| "Smooth Criminal" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Michael Jackson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Bad | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | October 5, 1988 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Format | 5" CD single, 3" CD single, 12" vinyl, 7" single and Cassette single | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | February 1987 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Funk, dance-pop | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:17 (album version) 4:10 (7" edit) 7:49 (12" edit) |
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| Label | Epic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Michael Jackson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Quincy Jones Michael Jackson (co-producer) |
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| Michael Jackson singles chronology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Smooth Criminal" is the seventh single from Michael Jackson's 1987 Bad album. The song contains a fast-paced beat intertwined with Jackson's lyrics about a woman named Annie, who has been attacked in her apartment by a "smooth" assailant. It was released as a single on October 24, 1988 and peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.[1] It was re-released on April 10, 2006 as a part of the Visionary: The Video Singles box-set. The re-released Visionary single charted at No. 19 in the UK. The piece is one of Jackson's signature songs, and has appeared on numerous greatest hits albums, including Number Ones, The Essential Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection, King of Pop, This Is It, and Immortal (for the New version of song).
The song also serves as the theme song to Jackson's 1988 film Moonwalker.
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"Smooth Criminal" almost didn't make it into the Bad album; Jackson had to convince producer Quincy Jones that it was worthy of inclusion. Two early versions of the song were written by Jackson in 1985 and the original demo was recorded in 1986. The first song was called "Chicago 1945" the song it evolved into was "Al Capone". This version didn't make the album and was re-worked and re-written as "Smooth Criminal".
Jackson originally wanted to make the short film in the western genre, but later decided to change it to a 1930s nightclub style.[2] Film was shot between mid-February and April 1987.
The style of both the clip and the clothes as well as mannerisms Jackson portrayed were reused in the arcade, the Sega Master System, the Sega Mega Drive and the Sega Game Gear adaptations of Moonwalker. The song itself serves as the soundtrack for the Club 30s stage, the nightclub from the movie, in all versions of the game.
The song was performed live during the second leg of Jackson's 1988–89 Bad World Tour. The performance featured a dance routine modeled after the scene from Moonwalker. By the time the 1992 Dangerous World Tour came around, this performance became a regular on Jackson tours, including his HIStory Tour. A spoken word and synth recording preceded the song on the second leg of the Bad tour and on the subsequent Dangerous World Tour, the same recording having been used as an intro for the song "This Place Hotel" on the first leg of the Bad Tour. By the time of the Dangerous Tour, Jackson had devised a way to perform the patented anti-gravity lean, which was featured in the Moonwalker video, on stage. Much like the robot move from "Dancing Machine" and the Moonwalk from "Billie Jean", this showcased Jackson's talent for creating unique moves to enhance stage performances. This performance can be seen on the Bucharest Dangerous Tour performance which is included as a DVD in The Ultimate Collection boxed set.
Part of the song was also briefly used in the middle of the live version of the song "Dangerous" since Jackson's performance at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. In the HIStory Tour, he used a small snippet of this song during his performance of "Dangerous". Jackson was also going to use it again in his "Dangerous" performance in his This Is It concerts, along with the full track, had the concert series not been canceled due to his sudden death.
The song was adapted into a short film which was the centerpiece of the 1988 film Moonwalker starring Michael Jackson and Joe Pesci in the lead roles.
The film begins with three homeless children (Sean, played by Sean Lennon, Katie and Zeke) sneaking through a big city to see their friend Michael walk out of his store. As Michael stands in front of the door, he gazes at the night sky before he is attacked by mobsters with machine guns. The film then backtracks to show Michael and the children playing in a meadow in happier times. Their dog Skipper runs away, and as Michael and Katie look for him, they uncover the lair of Mr. Big (Joe Pesci). Mr. Big – whose real name is Frankie LiDeo, which is an anagram of Frank DiLeo – is a drug-dealing mobster with a disciplined private army at his command. He wants to get the entire population of Earth addicted to drugs, starting with children. He likes to eat nuts and leaves nutshells wherever he goes. He is obsessed with spiders, as displayed by their abundance at the entrance to his lair and his operation named "bugs and drugs". He also of his proposed control of the world via drug dealing. Further, all his henchmen sport a spider crest on their uniforms. Katie screams when she sees a spider, and Mr. Big discovers them spying on his operation.
The story returns to the shooting in front of Michael's store. Unknown to the gangsters, Michael has a lucky star, and using it, he escaped the gunfire. Upon realizing that Michael has escaped again, Mr. Big orders his henchmen to track him down with dogs. Michael is eventually cornered in an alley, where he uses his lucky star again to turn into a sportscar (the 1970 Lancia Stratos prototype) that mows down several of Mr. Big's henchmen. Michael is pursued through the city streets until he loses the henchmen. Meanwhile, the children scout out Club 30's, where Michael had told them to meet him, and find only an abandoned and haunted nightclub. As Michael arrives, Katie sees a silhouette of him turning back from a car into himself. The door of the club opens with a gust of wind, and Michael walks in to find it filled with zoot suiters and swing dancers. The children gather outside a window of the club and watch Michael dance to "Smooth Criminal".
