"The Way You Make Me Feel" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson. It was released by Epic Records on November 9,1987,as the third single from his seventh studio album,Bad. It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones and Jackson.
The song received positive reviews from contemporary critics. "The Way You Make Me Feel" became Bad's third consecutive single to peak at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted mainly within the top ten and twenty internationally. A music video for the song was released at the time,showing Jackson pursuing and dancing with model Tatiana Thumbtzen.
The song has been performed on all of Jackson's world concert tours as a solo artist and was planned to have been performed during the This Is It concerts from 2009 to 2010. Notable live performances of the song by Jackson include at the 30th Grammy Awards (1988).
Background and composition
"The Way You Make Me Feel" was recorded by Michael Jackson in 1987 for his seventh studio album Bad,which was released the same year it was recorded. Epic Records released the song as the third single from the album in November that year. "The Way You Make Me Feel" was written and co-produced by Jackson,and produced by Quincy Jones.[2] Before the recording of Bad,Jackson had written more than sixty songs for the album,with plans of releasing a three-disc album,but after Jones convinced Jackson to make Bad a one-disc LP,"The Way You Make Me Feel" and ten other songs were selected for the album.[3] According to Bad 25,the song and subsequent video was intended to show another aspect to public's perception of Michael Jackson in addition to his reputation as a lover ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You") and being streetwise ("Bad") they wanted to show him as a flirt or able to pick up girls.
"The Way You Make Me Feel" has been featured on multiple greatest hits and compilation albums by Jackson since the song's release,[4] including the first disc of Jackson's two-disc compilation album HIStory:Past,Present and Future,Book I in 1995,Jackson's greatest hits album Number Ones in 2003,and the This Is It compilation album in 2009.[4]
Musically,"The Way You Make Me Feel" is a pop[5] and R&B song[6] composed of blues harmonies.[7] Jackson's vocal range on the recording spans from B3 to A5.[8]
Critical reception
"The Way You Make Me Feel" generally received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine listed the song alongside the album's title track,"I Just Can't Stop Loving You",and "Man in the Mirror" as being "track picks" from Bad.[9] Erlewine commented that out of all of Bad's songs,"only three can stand alongside album tracks from its predecessor",which were "Bad","The Way You Make Me Feel",and "I Just Can't Stop Loving You".[9]Jon Pareles,a writer for The New York Times,commented that Jackson's songs,"The Way You Make Me Feel" and "I Just Can't Stop Loving You","say nothing more personalized than their titles".[10]
Richard Cromelin,from the Los Angeles Times,described "The Way You Make Me Feel" as being a "loping shuffle".[11]Rolling Stone' David Sigerson commented that "The Way You Make Me Feel" was "nearly as good" as being the third best song on Bad.[12] Greg Quill,writing for the Toronto Star,commented that "the notion of individual as opposed to institutionalized self-improvement",a recurring theme for the singer,was present "to a lesser extent in the love songs 'The Way You Make Me Feel' and 'Liberian Girl',which deal more with surrender than conquest or self-gratification."[13]The Washington Post's Rickard Harrington commented that on songs like "The Way You Make Me Feel",Jackson "sings the way he dances".[14]Cash Box called it a "brilliantly crafted upbeat pop number" with "memorable lyrics" and "a playful musical backdrop."[15] "The Way You Make Me Feel" tied at number 22 on The Village Voice's Pazz &Jop critics' poll of 1987.[16]
Chart performance
"The Way You Make Me Feel" generally charted within the top ten and top twenty positions on music charts worldwide. The song climbed to number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 on the chart's issue date of December 26,1987.[17] After charting within the top ten for five weeks,the song peaked at number one on the Hot 100 on January 23,1988.[18] "The Way You Make Me Feel" became the album's third consecutive single to reach number one on the Hot 100. The song charted on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart,peaking at number nine,and on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi Single Sales chart at the peak of number three.[19] The song also charted at number one on the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart and Dance Club Play Singles chart.[19]
The song entered the United Kingdom singles charts at number sixteen on December 5,1987.[20] The following week the song moved up thirteen spaces to number three,which was the song's peak position.[21] The song stayed at its peak position for two consecutive weeks,and remained on the country's chart for ten weeks,before falling out of the top 100 positions,only to re-enter the charts two weeks later.
