Dirty Diana
| "Dirty Diana" | ||||||||||
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| Single by Michael Jackson | ||||||||||
| from the album Bad | ||||||||||
| Released | April 18, 1988 | |||||||||
| Format | 7" / 12" / CD single | |||||||||
| Recorded | 1987 | |||||||||
| Genre | Glam metal, Hard rock/Alternative metal | |||||||||
| Length | 4:52 (original version) 4:40 (single version) |
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| Label | Epic Records | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Michael Jackson | |||||||||
| Producer | Quincy Jones Co-Produced by Michael Jackson |
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| Michael Jackson singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Dirty Diana" is a song by American songwriter and recording artist Michael Jackson that is featured on Jackson's seventh studio album, Bad. The song was released by Epic Records on April 18, 1988 as the fifth single from Bad. The song presented a harder rock sound similar to that of "Beat It" from the album Thriller. "Dirty Diana" was written, composed, and co-produced by Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones. The songs lyrics pertain to groupies. "Dirty Diana" has a moderate tempo and is played in the key of G Minor.
"Dirty Diana" was generally well received by contemporary music critics. The song was also a commercial success worldwide in 1988, charting at number one on the United States Billboard Hot 100, The song also charted within the top ten in multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy and New Zealand. "Dirty Diana" was the fifth and final number-one single on the Hot 100 from Bad. In 2009, after Jackson's death in June, the song re-entered charts, mainly due to digital download sales. A music video for "Dirty Diana" was filmed in front of a live audience and was released in 1988.
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Background and composition
"Dirty Diana" was written, composed, and co-produced by Michael Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones. It appeared on Jackson's seventh studio album, Bad. The song was released by Epic Records on April 18, 1988 as the fifth single from Bad. After "Beat It", "Dirty Diana" was the second hard rock song of his solo career, more specifically a hard rock ballad, with lyrics about a persistent groupie.[1] Jackson hired Billy Idol's former guitarist Steve Stevens to back him on the track.[2] Initial reports at the time suggested the song was inspired by an alleged affair between Jackson and his close friend Diana O'Neal; however this was later denied.[3] In an interview from the special edition of Bad, Jones later confirmed that the song's lyrics were about groupies. Jackson also confirmed this during an interview with Barbara Walters, adding that it was not about Princess Diana, though he was told personally by the Princess that it was her favorite among his songs.[4]
In his Bad review, Los Angeles Times' Richard Cromelin describes clearly "Dirty Diana" as a hard rock song. He says about it, "'Dirty Diana' is trying to be this year's 'Beat It'--a hard-rock song about a tenacious groupie that's sent into orbit by a Steve Stevens guitar solo."[1] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine also considers "Dirty Diana" as a hard rock song, observing on the album that, "This meant that he moved deeper into hard rock, deeper into schmaltzy adult contemporary, deeper into hard dance -- essentially taking each portion of Thriller to an extreme" and qualifying the track as the "misogynistic 'Dirty Diana'".[5]
Jon Pareles, a writer for The New York Times, viewed "Dirty Diana" as a song about a "groupie who latches onto the narrator, mixes the sexual fears of 'Billie Jean' with the hard-rock lead guitar of 'Beat It'".[6] "Dirty Diana" is written in common time and moves at a moderate tempo of 104 beats per minute.[7] Jackson's vocals are sung on a range of Bb3 to G5.[7] The instrumentation consists of guitar and piano, and is played in the a key of G Minor.[7]
Critical and commercial reception
"Dirty Diana" received mixed reviews by contemporary music critics.[8] Davitt Sigerson of Rolling Stone gave the song a more positive review, though calling it a "filler", she still commented that the song, along with "Speed Demon" is what makes Bad "richer, sexier, better than Thriller's forgettables".[9] Sigerson noted that "Dirty Diana" was a "substantial recording" because of its "insubstantial melody."[9] Jennifer Clay of Yahoo! Music commented that while Jackson's edgier image was a "little hard to swallow", the image, musically, worked on the songs "Bad", "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana", but was not "to the degree of Thriller".[10]
