Trivia / Dangerous (Album)

• Alan Smithee: Although credited with writing the lyrics, Bill Bottrell's actual rap performance on "Black or White" was credited to "L.T.B." (the initialism taken from Leave It to Beaver), because he wasn't sold on his reference take staying on the final mix, despite Jackson's insistence.
• Cut Song: According to popular lore, Jackson had co-wrote and produced nearly three dozen songs for Dangerous; many of them with Bryan Loren, who co-wrote and produced "Do the Bartman" with Jackson. Once Teddy Riley came on board, however, virtually all of these songs were shelved, or re-purposed. Here's a list of the several known tracks that surfaced:
  • "Someone Put Your Hand Out": Dates all the way back to the Bad album, and was produced by Teddy Riley. Was released as a Pepsi-exclusive single in 1992 for Jackson's world tour in Europe, but did not get a North American release until 2004, as part of the Ultimate Collection.
  • "Serious Effect": Produced by Bryan Loren, and later reworked by Teddy Riley. Featured LL Cool J in a rap segment, and did not get an official release. It was featured on the cancelled 2001 Dangerous bonus disc.
  • "Work That Body": Also produced by Bryan Loren, did not get officially released and was featured on the cancelled 2001 Dangerous bonus disc.
  • "Superfly Sister": Also produced by Bryan Loren, was included on the "Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory In the Mix" remix album in 1997.
  • "Slave to the Rhythm": Produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. Completed for Dangerous, but was cut. Eventually released posthumously on Xscape.
  • "She Got It": Producer unknown. Wasn't fully completed for Dangerous. It was also featured on the cancelled 2001 Dangerous bonus disc.
  • "Blood on the Dance Floor": Produced by Teddy Riley. Almost made Dangerous, but data limits on the disc forced Jackson to cut it. Eventually became the title track for the HIStory remix album in 1997.
  • "Ghosts": Produced by Jackson and Teddy Riley. was cut, but eventually re-purposed for Addams Family Values until Jackson was removed from the film's soundtrack. Eventually released on Blood on the Dance Floor.
  • "What About Us": Early version of "Earth Song". was rewritten and released on HIStory in 1995.
  • "To Satisfy You": Produced by Jackson and Bryan Loren. Jackson was not fond of the song, so Loren released it on his own album in 1992 with his own lead vocals. Jackson's version has yet to surface.
  • "Joy": Produced by Teddy Riley and Jackson. Jackson rejected the song, though allowed Riley to record his own version with Blackstreet, which hit #43 on the Billboard Hot 100.
  • "Monkey Business": Produced by Bill Bottrell. Got cut early in the Dangerous sessions, and was featured on the cancelled 2001 Dangerous bonus disc. Eventually surfaced on the Ultimate Collection.
  • "If You Don't Love Me": Produced by MJ himself. Didn't make it onto Dangerous, but was featured on the cancelled bonus CD for the 2001 re-release.
  • "Man In Black": Producer unknown. It only appeared on the much sought after Promo (Flight Only) acetate given to some Sony executives who visited Neverland Ranch.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The bonus CD that was supposed to be included with the 2001 re-issue was pulled right before its release. It was leaked online soon after Invincible was released, and physical pressings are still highly sought after.
• No Export for You: The original "Who Is It" music video did not see a North American release until well over a year after it's original release as a part of the video compilation Dangerous: The Short Films and it would be many more years before it was actually shown on US television. A music video comprising of footage from past music videos and live performances was shown in the US in its place.
• Permanent Placeholder: The rap on "Black or White"––the Dangerous album's lead single and most heavily-promoted song––was performed by Jackson's recording engineer and producer Bill Bottrell. He had recorded it as a reference take, intending to get either Heavy D or LL Cool J (who were working on Dangerous with MJ) to rap it, but Jackson liked Bottrell's recording, and kept it in.
• Promoted Fanboy: Jackson was a big fan of Heavy D, and wanted him on "Jam" from its inception. The Heavster initially disliked the demo shown to him, but suggested getting Teddy Riley to work on it. Once Riley reworked the song, Heavy D recorded his verse, which Jackson loved.
• Referenced by...:
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Snack All Night" is a parody of "Black or White", marking Yankovic's third riff on an MJ hit (after "Eat It" and "Fat"). Unlike the previous two songs, however, "Snack All Night" has never appeared on any of Yankovic's albums at the request of Jackson, who feared that it would undermine the source material's anti-racism message. It was, however, a mainstay of Yankovic's live performances until 2019, when he removed his Jackson parodies from his setlists in light of the sexual abuse allegations levied against Jackson in Leaving Neverland.
  • The background music in Sonic 3 & Knuckles' "Carnival Night" zone, which was composed by Jackson, samples the glass-breaking sound effects from "In The Closet" and the downward horn riff heard in the bridge of "Jam", complete with a distorted voice clip of Heavy D going "Jam!" at the end of it.
• What Could Have Been:
  • "In the Closet" which was written by Jackson for a prospective duet with Madonna. Her reaction? "I'm not singing that piece of shit." According to Madonna, she also presented her own lyrical ideas for Jackson, only for him to turn them down as too risqué, leading the collaboration to fall through. Instead, "In the Closet" featured guest vocals from Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, while Madonna would put out her own sexually-charged, New Jack Swing-influenced album Erotica the year after Dangerous.
  • "Dangerous" was set to be the tenth and final single from the album in 1994 but the allegations against him in addition to the lackluster performance of "Gone Too Soon" scrapped it. A music video was set to be made but instead, it ultimately became a video containing footage of various performances during his Dangerous World Tour from the video album Dangerous: The Short Films. Elements of the scrapped music video made it into the "You Rock My World" music video.
  • Dangerous as a whole wasn't even supposed to be a studio album. It was originally planned to be a 1990 greatest hits compilation called Decade that spanned his first three albums with Epic Records, and some new material. Once it became clear Jackson had more than enough new material recorded to make a full album, the idea was scrapped, and not revisited until HIStory, five years later.
  • When Jackson decided to go with the new jack swing genre, he actually wanted to mimic the industrial-esque sound his sister used on Rhythm Nation 1814, and tried to hire her producers, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, but they declined, wanting to stay with Janet. Undeterred, Jackson initially hired Bryan Loren^note who coincidentally also had his work rejected by Janet during the Rhythm Nation sessions, and later, L.A. Reid and Babyface, before being convinced to bring on Teddy Riley, at the recommendation of Quincy Jones and Heavy D. Jam & Lewis would eventually produce several tracks for Jackson's HIStory album, including the hit single "Scream", which coincidentally is a duet with his sister Janet.
  • The 2001 reissue of Dangerous, put out as part of Jackson's Milestone Celebration for his 30th year as a solo artist, was originally intended to feature a bonus disc full of outtakes, as was previously the case with Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad. However, due to increasing tensions between Jackson and Sony Music, the disc was pulled, and the album was only available in a Vanilla Edition.

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