In 1987 Michael Jackson released his another commercially successful album Bad. Although it was not selling as well as the monumental Thriller released five years earlier, it still can be considered one of the best recordings from Jackson. The album sold estimated 32 million copies worldwide and has been certified eight times platinum in the United States alone. Like many catching tunes Bad also ended up in a music video, which was shown numerous times all over right after its release. That time no Internet or YouTube was invented yet and the only way to promote one’s music was practically television and other places capable to run videos. Now there are lots of possibilities to broadcast moving material and remembering days twenty years ago is easy. Just check out this video of Michael Jackson performing his hit Bad.

Even Worse

Soon after the huge success of Bad another American artist "Weird Al" Yankovic released an album called Even Worse. It is a parody of Jackson’s music, but friendly, although amusing tribute to the original album. Weird Al is famous of his comedy and parody music. Despite of his career as a parodist Yankovic has been awarded several times with a Grammy Award and his records have sold millions. His single Fat came out year after Jackson’s great hit. This song can be found on Al’s album Even Worse, which was released in 1988 only few months before I visited the United States and got a chance to buy it.

On that very same shopping session I also bought Jackson’s album Bad, which was considerably more expensive than Yankovic’s parody. I was almost to pay twice the higher price at the counter, as the clerk didn’t pay attention to my stuff I was shopping for. Only before signing my credit card slip I noticed the mistake and luckily got the other recording at the reduced price as intended. The clerk laughed with me and was sorry not having been careful enough. Anyway, like Bad also Weird Al’s Fat was video taped and is now publicly available on YouTube for you to check out and compare.