Michael Jackson: Smooth Criminal
Michael Jackson: Smooth Criminal “Smooth Criminal” is the Michael Jackson song that works both on the page and on stage. During MJ’s transition to following the trends of the 90s instead of leading them, he created this break out song. Jackson wrote and composed this song, while Quincy Jones produced it. In my opinion, the Jones and Jackson era was MJ’s best work. MJ seemed to move away from the influences of Jones' work in the later 90s. Originally, MJ wrote the song back in 1984 under a different title “Al Capone”. “Al Capone” was intended for a Bad album release, but it never made it onto that album. So, MJ re-wrote it into what we hear in Smooth Criminal. I love to get my hands on the Al Capone demo version of “Smooth Criminal”. MJ had envisioned the music video/movie as an old school Western, but later changed his mind. I think the song works better with the 30s setting anyway, considering that the song originally was called “Al Capone”. Random Notes on the video ~MJ’s suit i...