The Years 1987 to 1989
On 2 July 1988, when the song «Dirty Diana» reached the top of the charts, Michael was the first artist to have five songs from one of his albums [Bad] in the top positions. Until then, nobody had achieved such a record.
Michael’s name was recorded in the Guinness World Records as the person who released the greatest number of hit songs and number ones in the 1980s. No other artist [whether female or male] had more number one songs than the King of Pop in the late 1980s.
In late October 1988, the film «Moon Walker» appeared on the big screens in Japan for the first time. And finally, on 26 December, it was released in Europe. Although some critics praised «Moon Walker» and others criticized it, the film was met with general public interest in both Japan and Europe. In England and France, people lined up in front of cinemas to see it.
Frank Dileo, who was Michael’s executive manager, decided not to show «Moon Walker» in the cinemas of the United States. On 10 January 1989, «Moon Walker» was released on video tapes in America. Only after a month, six hundred thousand copies had been sold. And that was just the beginning.
[Moon Walker film]
«Moon Walker» appeared at the top of the best music video cassettes chart. The film kept Michael’s name at the top row of the chart for twenty-two weeks. Until, at last, it was replaced by Michael himself with the documentary «Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues».
On 24 January 1989, after only two weeks since the release of «Moon Walker», the film surpassed the sales record of the film «Thriller: Behind the Scenes». And that’s how Michael broke his own record and pushed «Thriller: Behind the Scenes» down to second place. To this day, «Moon Walker» has been the best-selling music film, with «Thriller: Behind the Scenes» behind it.
Michael set another new record. Two of his music films occupy first and second place among the best-selling music films in the history of music.
On 27 January 1989, Michael held the one hundred and twenty-third and final concert of the «Bad» tour at the Los Angeles Sports Stadium.
[Bad Tour]
The «Bad» tour broke all previous records and became the biggest tour held up to that time.
The worldwide «Bad» tour ran for sixteen months [12 September 1987 — 27 January 1989] and was held in fifteen countries around the world, and in total, four million four hundred thousand people from around the world attended the concerts of this tour.
The «Bad» tour was also the highest-grossing concert up to that time, with earnings of more than one hundred and twenty-five million dollars. Until then, no other artist had earned such an amount from only a single tour.
Michael broke the record he himself had left behind a few years later with another tour.
During the time he held the «Bad» tour in Europe, Michael earned three pounds and four hundred and twenty-five cents per minute. Michael had signed a contract worth twenty million pounds, under which he received ninety percent of the income from all his concerts. After paying the share of his one hundred and forty-person entourage, he earned a net profit of about four hundred thousand pounds from each concert.
On 14 February 1989, news broke that Michael Jackson and his executive manager , Frank Dileo, were planning to separate from each other. No reason was given for this sudden separation, which gave the media the opportunity to speculate about possible reasons for the matter—perhaps Frank Dileo had tried to bring Michael under his control with his showy management techniques, and in this way make himself known.
[Michael — Frank Dileo]
Frank Dileo was Michael’s executive manager from 20 March 1984 to 14 February 1989.
On 28 July 1989, when an animation made based on Michael was shown for the first time in the cartoon television commercials «The Rizzins Family», Michael was accepted as the newest member of this cartoon family. The name of this new cartoon character was «Michael Rizzin». Michael’s voice speaking was used in this commercial, but because of the exclusive contract Michael had signed with Pepsi, they couldn’t use his voice to sing the song «I Heard It Through The Grapevine», which had been made for the advertisement. After collaborating with the creator of this cartoon family, in the film «Moon Walker», Michael agreed that they could use his animation in these commercials.
On 13 September 1989, a press conference was held to announce the news of a new contract between Michael Jackson and L.A. Gear. This two-year contract required Michael to appear in their commercials, in addition to designing their clothing and advertising for the sale of a series of their shoes and sportswear.
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