1989 · Behind the Songs
The press invented a stranger. Jackson answered with a song — and a video full of dancing headlines.
By the mid-1980s, the tabloids had built a second Michael Jackson out of spare parts: a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, a chimpanzee named Bubbles, a reported bid for the bones of Joseph Merrick — the “Elephant Man” — and, from 1986 on, the nickname “Wacko Jacko.” “Leave Me Alone,” written by Jackson and recorded for Bad between 1985 and 1986 at Westlake’s Studio D in Los Angeles, was his reply.
The song nearly didn’t make the album at all. It appeared only on CD editions of Bad — produced by Quincy Jones with Jackson as co-producer — and later on the 2001 cassette and digital reissues. Then, on January 2, 1989, it was released as the album’s eighth single everywhere except North America.
The video, directed by Jim Blashfield and shot in Culver City in January 1988, turned the tabloid imagery into a carnival: giant headlines, a shrine-like bedroom, an amusement-park version of fame itself. It premiered on January 2, 1989, appeared in the film Moonwalker (1988), and went on to win the 1990 Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video at the 32nd Grammy Awards — plus a Cannes Gold Lion and the 1989 MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects.
The single reached number two in Britain and number one in Greece and Ireland. As a chart story it’s modest; as a statement it’s unmistakable — a pop star using the machinery of the music video to file his own correction.