The song used in the film is much longer than the album release, with several lyrics that clarify the story. There is also an interlude wherein Jackson joins the other dancers in a modern interpretive dance. At the climax of the song, Mr. Big lays siege to the club and kidnaps Katie. Michael follows them back to Big's lair and ends up surrounded by his henchmen. Mr. Big appears and taunts Michael by threatening to inject Katie with highly addictive narcotics. Katie breaks free for a moment, but Mr. Big grabs her again and starts kicking Michael. As Mr. Big stands over Michael and orders his henchmen to kill him and Katie, Michael looks up and sees his lucky star. He transforms into a giant robot and kills all of Mr. Big's soldiers, then turns into a spaceship. Mr. Big gets into a large hillside-mounted energy cannon, firing on the spaceship as it flies into a nearby ravine. The children are his next target, but the spaceship returns from the ravine just in time to fire a beam into the cannon with Mr. Big inside, killing him. The children watch the ship fly into the night sky with shower of light.
The children return to the city, believing that Michael is gone forever. As the boys talk about Michael, Katie walks away crying and clutching a paper star. As she sits in a corner wishing for him to come back, the paper star flies out of her hand and Michael walks out of the night fog. He takes them to Club 30's, where they find that the club has turned into the backstage area of a concert. Michael's stage crew return the children's missing dog and then escort Michael onto the stage where he performs "Come Together".
The short film received generally positive reviews by critics and fans alike. It is believed to be the best segment out of the entire Moonwalker film.
| Chart (1988) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 29 |
| Belgian Singles Chart | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | 3 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 6 |
| Danish Singles Chart | 1 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 1 |
| Eurochart Hot 100 Singles | 2 |
| French Singles Chart | 4 |
| German Singles Chart | 9 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 1 |
| Italian Singles Chart | 6 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 29 |
| Spanish Singles Chart | 1 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 5 |
| United States Billboard Hot 100[1] | 7 |
| United States Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales Chart[1] | 13 |
| United States Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks Chart[1] | 2 |
| United States Dance Music/Club Play Singles Chart[1] | 10 |
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
| Australian Singles Chart[3] | 16 |
| Danish Singles Chart[3] | 28 |
| European Hot 100 Singles[4] | 20 |
| French Singles Chart[3] | 61 |
| French Digital Singles Chart[5] | 10 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart[3] | 37 |
| Swedish Singles Top 60 Chart[6] | 12 |
| Swiss Singles Top 75 Chart[3][7] | 12 |
| United Kingdom Top 40 Singles Chart[8] | 13 |
| United Kingdom Top 40 Download Chart[9] | 13 |
| United States Billboard Hot Digital Songs[10] | 12 |
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Jeffrey Daniel of the soul music group Shalamar co-choreographed the "Smooth Criminal" video with Vincent Paterson, who had previously danced in "Beat It", "Thriller". It was directed by special effects coordinator Colin Chilvers. The dance sequence of the video in the 1930s style lounge (and Michael's white suit and fedora) pays tribute to the Fred Astaire musical comedy film The Band Wagon. Currently there are four different versions of the video for "Smooth Criminal," as well as an additional vignette created for the 2009 This Is It concert series:
The video won Best Music Video at the 1989 Brit Awards.
In the video, Michael Jackson performs an anti-gravity lean with the use of cables, a seemingly impossible feat. To accomplish this maneuver for stage performances, Jackson patented a hitching mechanism which was built into the floor of the stage and the performer's shoes.[12] The system consists of pegs that rise from the stage at the appropriate moment, and special shoes with ankle supports and cutouts in the heels which can slide over the pegs and be temporarily attached to the stage. These allow a performer to lean without needing to keep his center of mass directly over his feet.
At a show in Russia circa 1994, one shoe had become unlatched from the stage, causing Jackson to lose his balance. The sole of the shoe was re-designed after that performance. The pair of shoes used during the Moscow show were displayed at the Hard Rock Cafe in Moscow for several years; later they were sold at auction for $600,000 after Jackson's death in the summer of 2009.
| "Smooth Criminal" | ||||
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| Single by Alien Ant Farm | ||||
| from the album Anthology | ||||
| Released | July 24, 2001 | |||
| Format | CD | |||
| Recorded | 2001 | |||
| Genre | Alternative metal Funk metal Punk rock |
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| Length | 3:29 | |||
| Label | SKG Music | |||
| Writer(s) | Michael Jackson | |||
| Producer | Jay Baumgardner | |||
| Alien Ant Farm singles chronology | ||||
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In 2001, Alien Ant Farm released a cover of "Smooth Criminal" as their debut single from their album Anthology. According to the band members, they would play a few riffs of the Jackson song while warming up before gigs and audience members would request them to play the entire song. This positive feedback encouraged them to record their own rendition of "Smooth Criminal" and include it on Anthology. It became a number one hit on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and was also a number one in Australia. The song was also featured in the 2001 film American Pie 2, during a scene wherein Jason Biggs' character, Jim, superglues his hand to his crotch.
The album Greatest Hits (1999) includes a hidden track named "Slick Thief", which is in fact an early version of "Smooth Criminal". This version was featured on the video games Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades. It was released as downloadable content for the Rock Band series of video games.
2000s
2010s
| Preceded by "Because I Got High" by Afroman |
ARIA (Australia) number one single November 4, 2001 - December 23, 2001 |
Succeeded by "Get the Party Started" by Pink |
| Preceded by "Fat Lip" by Sum 41 |
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single August 25, 2001 |
Succeeded by "How You Remind Me" by Nickelback |
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