Bad
by Michael Jackson

Bad by Michael Jackson
Year: 1987
Release date: 1987-08-31
Overall rank: 390th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 947 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top 10 albums of 1987 (7th)
Award Top 100 albums of of the 1980s (54th)
Award Top 500 albums of all time (390th)

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Michael Jackson bestography

Bad is ranked 3rd best out of 25 albums by Michael Jackson on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Michael Jackson is Thriller which is ranked number 65 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 16,136.

Michael Jackson album bestography « Higher ranked (344th)
Off The Wall
This album (390th)
Bad
Lower ranked (817th) »
Dangerous

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

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Bad track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 81 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

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Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

Bad rankings

Bad rankings summary
Overall rank: 390th | 1980s rank: 54th | 1987 rank: 7th  Overall chart history
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings).Help Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 1 hour ago)

Bad collection

Bad ratings

Average Rating: 
76/100 (from 947 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 947 ratings for this album.

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RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
0/100
 !
4 days ago nextorgd  Ratings distribution  1,21684/100
 
85/100
 !
08/11/2026 02:39 matterhornrider  Ratings distribution  5,12681/100
 
80/100
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07/28/2026 00:20 xhitmanx  Ratings distribution  1,57274/100
 
75/100
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07/12/2026 17:32 liquidbottle  Ratings distribution  77582/100
 
75/100
 !
07/09/2026 15:08 ecocruzr  Ratings distribution  14468/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 4% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 76.3/100, a mean average of 74.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 76.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 18.4.


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Bad comments

Showing latest 10 comments | Show all 63 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)
Rating:  
85/100
From 05/15/2026 17:44 | #314471
Some days I enjoy this album way more than Thriller. I love how the choppy production of the synths and beats just cut through, it's MJ at his vocal peak, and I've grown to appreciate what I thought were filler songs like Speed Demon and Another Part of Me. The filler in Thriller (Baby Be Mine and The Girl is Mine) just are so cheesy and haven't aged well. At least the filler in Bad is still fun and fits the style of everything else more smoothly. Just Good Friends is the only dud on here, and it's disappointing that they got Stevie Wonder on it too but it doesn't help. I agree with lendiad; At this point we should just add Leave Me Alone to the tracklisting. It's been on every re-release for the past 25 years and was released as the final single for the Bad era originally. Do we always have to adhere to the original album release on this website? (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 03/12/2026 01:52 | #313520
I came to pay my respects to one of the greatest albums in the history of world music. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 02/02/2026 20:46 | #312951
A solid end to the Quincey/MJ collaboration. A steely collection of songs where Michael has never sounded tighter. Love the edge on this thing. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
From 04/09/2025 08:50 | #308426
Shortlisted for album of the year at the Grammys in 1988. The winner was The Joshua Tree by U2 (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
50/100
From 01/29/2025 10:44 | #307299
So bad. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (1 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 02/09/2023 14:50 | #293828
This is quite good pop album, I really like hits here and the rest is typically mid. The Way You Make Me Feel and Smooth Criminal are some of the best songs he ever created and I really like how Dirty Diana sounds especially with his voice range. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (2 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 01/30/2023 12:56 | #293411
Michael Jackson has one of if not the greatest voices of all time. It has an unbelievable range and uniqueness to it that you always know straight away when he is singing. He utilises it like an instrument on this record and it becomes part of the sound he is creating. It is so impressive to see the number of hits that are on this record and every time I come back I expect one to drop off in quality but they never do. Despite this, there has always been 2 glaring issues with this album and it comes with Speed Demon and Liberian Girl. It might just be for me but they are misses and are skippable cuts on this record. They feel dated and a bit messy every time I listen to them and if they were removed this would be his greatest release. However, every other song on here is just incredible and it feels like a greatest hits record. Overall, there are so many phenomenal songs on here that demonstrate Michael Jackson's musical ability and vocal talent perfectly. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -2 votes (0 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
Rating:  
100/100
From 03/17/2022 18:50 | #282950
Wheres ¨Leave me alone¨????????????????? (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (1 helpful | 2 unhelpful)
Rating:  
85/100
From 02/15/2022 12:18 | #281343
This comment is beneath your viewing threshold.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -3 votes (0 helpful | 3 unhelpful)
Rating:  
60/100
From 01/14/2022 13:17 | #279342
Not as good as Thriller, but still contains some iconic tracks. My highlights are Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal and Man In The Mirror. (Edited)
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

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