Michael Jackson’s album “Dangerous” turns 35 this month. It came out in the US on Nov 26, 1991, and this year that date lands right on Thanksgiving Day.
The holiday was part of this album’s story from the start. Back in 1991, Epic Records, Michael’s label, set a cutoff. It wanted the album in stores before Thanksgiving Day, Nov 28.
Michael had other ideas.
For the last two months of work, he and engineer Bruce Swedien rented hotel rooms about four minutes from the Record One studio. That way they could get back to work fast. It was a real push to the finish line.
Four minutes. That’s how close Michael wanted to be to the music. With a room just down the road, he could be back in the studio almost as soon as he’d left it, ready to try one more idea.
Another key player was Teddy Riley, the producer who co-produced much of the album. In this interview he talks about working with Michael on “Remember the Time” and the rest of “Dangerous,” so it’s a good way to meet the man who tells this story.
Producer Teddy Riley on making “Dangerous” with Michael
Riley later told Rolling Stone, in 1992, what the end of the road looked like. Even when time ran out, Michael still wanted to do more and more songs. He just wasn’t ready to stop.
So what finally did it?
The answer was a TV commercial.
Michael had asked filmmaker David Lynch to make a teaser ad for the album. Lynch was the director behind “Twin Peaks” and “Blue Velvet.”
“And then when Michael saw the commercial for Dangerous, the David Lynch thing, we started working hard to get it finished,” Riley told Rolling Stone.
Here’s that teaser, the same Lynch ad Riley was talking about, so you can see what Michael saw.
David Lynch’s teaser ad for “Dangerous”
After that, things moved quickly. “Dangerous” was completed and mastered by Bernie Grundman on Halloween 1991. Mastering is the final step in getting a record ready to go out.
It came out on Nov 21 in the UK and Nov 25 in Japan. In America it arrived on Tuesday, Nov 26, two days before Thanksgiving. The label got its wish after all, and families had a brand new Michael Jackson album to bring home that holiday week.
And the fans showed up. “Dangerous” debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 and stayed there four straight weeks. It hit No. 1 in 14 other countries and became the world’s best-selling album of 1992.
Lynch passed away in January 2025, but his little piece of Michael’s story lives on in that ad. It’s a fun thought for anyone who grew up with this album. If Michael had never seen that ad, who knows how many more songs he’d have tried to squeeze in, or when the record would have finally reached your shelf.