Do you think Dirty Dancing deserved to outsell Bad in 1987-88?

I love both albums though Bad is much better, but Dirty Dancing has aged so well too, I found the record in our basement recently, remember hearing She's Like the Wind when I was little, but love the whole thing now and recently saw the musical.
[Edited 10/20/08 8:54am]

alphastreet said:

what about worldwide sales?

'Dirty Dancing' is a guilty pleasure of mine.Love the movie and the soundtrack.

"She's Like The Wind"

"Bad" became the 2nd best-selling album in the history of recorded popular music(*), after the tours and the videos. It's not at that position anymore, but for years it was.

(*= pardon for the mj-zealotish tone of that expression)

novabrkr said:

MTV did claim it was back in 1991 on its "Rockumentary" special on MJ (I don't think he was doing interviews at this time either). Of course by 1997, "Bad" didn't hold that position anymore and "Dangerous" eclipsed the sales of "Bad" so to speak.
[Edited 10/19/08 1:33am]

It was claimed to the 2nd best-selling album of all time by the Grammy Award ceremony (Was it either in 1992 or 1993? It was when Michael got the life achievement award handed by Janet.). The same thing was mentioned on the Oprah Winfrey show. I don't think the sales figures of Bad and Dangerous at the end of last decade differed by too many millions though. Dangerous was a constant seller for years, I remember it re-entered the top10 each time there was a performance, TV appearance or bigger news items circulating around - hell it even re-entered the charts when Michael paid off Jordan Chandler.

You have to understand that Michael has always sold incredibly amounts of copies all across Asia, Europe and probably even Africa as well. That's not even counting all the "pirate" stuff. I bought a copy of "Bad" from Turkey as a kid during a vacation there, and it definitely wasn't an official one. A senior musicologist from my own university, who went to study the indigenous music of the tribes living in the deepest territories of the Amazon jungle, discovered that the shamans there listened to Michael Jackson tapes on boomboxes and were using the melodies from his songs as chants. That's the impact of Michael Jackson on a global scale, folks.

novabrkr said:

So I heard. But yeah, that's how big Mike is.

I already know Bad kicked it's ass worldwide and it was a huge album, but I should have written about US sales

I for one don't believe it's only at 8 million in the US. I remember reading a book on Billboard stats one time, and all the other albums had accurate stats and Bad at 11.2 million units, so it must have sold way more since it was last certified in the 90's.

novabrkr said:

Thanks for that interesting info.
I read that Bad is the biggest selling foreign album in Turkey.

and the third of fourth biggest seller in the UK

I like Bad better than Thriller and put it right up there with Destiny and Triumph....sue me.

I'm changing the topic title