HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is Michael Jackson’s ninth studio album, a double-disc release issued on 20 June 1995 by Epic Records. Disc one is a 15-track greatest hits collection compiling singles from Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad and Dangerous. Disc two contains 15 tracks of new material, all co-written by Jackson, and stands as one of the most personal records of his career.
The album was Jackson’s response to the 1993 child-abuse allegations and the subsequent media coverage. Tracks like “Scream” (a duet with Janet Jackson) and “They Don’t Care About Us” rage against the press; “Stranger in Moscow” and “Childhood” turn inward; “Earth Song” and “Heal the World’s” successor “Smile” deliver his characteristic anthem ballads. He brought in Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (Flyte Tyme), R. Kelly, Teddy Riley and long-time collaborator Bill Bottrell to share production duties.
HIStory debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 and reached number one in most major markets. “You Are Not Alone” became the first song in history to debut at #1 on the Hot 100. “Earth Song” became Jackson’s biggest UK hit, spending six weeks at number one. The supporting HIStory World Tour, his largest, ran 1996–97 across 35 countries.
Counting each two-disc set as one unit, HIStory has sold over 22 million copies — making it the best-selling multi-disc album of all time. Counting individual discs (the IFPI standard for double albums), it has shifted approximately 44 million units. Despite mixed contemporary reviews, HIStory has been retrospectively reassessed as one of Jackson’s most ambitious and emotionally raw works.
Dangerous is Michael Jackson’s eighth studio album, released on 26 November 1991 by Epic Records. It was Jackson’s first solo album not produced by Quincy Jones, ending an extraordinary three-album run that delivered Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad. In Jones’s place, Jackson took the executive producer credit himself and brought in Teddy Riley, the architect of new jack swing, to co-produce seven of the fourteen tracks alongside long-time engineer Bruce Swedien and a new in-house team built around Bill Bottrell, Brad Buxer and Matt Forger.
Recording took roughly 18 months across five major Los Angeles and New York studios. Jackson, freed from the Jones discipline, reached for an even broader sonic palette: hard new jack rhythms (“Jam”, “Remember the Time”, “In the Closet”), pop ballads (“Heal the World”, “Will You Be There”), gospel (“Keep the Faith”, featuring The Andraé Crouch Choir), classical-tinged soul (“Gone Too Soon”) and outright rock (“Black or White” with Bill Bottrell on guitar; Slash on “Give In to Me”). Heavy D delivered a guest rap on the album opener “Jam”.
Dangerous debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and reached #1 in 14 countries. “Black or White” became Jackson’s biggest single since “Billie Jean”, spending seven weeks at #1 in the U.S. The accompanying short film, premiered simultaneously in 27 countries to an estimated 500 million viewers, became famous for its racially-fluid morphing sequence and Jackson’s controversial 4-minute solo-dance coda. Four further singles followed, all reaching the U.S. top 30, and the album earned a Grammy for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical.
The supporting Dangerous World Tour ran from 1992 to 1993 and was cut short when Jackson entered rehab amid the first child-abuse allegations. The album has sold over 32 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. It is widely regarded as the high-water mark of new jack swing as a mainstream commercial force, and as proof that Jackson’s commercial instincts and writing chops could carry an album without Quincy Jones at the desk.
