Bad (Michael Jackson song) version of the music video for "Bad" was released in August 1987, and broadcast as a CBS prime time special. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and co-starred Wesley Snipes in one of his first appearances. The video, inspired in part by the film "West Side Story", which shows Jackson and a group of gangsters portraying a street gang dancing in a subway station. Michael Jackson wrote and recorded Bad in 1986. It was co-produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones, and was included on his seventh studio album of the same name. "Bad" was originally intended to be a duet
Thriller (Michael Jackson album) piece. Jackson later said of "Beat It", "the point is no one has to be the tough guy, you can walk away from a fight and still be a man. You don't have to die to prove you're a man". "Human Nature", co-written by Steve Porcaro of the band Toto, is moody and introspective, as conveyed in lyrics such as, "Looking out, across the morning, the City's heart begins to beat, reaching out, I touch her shoulder, I'm dreaming of the street". By the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; AllMusic described him as a "blindingly