Official Charts Flashback: Michael Jackson – Bad

‘And the whole world has to answer right now, Just to tell you once again, Who’s bad!’

25 years ago this month, Michael Jackson’s seminal 1987 album, Bad, topped the Official Albums Chart. To celebrate, OfficialCharts.com looks back at one of the most iconic albums of all time with 10 Official Chart Facts!

1, Bad debuted at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart on September 13, 1987, and stayed at the top for five weeks.

2, In its first week on sale, Bad sold over 350,000 copies here in the UK, which, at that point, made it the fastest selling album in Official Charts history (it is now the eleventh).

3, After shifting 1.6 million copies in under four months, Bad became the biggest selling album of 1987 in the UK. And, as it continued to sell in vast quantities long into the following year (980,000 copies), it became the third biggest selling album of 1989, too.

4, For the rest of the 1980s, Bad was the UK’s second biggest selling album (behind Dire Straits’ 1985 album, Brothers In Arms). Bad’s predecessor, Thriller, was the UK’s third biggest selling album of the 1980s. At that point, Great Britain was the only country in the world where Bad outsold Thriller.

5, Bad is now the UK’s ninth biggest selling album of all time, while Thriller has surged ahead into sixth place.

6, Bad, the track, was intended to be a duet with Prince, although scheduling conflicts meant that The King Of Pop and The Artist Formally Known As A Symbol never got to record it together.

7, Bad had no less than nine of its eleven tracks released as singles.

8, Excluding 1995's HIStory, Michael Jackson has never had more than one Number 1 single from any of his studio albums. Contrary to popular belief, the title track did not reach Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart; Bad’s Number 1 single came from I Just Can’t Stop Loving You which hit the top spot in August, 1987. The title track peaked at Number 3 the following month.

9, Man In The Mirror, which was released as a single in February 1988, was the only track from Bad not to go Top 20 in the UK’s Official Singles Chart; it peaked at Number 21. It wasn't until 21 years later, after Michael’s death in June, 2009 that it became a much bigger hit, reaching Number 2 in July 2009.

10, With six Top 5 singles, Bad is the only studio album, that has spawned so many Official Singles Chart Top 5 hits.