The song peaked at number two on New Zealand music charts on January 17,1988,[22] and remained on the chart for a total of eleven weeks in 1987 and 1988.[22] In the Netherlands,the song debuted on the chart at number twenty on November 28,1987.[23] Two weeks later the song charted at its peak position,at number six.[23] "The Way You Make Me Feel" debuted at number fourteen on Switzerland charts on December 13,1987;the following week,the song charted at its peak position at number eight.[24] The song charted within the top thirty positions for ten consecutive weeks from 1987 to 1988.[24] The song debuted on French music charts on December 26,1987 at number 47,and eventually peaked within the top thirty positions at number 29.[25] The song charted within the top 50 positions for ten consecutive weeks on the country's chart.[25] The song has sold over 2 million digital copies as of August 2018.[26]
"The Way You Make Me Feel" re-entered music charts worldwide after Jackson's music was re-issued for the Visionary album. The song debuted on the Spanish Singles Chart at number one on April 9,2006.[27] The song remained on the country's chart for ten weeks.[27] In Italy,the song debuted within the top ten,peaking at number seven,on April 6,2006;after two weeks,the song charted out of the top 100 positions.[28] "The Way You Make Me Feel" re-entered Dutch charts on April 1,2006,at number 24.[23] The song re-entered French music charts on April 1,2006 at number 59;the song remained within the top 100 positions for two consecutive weeks.[25]
Following Jackson's death,his music experienced a surge in popularity.[29] The song re-entered Dutch charts for the third time on July 4,2009,at its peak position at number 40;the song remained on the chart for four consecutive weeks in 2009.[23] The song charted within the top ten,peaking at number six,on the BillboardHot Digital Songs on July 11,due to digital download sales.[30] The song debuted on Swedish charts at number 30 on July 3,and peaked at number 24 the following week.[31] On July 4,the song re-entered the United Kingdom charts at number 47,and peaked at number 34 the following week.[32]
The music video for "The Way You Make Me Feel" was directed by Joe Pytka and was filmed in June 1987 at Skid Row, Los Angeles.[1] It was choreographed by Jackson and Vincent Paterson. The short version of the video is six minutes and forty-four seconds long and the full version is nine minutes and thirty-three seconds long. The video begins with a group of men trying to pick up women, but failing. One of the men, Jackson, is told to go home and not to hang around with the other guys anymore. When Jackson walks home, an elderly man (played by Joe Seneca), who is sitting on the steps of his house, tells him to just be himself. Jackson notices a woman, played by model/dancer Tatiana Thumbtzen, walking down the streets alone.
Shortly after, Jackson walks out of an alley and stands in front of Thumbtzen while she is walking down the street. However, she ignores him and keeps walking, which prompts the other guys to make fun of him. Jackson shouts at them, which gets the attention of everyone, including Thumbtzen. After walking up to her, Jackson begins singing "The Way You Make Me Feel" to her while also dancing. Uninterested, Thumbtzen walks away. He follows her, having been cheered on by his friends to pursue her. This leads to the man to continue to pursue the woman throughout the neighborhood. The video ends with the man eventually winning the woman over, and hugging her, while a fire hydrant sprays out water. The videoclip features an appearance by his sister La Toya as one of Thumbtzen's friends.[1]
The introduction of the full version of the video also samples the Roy Ayers 1985 song "Hot" (written by Binky Brice, Philip Hunter Field and James Mtume)[35] from his You Might Be Surprised album.
Live performances
Jackson performing "The Way You Make Me Feel" in his signature outfit for the song in 1988 during the Bad World Tour. During performances of the song Jackson would do a dance routine that included four dancers in the background.
"The Way You Make Me Feel" was performed by Jackson on all three of his world concert series tours as a solo artist as well as during award shows. For a majority of the song's performances, Jackson would wear a blue dress shirt with a white T-shirt and black pants with a white belt. The song was first performed in concert by Jackson during the encore of the second leg of his Bad World Tour from 1987 to 1989. A live version of the song is available on the DVD Live at Wembley July 16, 1988.
