell he was happy. I’ve never seen him that happy’. 

After that Michael went back inside the room to get changed once again. He changed the white t-shirt for a red t-shirt. Some brazilian women who were in the same building said: “Oh he’s very shy! He asked us to get out of the room so he could change his t-shirt, although we couldn’t see a thing… He laughed a lot, and looked very happy!’. 

Another fan broke the wall of security men while Michael was filming and dancing in the street. She tried to hugged him and made him fall, Spike Lee helped him up and he continued filming. In one of his last scenes, he asked a boy to dance with him, the boy was so nervous  that his lips turned white. 

Michael went shopping to Ipanema, the news quickly spread, everyone in Rio knew Michael was at the mall. He went to a music store, took some albums from The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Later on he went to a store of brazilian instruments, spent some time on the percussions section. After that, he went to the ‘Look Toy Store’, he ignored the security rules and walked out of the store to give autographs. Two little kids tried to dudge the security men and go in the store. Michael bought them toys and gave them some money, in return they gave him a brazilian coin as a token.

“My father is a tough man and he pushed my brothers and me hard, from the earliest age, to be the best performers we could be. He had great difficulty showing affection. He never really told me he loved me. And he never really complimented me either. If I did a great show, he would tell me it was a good show. And if I did an OK show, he told me it was a lousy show.He seemed intent, above all else, on making us a commercial success. And at that he was more than adept. My father was a managerial genius and my brothers and I owe our professional success, in no small measure, to the forceful way that he pushed us. He trained me as a showman and under his guidance I couldn’t miss a step.

But what I really wanted was a Dad. I wanted a father who showed me love. And my father never did that. He never said I love you while looking me straight in the eye, he never played a game with me. He never gave me a piggyback ride, he never threw a pillow at me, or a water balloon.