"Dirty Diana", similar to Bad's previous singles, charted within the top twenty and top ten worldwide. It peaked at number one on the United States Billboard Hot 100 on July 2, 1988, after nine weeks on the chart.[11][12] "Dirty Diana" was the album's fifth consecutive single to peak at number one on the Hot 100. Internationally, "Dirty Diana" charted within the top thirty positions on several music charts.[13] The song peaked at number one on the Spanish charts, where it stayed for one week only.[13] The song also charted within the top five in Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, peaking at number two, three and five respectively.[13] The song entered the United Kingdom charts on July 16, 1988 at number fourteen, and the following week the song went to number four, where it stayed for two weeks.[14]
"Dirty Diana" peaked at number six in Italy, number seven in Austria, and charted at number nine in France.[13] The song charted at number seventeen in Norway, as well as charting within the top thirty, peaking at number twenty-nine and thirty, in Sweden and Australia respectively.[13] Following Jackson's death in June 2009, his music experienced a surge in popularity.[15] In July 2009, "Dirty Diana" saw a strong chart surge, mainly due to digital download sales. The song charted at number eighteen on the French Digital Singles Chart on July 4, 2009.[16] On July 12, the song peaked at number thirteen on the Swiss Singles Chart.[17] "Dirty Diana" re-entered the United Kingdom charts on July 4, 2009 at number fifty, and the following week peaked at number twenty-six; the song began falling off the charts in the following weeks.[14]
Music video
The accompanying music video was filmed in early 1988 in front of a live audience during Jackson's Bad World Tour. The seven-minute-long music video was directed by Joe Pytka.[18] The video starts with the screen saying "Pepsi Presents Michael Jackson Tour 1988" in front of a white background for forty seconds. After showing a black screen, Jackson can be seen from a distance performing in front of an audience with the only source of light being blue lights. During Jackson's performance he is dressed in a white coat, black pants and has metal rims on his pants while singing and dancing. In between Jackson's performance from a distance, there are clips of him performing up-close while singing into a microphone, as well as clips of his female guitarist performing behind him. Jackson then begins dancing and singing to the woman before walking down a cat-walk and dancing near a male guitarist. Jackson's performance is then shown from a distance again and the video ends with Jackson finishing his performance and the lights turning blue. The music video won the "Number One Video In The World" at the 2nd World Music Awards held on April 14, 1989.[19]
Live performances
"Dirty Diana" was performed during Jackson's Bad World Tour concert series from 1987 to 1989, but only in the second leg, as the 10th song in the setlist. According to Jackson in an interview with Barbara Walters, "Dirty Diana" was scheduled for a live 1988 performance at Wembley Stadium during the Bad World Tour; however, Jackson felt the song would be an insult to Princess Diana, who was in attendance, so he had it removed.[20] After Diana informed him the song was actually one of her personal favorites, Jackson re-added the song to the set list.[20] This Is It concert series choreographer, Kenny Ortega, stated in an interview that "Dirty Diana" was going to be performed by Jackson for the concerts from 2009 to 2010.[21] Ortega said that Jackson had planned to rehearse the song before he died (although Jackson did run through the staging of the song at least once). The set up for the song would include an expert pole dancer who would lure Jackson onto a giant steel bed on which she performed acrobatic feats. Jackson was to be tied to the bed and big flames were to appear and cover the bed. Seconds later Jackson would appear on the cherry-picker to perform Beat It.[21][22]
Track listing
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Credits and personnel
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Cover and sample versions
- 2005, rapper Bushido from Germany sampled "Dirty Diana" on the title-song from his album Staatsfeind Nr. 1. But he hadn't note that in the credits.[24]
- Papoose sampled it on his 2006 mixtape The Boyz in the Hood, by the track titled "Russian Roulette".[25]
- 2009, Australian hip hop duo Justice & Kaos sampled Jackson's song in a similar way like Papoose, with their track "Strength You Found".[26]
- 2010, Benjamin Burnley covered the song on a acoustic show in July.[27]
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