He performed "The Way You Make Me Feel" at the 1988 Grammy Awards ceremony,[36] during which Jackson wore his signature outfit and his signature black fedora, while doing a dance routine with four other dancers, and performed the song along with another one of his songs, "Man in the Mirror". This performance was staged and choreographed by Vincent Paterson.[36]
Tatiana Thumbtzen, who appeared in the short film for "The Way You Make Me Feel", joined Jackson in some concerts of his Bad World Tour, and performed the song with him, strutting across the stage while he pursued her. However, she was fired from the tour by Jackson's manager after an incident during one of the performances in which she approached Jackson and kissed him onstage.
"The Way You Make Me Feel" was also performed during the first leg of Jackson's Dangerous World Tour from June 1992 to November 1993. The tour was supposed to be longer, but was canceled due to Jackson's health concerns and stress from the child sexual abuse accusations made against him.[37][38] The next performance of the song was during select dates of Jackson's world concert series tour, HIStory. The song was performed during selected concerts from September 1996 to June 1997. The last performance of the song was at the Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration in 2001 at Madison Square Garden on September 7 and September 10, 2001. The video footage from the performance (which included Britney Spears) was featured on CBS in November 2001, as a two-hour television special.
Since March 2009, Jackson was preparing to perform "The Way You Make Me Feel" during his This Is It concert series from 2009 to 2010.[39] Following Jackson's death in June of the same year, video footage of Jackson rehearsing the song was featured in the 2009 concert documentary film Michael Jackson's This Is It.[40] The video rehearsal footage was also featured on the films DVD in January 2010.[41]
Bad is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson. It was released on August 31, 1987, by Epic Records. Written and recorded between 1985 and 1987, Bad was Jackson's third and final collaboration with the producer Quincy Jones. Jackson co-produced and composed all but two tracks, and adopted an edgier image and sound, departing from his signature groove-based style and falsetto. Bad incorporates pop, rock, funk, R&B, dance, soul, and hard rock styles, and incorporated new recording technology, including digital synthesizers. The lyrical themes include media bias, paranoia, racial profiling, romance, self-improvement, and world peace. The album features appearances from Siedah Garrett and Stevie Wonder.
"Smooth Criminal" is a song by the American pop singer Michael Jackson, released on November 14, 1988, from his seventh studio album, Bad (1987). It was written by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. The lyrics address a woman who has been attacked in her apartment by a "smooth criminal".
Whitney is the second studio album by American singer Whitney Houston, released on June 2, 1987, by Arista Records as the follow-up to her debut album. The album features five top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, which also became international hits. The album's first four singles—"I Wanna Dance with Somebody ", "Didn't We Almost Have It All", "So Emotional" and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"—all peaked at number one on the US Hot 100, making her the first female act to achieve four number-one hits from one album.
"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" is a song by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson recorded for his sixth studio album Thriller (1982). It is the opening track of the album and was released as its fourth single on May 9, 1983, by Epic Records. It was written and co-produced by Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones. The lyrics pertain to strangers spreading rumors to start an argument for no good reason. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" evokes the disco sound of Jackson's previous studio album, Off the Wall, released in 1979. The song is characterized by a complex rhythm arrangement and a distinctive horn arrangement.
"Fat" is a song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. It is a parody of "Bad" by Michael Jackson and is Yankovic's second parody of a Jackson song, the first being "Eat It", a parody of Jackson's "Beat It". "Fat" is the first song on Yankovic's Even Worse album.
"Bad" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson. It was released by Epic Records on September 7, 1987, as the second single from his seventh studio album, Bad. The song was written and composed by Jackson, and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. It was influenced by a true story Jackson read about a young man who tried to escape poverty by attending private school but was killed upon returning home.
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her second studio album, Whitney (1987). It was released as the lead single from the album on May 2, 1987, by Arista Records. It was produced by Narada Michael Walden, and written by George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, of the band Boy Meets Girl, who had previously collaborated with Houston on "How Will I Know".
