The soaring ballad “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” blooms with soft-rock keyboards and one of Jackson’s most delicate, vulnerable vocal performances. The atmospheric parts of “Bad” are almost more affecting, however. (The Minneapolis influence is likely no accident: Jones actually wanted “Bad’s" taut, disco-pop title track to be a Jackson-Prince duet, and the two pop stars even met in person to discuss collaborating.) Even the lightweight “Speed Demon” has a nasty, corrugated rhythmic underbelly. The sizzling synths and sharp rhythms of the Stevie Wonder duet “Just Good Friends” in particular recall the work the duo did with another Jackson (Janet), while “Another Part of Me” is a flashy soul revue with horn bleats and oohing harmonies. Wisely, many songs put a nimble spin on the funk-pop production style popularized by Minneapolis geniuses Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. It’s just records.” Still, that didn’t mean the driven Jackson - whom Martin Scorsese called “a perfectionist” in the same story – couldn’t try.Īnd 25 years later, “Bad” - which is being reissued today with a bonus disc of demos, bonus tracks and remixes - compares very favorably to “Thriller.” Buoyed by Quincy Jones’ deft production (Jackson received a co-production credit), the album is far more muscular and sculpted, but doesn’t sound labored. But if it doesn’t, it’s not the end of the world. If it’s possible for him to sell 50 million records, let that happen. Even Stevie Wonder told Rolling Stone that the King of Pop shouldn’t be too hard on himself: “You can’t think about what people will like you go crazy doing that. The short answer is, you can’t equal such freakish success. In a 1987 Rolling Stone cover story, David Handelman and Michael Goldberg observed that Michael Jackson felt immense, self-imposed pressure while crafting “Bad.” Obviously, this stress was understandable: After all, how does someone follow up “Thriller,” a superlative album that featured seven top-10 hits, sold over 38 million copies and netted seven Grammy Awards?
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