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“Bad” (Song)
Date range confirmed by the fact that, in Mike Smallcombe’s “Making Michael”, “In August 1986, after more than two years of on-off work, Michael was ready to join forces with the A-Team again, as he felt he had enough material to present to Quincy, and “by late October [1986], Jackson and Jones had finished several songs, including ‘Bad,’” (“Spin” Magazine, June 1987)
Michael Jackson, Ebony / Jet Showcase interview
E/J: How do you feel about the song "Bad"? We talked earlier and I told you that, I like the song "Bad" because it's really all about you. You are the baddest when it comes to the record industry.
MJ: Well... It is quite different from anything I've ever recorded, or I've ever written. It's a bold statement to say, but I mean it in all goodwill. You know, so don't take it too seriously. Yeah, I'm saying, it's like a way of saying you're cool, you're all right, you're tough. I'm not saying I'm like criminally bad. Of course, that's how people would take it. It's a bold statement to make.
It is October 1986, and Michael Jackson is holed up in a West Hollywood recording studio trying to complete the follow-up to Thriller, the best-selling album of all time. The new record has been in production for almost a year already and is long overdue...
“He’s afraid to finish the record,” says an associate of Jackson’s. “The closer he gets to completing it, the more terrified he becomes of that confrontation with the public. Quincy Jones could only keep him protected from it for so long, then he leaves the studio and it’s there. He’s reminded that everyone is waiting for this record and he goes into a shell. He is frightened.”
The first thing that people who know him tell you is that there is Michael and there is the corporate entity called “Michael Jackson.” “He has a split personality,” says a member of his staff. “He is very bright and self-destructively brilliant. He has an extremely high I.Q. and certain quirks and personality disorders. He might have six or twenty sides to him, and they’re all competing against each other.”...
It’s a clear, sunny day in West Hollywood. To the north, the Hollywood hills rise majestically over the splashy billboards, palm trees, car washes, burger stands, and mini-markets that dominate this seedy district. At night the area turns into a pick-up strip for male hookers and transvestites; otherwise no one goes there. It’s the perfect spot for someone who craves anonymity.
Westlake Studio is a well-kept secret, a nondescript, two-story red brick building with beige trim and draped, tinted windows. No signs announce its location; it blends perfectly with the neighborhood’s bland architecture. But in the tight alley behind Westlake sit Mercedes, Rolls-Royces, Ferraris, and stretch limousines with judiciously darkened windows.
Inside the studio, Michael Jackson is pacing the floor as jazz organist Jimmy Smith lays down tracks for a song called “Bad.” It’s a leaping, driving, swaggering song about what a young man can do in bed, seemingly made to order for Smith’s hard-swinging style. He has knocked out one remarkable take after another, improvising solos with a wide, toothy smile.
But Michael wants something more. After the playback, he hears Lola Smith ask if everyone picked up on Jimmy’s grunts while he was playing. Now Michael wants those grunts on tape, says he has to have them. Smith goes back into the booth to deliver again, this time complete with funky grunts. During these takes, Michael comes out of his shell, rocking and stamping his feet. He doesn’t ever talk much, except to Jones and Frank DiLeo, his short, squat manager who has just come into the studio wrapped in a billowing cloud of cigar smoke.
As Michael nibbles on a pomegranate and whispers in DiLeo’s ear, Smith begins another solo, this one even more astonishing than the others. He finishes the take and returns to the booth, sweating and staggering like a man who has been drinking and screwing all night. Michael embraces him warmly.
This is the Michael who is a pleasure to work with, a gifted songwriter and prankster. Quincy Jones watches him with obvious satisfaction... The many Michaels have been distilled into one and he’s in the studio working well…
Cyndi Lauper, singer, “The Advertiser” (September 19, 2012) (archived)
Fellow '80s pop icon Cyndi Lauper, in her new autobiography A Memoir, says Jackson borrowed the bassline for the title track of Bad from the ending of her hit She Bop.
"Right before he went in to record Bad he sat behind me on an airplane with Emmanuel Lewis and he was listening to She Bop," Lauper says. "It don't think it wasn't a surprise, he was always listening to She Bop. But it was great, I mean, that's Michael Jackson."
Bruce Swedien, studio engineer, “Vibe” (June 25, 2010) (archived)
Both [Prince] and Michael had a cordial relationship. They even hung out a few times. It’s common knowledge that the song “Bad” was written to be a duet between Michael and Prince. But as you know it never came together. When Prince left the studio after we were working on “Bad” he decided to pull out of it. He left the control room and as he turned around to go he said to us all, “Don’t worry, this record will be a big hit even if I’m not on it.”
Alan Leeds, Prince’s tour manager, “Vibe” (June 25, 2010) (archived)
But the thing about Michael coming to Prince and wanting him to do “Bad,” that really pissed him off. Prince was like, “Oh, he wants to punk me out on record. Who does he think I am, crazy?” He couldn’t get outside himself enough to realize that it was the kind of thing that probably could have benefited both of them. Still, it would have forever been Michael’s video with Prince as just a guest. So that captured what the relationship couldn’t be. They were like Ali vs. Frazier. And the media couldn’t get enough of pitting these guys against each other.