"Where Do Broken Hearts Go" is a song recorded by American singer Whitney Houston for her second studio album, Whitney (1987). It was released as the fourth single from the album on February 25, 1988. The song was written by Frank Wildhorn and Chuck Jackson and produced by Narada Michael Walden. A pop ballad set in the key of D major, the record is about someone seeking for a former lover to return after a breakup. Upon its release, the song received mixed reviews from critics.
"Rock with You" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson, written by Rod Temperton and produced by Quincy Jones. It was first offered to Karen Carpenter, while she was working on her first solo album, but she turned it down. It was released in October 1979, by Epic Records as the second single from Jackson's fifth solo studio album Off the Wall (1979). It was also the third number-one hit of the 1980s, a decade in which the pop singles chart would quickly be dominated by Jackson.
"I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is a 1987 duet ballad by American singers Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett, and was released as the first single on July 20, 1987, by Epic Records from his seventh album, Bad. The song was written by Jackson, and co-produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. The presence of Garrett on the track was a last-minute decision by Jackson and Jones, after Jackson's first two choices for the duet both decided against participating. Garrett, a protégé of Jones's who co-wrote another song on Bad, "Man in the Mirror", did not know that she would be singing the song until the day of the recording session. It became her first hit since Dennis Edwards' 1984 song "Don't Look Any Further". Garrett remains known primarily for her work with Jackson to this day.
"Man in the Mirror" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson. It was written by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones. It was released in January 1988, as the fourth single from Jackson's seventh solo album, Bad (1987).
"Dirty Diana" is a song by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson. It is the ninth track on Jackson's seventh studio album, Bad (1987). The song was released by Epic Records on April 18, 1988, as the fifth single from the album. It presents a harder rock sound similar to "Beat It" from Thriller (1982) and a guitar solo played by Steve Stevens. "Dirty Diana" was written and co-produced by Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones. The song's lyrics pertain to groupies. "Dirty Diana" has a moderate tempo and is played in the key of G minor.
"Another Part of Me" is a song by American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson. Produced by Quincy Jones, it was released as the sixth single on July 11, 1988, for the singer's seventh studio album, Bad (1987). The song was originally featured in Jackson's 1986 3D film Captain EO. It is the sixth song on the album. As with earlier songs in his career such as "Can You Feel It" and "We Are the World", the lyrics emphasize global unity, love and outreach.
"You Rock My World" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson from his tenth and final studio album, Invincible (2001). It was released as the lead single from the album on August 22, 2001, by Epic Records.
This is the singles discography of American singer Janet Jackson. Janet has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Billboard ranked her as well as the third greatest female artist of all time on Billboard Hot 100 history.
American singer Michael Jackson released 67 singles as a lead artist, and 10 as a featured artist. One of the best-selling artists of all time, his album and single sales as of 2013 stood at 400 million. In the United States, Jackson amassed 13 Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles and was the first artist to have a top-ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades. In 2012, Jackson was ranked the fifth best selling singles artist in the United Kingdom with 15.3 million singles sold.
"Leave Me Alone" is a song by American singer Michael Jackson from his seventh studio album, Bad (1987). It was released as the eighth single outside of North America on February 13, 1989, and appears on most non-LP editions of Bad, including the CD, 2001 cassette and digital editions. It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones.
Bad 25 is the 25th anniversary edition reissue of American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson's seventh studio album Bad (1987). This is the second album by Jackson re-released on its 25th anniversary, the first being Thriller 25 (2008). Bad has sold 35 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. Bad 25 was released on September 18, 2012, with co-operation with Epic, Legacy Recordings and MJJ Productions. Along with the original album, Bad 25 contains demo recordings recorded during the Bad era, with the deluxe edition also containing a live CD and DVD of Live at Wembley July 16, 1988, Jackson's performance at Wembley Stadium in the United Kingdom during his Bad world tour.
References
1 2 3 4 Lecocq, Richard; Allard, François (2018). "Bad". Michael Jackson All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. London, England: Cassell. pp.450–52. ISBN9781788400572.
↑ "Classifiche". Musica e Dischi (in Italian). Retrieved May 29, 2022. Set "Tipo" on "Singoli". Then, in the "Artista" field, search "Michael Jackson".
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