Smooth Criminal

Jackson wrote it and produced it with Quincy Jones. It grew out of an earlier song of his, Al Capone, which appeared on the 2012 reissue Bad 25. The lyrics describe a woman named Annie attacked in her apartment, and the refrain "Annie, are you OK?" comes from Resusci Anne, a CPR training dummy. The original mix includes the sound of Jackson's heartbeat and breathing, which moves from left to right using Hugo Zuccarelli's Holophonics system.

Released on 13 October 1988 as the seventh single from Bad, it reached seven on the Hot 100 and two on the Hot Black Singles chart, and went to number one in Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands and Spain. Colin Chilvers directed the video, the centerpiece of the film Moonwalker, which pays tribute to Fred Astaire's film The Band Wagon. In it the dancers lean forward 45 degrees. Jackson's team was granted a patent in October 1993 for shoes that hook into pegs rising from the stage. The video reached a billion views on YouTube on 23 October 2024. Rolling Stone called the song his best blend of R&B groove and rock edginess.