Michael Jackson's Dangerous began life as a greatest-hits package
After Bad, Michael Jackson dropped Quincy Jones to prove he could succeed alone. What started as a hits compilation called Decade grew into Dangerous, a $10 million gamble built with new jack swing pioneer Teddy Riley that has sold 32 million copies and topped the Billboard album chart for four weeks.
Jackson started work in 1989 with an $18 million advance, planning a compilation with a few fresh songs in the spirit of Madonna's hits collection. Release dates slipped from late 1989 to November 1990 while he reshuffled management and chased film projects. In June 1990 he reportedly collapsed while dancing at his home studio, and afterwards he decided the new material deserved a full album instead.
Recording ran for more than two years, mostly at Record One in Sherman Oaks, where he paid $4,000 a day for control. Bill Bottrell, nicknamed the rock guy, shaped Black or White and even wrote its rap under a pseudonym. Bryan Loren cut a batch of rhythm tracks, including sessions with LL Cool J, but none made the record because they did not match the sound Jackson wanted, something closer to his sister Janet's Rhythm Nation. Teddy Riley arrived in early 1991, co-produced half the songs, and was pushed to avoid stock synth and drum-machine sounds.
The result sounds gritty for a pop album. Alongside new jack swing, R&B and pop come industrial, gospel, classical and rock touches, plus honking horns, sliding chains and breaking glass. Jackson raps for the first time, and he told Ebony in 1992 he wanted something as lasting as Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. Sessions could run 18 hours; Bruce Swedien once kept him in the booth until dawn to finish a vocal. Of roughly 60 to 70 songs recorded, Earth Song surfaced on a later album in 1995. Mastering wrapped on Halloween 1991, just before Epic's Thanksgiving deadline.
Released on November 21, 1991, Dangerous reached number one in fourteen further countries and became 1992's best-selling album worldwide, Jackson's third straight year-topper. Nine singles followed through December 1993, and the world tour grossed $100 million. It won the Grammy for Best Engineered Album, and critics now call it his last classic and his most ambitious work.
Source: Dangerous (Michael Jackson album)
