Bad

Released August 31, 1987 via Epic, Bad is the follow-up to the best-selling album ever made, and the last Michael Jackson record Quincy Jones produced. Jackson wrote all but two of its songs and spent two years chasing a goal he kept written on his mirror: 100 million copies. Jones called his production philosophy "an outhouse bottom with a penthouse view," and here the bottom is mostly synthesizer. More than half the low end is synth bass, and the backing vocals stack sevenths, ninths and elevenths into harmonies that sound like chrome.

"I Just Can't Stop Loving You," a duet with Siedah Garrett, "Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana" all went to No. 1. "Smooth Criminal" became the anti-gravity lean and one of the most imitated performances in pop. This is where Jackson's control tightened into aggression: funk pushed into rock, vocals at their most percussive. It sold more than 35 million copies and launched a world tour that ran sixteen months.

EU reissue on 12" 180g black vinyl.