1987 - Michael released his highly anticipated follow-up album to Thriller, titled Bad, worldwide on August 31, 1987 [except in England, where August 31 is a bank holiday] with copies leaving the record shops faster than assistants could fill the shelves. Bad sold 500,000 copies within five days in the UK; a first for any artist in the UK. It debuted at number one in both the US and UK and many other countries around the world.

Tower Records in London sold 200 copies in the first hour of trading while CBS [Epic] estimated that some 150'000 copies would be sold at the end of the first day's trading. In Amercia, fans stood in line outside shops from New York to Los Angeles and extra staff was hired to cope with the demand.

A hugely successful album in its own right, Bad sold 30 million copies worldwide and became the first (and still the only) album to include five number one singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 sales chart.

The album becomes a tremendous success and yes, Michael made history with it again: "Bad" became the second biggest-selling album ever.

The album’s production had been a complicated affair, not least for the fact that, despite his status, Michael failed to convince the likes of Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and chief rival Prince to record duets with him.

Bad would be Michael’s last collaboration with co-producer Quincy Jones, ending pop music history’s most successful production team.

The album entered the US Pop and Black album charts at number one, holding its position for 6 and 18 weeks respectively and remained on the Pop charts for 87 weeks, 38 of which were spent in the Top 5. This broke a record of 26 weeks in the Top 5 set by The Eagles' "Hotel California". In Britain, "Bad" hold the number one position for 5 weeks and remained on the charts for 109 weeks consecutively.

Michael: "It's very hard to create something when you feel like you're in competition with yourself because no matter how you look at it, people are always going to compare "Bad" to "Thriller". You can always say, 'Aw, forget 'Thriller',' but no one ever will!

The album’s title track “Bad” was released on 31st August 1987 (the same day as the Bad album) with an amazing 18 minute long short film, directed by Martin Scorsese. The film was shot on location in New York and starred Wesley Snipes. It reportedly took six weeks to make with an estimated budget of $2 million. The reaction to the short film and single was massive: it shot to number 1 in the U.S. and many other countries around the world.

"Bad" is the only album to have 5 of its singles peak at #1 while 10 of its 11 songs were released as singles & 9 of them composed & co-produced by Michael himself.
In June, 1992 "Bad" album was certified 6 times platinum & Michael become the only artist to have 3 consecutive albums with U.S. sales of 6 million copies each.

CBS-TV aired a special entitle "Michael Jackson - The Magic Returns." Also, the 17-minute "Bad" video was aired.

1990 - LA Gear’s first UK advertisement, which did star Michael and his eight year old neice Brandy (daughter of Jackie Jackson), premiered in movie theatres. Michael's first TV commercial in nearly 4 years was heralded a creative breakthrough by the industry.

Michael wears black, heavily buckled shoes his LA Gear logo is is embroidered on the tongue.

1993 - Tito and Jermaine Jackson walked off the set of NBC-TV's "Today" show when a crew arrived to interview the two about the troubles of their brother Michael with the Los Angeles Police Department. The two later held a press conference where they stated their support for their brother.

1997 - Shocked by the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Michael cancelled his 31st August concert in Ostend, saying he was too upset to perform on stage. Diana and Dodi Fayed, the new man in her life, died in a horrific car crash in the French capital Paris, where Michael himself was staying prior to his Belgian gig.

2001 - The first single off the King of Pop's new album, which is due to hit stores in October, debuted at number 34 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Chart. The high rating makes 'You Rock My World' Billboard's Hot Shot debut for the week.