{"id":239842,"date":"2025-10-25T12:24:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/239842\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T12:24:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:24:11","slug":"on-this-day-in-1987-michael-jackson-topped-the-charts-with-a-song-that-wouldve-featured-prince-had-quincy-jones-gotten-his-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/239842\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1987, Michael Jackson Topped the Charts with a Song That Would’ve Featured Prince\u2014Had Quincy Jones Gotten His Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this day (October 24) in 1987, Michael Jackson<\/a> topped the Billboard Hot 100 with \u201cBad.\u201d The second single and title track from his 1987 album, it topped the chart for two weeks. The song inspired a timeless music video, directed by Martin Scorsese and seemingly inspired by West Side Story. Had producer Quincy Jones gotten his way, the song would have featured Prince.<\/p>\n

\u201cBad\u201d came in the middle of a string of five No. 1 hits for Jackson. \u201cI Just Can\u2019t Stop Loving You\u201d started the streak earlier that year. \u201cBad\u201d came next, followed by \u201cThe Way You Make Me Feel,\u201d \u201cMan in the Mirror,\u201d and \u201cDirty Diana.\u201d \u201cAnother Part of Me.\u201d Four of the five chart-toppers were from Bad.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: On This Day in 1983, Michael Jackson Cements Himself as the True King of Pop as \u2018Thriller\u2019 Hits No. 1]<\/a><\/p>\n

The album\u2019s title track may have been a much bigger hit than it already was. At the time, there was an ongoing and public feud between Jackson and Prince. Public perception and media coverage helped fuel the flames of the rivalry between two of the most iconic performers of the 20th century. Legendary producer Quincy Jones hoped to get Prince to lend his voice to the Jackson-penned track.<\/p>\n

Why Prince Declined to Join Michael Jackson on \u201cBad\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Songfacts<\/a>, Quincy Jones thought the public feud between Michael Jackson and Prince would lead to a wildly successful single if he could get both of them on the track. Surprisingly, Jones was able to arrange a meeting between the pair of pop titans. Prince even agreed to listen ot the song and consider collaborating with Jackson.<\/p>\n

After hearing the song, Prince reportedly told Jones the song would be a hit without him and passed on the duet.<\/p>\n

Prince was right. \u201cBad\u201d went to No. 1 in seven countries, topping multiple charts in the United States, Italy, and the Netherlands. The song has also been certified Platinum in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The song\u2019s music video is also a masterpiece. The full-length video is a 17-minute short film directed by Martin Scorsese. Cinematographer Michael Chapman, who worked on Taxi Driver, The Lost Boys, Scrooged, The Fugitive, and many more great films, shot the video. It also features a young, pre-fame Wesley Snipes.<\/p>\n

Featured Image by Dave Hogan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day (October 24) in 1987, Michael Jackson topped the Billboard Hot 100 with \u201cBad.\u201d The second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[143368,64,63,134,19928,136,5807],"class_list":{"0":"post-239842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1980s","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-michael-jackson","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-pop-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}