Гладкий преступник: История хита Майкла Джексона и его влияния.

1988 single by Michael Jackson
the Polo G song

R&B It reached number two on the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The song reached number one in Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Spain. Retrospective reviews have described it as one of Jackson's best songs. Rolling Stone wrote that it was "his best blend of R&B groove and rock edginess, and a turning point in his shift toward darker, harder edged material". It is in the key of A minor, and Jackson's vocal spans from G3 to C6. The chorus refrain, "Annie, are you OK? ", was inspired by Resusci Anne, a dummy used in cardiopulmonary resuscitation training. Trainees learn to say "Annie, are you OK?" while practicing resuscitation on the dummy. The original mix of the song includes the sound of Jackson's fast thumping heart and heavy breathing, which travel from left to right thanks to Hugo Zuccarelli's Holophonics system.

"Smooth Criminal" peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the sixth top 10 single from Bad. The song reached number one in Belgium, Iceland, the Netherlands and Spain and the top 10 in Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and the UK.

Jackson asked Vincent Paterson to conceive a concept for the short film. Paterson listened to the unfinished song and came up with the concept of a 1930s gangster club. Paterson, who was a lead dancer in the music videos for "Beat It" and "Thriller", co choreographed the "Smooth Criminal" video with Jackson and Jeffrey Daniel of the soul music group Shalamar. The video and Jackson's white suit and fedora pay tribute to the Fred Astaire musical comedy film The Band Wagon, particularly the "Girl Hunt Ballet" (itself inspired by the novels of Mickey Spillane) scene. The video, directed by Colin Chilvers, was shot between mid February and April 1987 at Culver City, California, and in the backlot at Universal Studios Hollywood and premiered internationally on MTV on the night of October 13, 1988. In the video, Jackson and the other dancers perform a lean that appears physically impossible. The dancers lean forward 45 degrees with their backs straight and feet flat on the floor, and hold the pose before returning upright. In October 1993, Jackson's team patented a method of performing the lean in concert using specially designed shoes that hook into pegs that rise from the stage. and the Critic's Choice awarded Jackson the "Best Video" award and the People's Choice Awards for "Favorite Music Video" for that same year. In 2019, American television personality Kim Kardashian bought Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" fedora, which still had his makeup on it, for her daughter North West. The style of clothing as well as mannerisms Jackson portrayed were reused in the numerous adaptations of the video game Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. The song serves as the background music for the "Club 30s" stage, the nightclub seen in the music video, that appears in the game. The video is the centerpiece of the 1988 film Moonwalker.

Jason Elias of AllMusic wrote that "Smooth Criminal" was "a gorgeous and exhilarating record [it] presents Michael Jackson at his most captivating and it never fails to impress". Rolling Stone named it the sixth best Jackson song, writing that it was "his best blend of R&B groove and rock edginess, and a turning point in his shift toward darker, harder edged material." In a retrospective review of Bad, Newsweek wrote: "[Smooth Criminal] is a sleek, exhilarating action sequence of a song that's unlike anything else in Jackson's catalog an urgent and inspired highlight. Bad is at its best when it explores the darker, more paranoid side that began to consume Jackson's life in the late '80s, and this song captures that impulse." Entertainment Weekly wrote: "If there was one song on Bad that truly captured the sense of artistic freedom that Jackson felt after Thriller, it was this track This is pop music as suspense drama."

In May 2001, American rock band Alien Ant Farm released a cover version of "Smooth Criminal" as the second single from their second studio album, Anthology (2001). According to lead singer Dryden Mitchell, the band would play a few riffs of the Jackson song while warming up before gigs and audience members would request them to play the entire song. This positive feedback encouraged them to record their own rendition of "Smooth Criminal" and include it on Anthology. Originally, the song was not planned to be released due to copyright infringement, but when Michael Jackson listened to the cover, he liked it and let Alien Ant Farm release the cover, with its official video. The cover became a number one hit on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and was also a number one hit in Australia for eight weeks. In Europe, it reached number three in the United Kingdom and charted within the top 10 in 10 other countries. Alien Ant Farm's 1999 album Greatest Hits includes a hidden track named "Slick Thief", which is an early version of "Smooth Criminal".

The music video was directed by Marc Klasfeld and shot in San Fernando, California. It features the band performing in a wrestling ring, and in front of a suburban house. The video also references various Jackson music videos, including the "Smooth Criminal" video itself.

RegionDateFormat(s)Label(s)Ref. (Reference(s))United StatesMay 22, 2001Alternative radioDreamWorksEuropeAugust 20, 2001CD, cassetteUnited StatesAugust 21, 2001Contemporary hit radioUnited KingdomSeptember 17, 2001CD, cassetteAustraliaOctober 15, 2001CD

Croatian duo 2Cellos performed the song in a viral YouTube video. Jean Rodríguez sang lead vocals for Tony Succar's Latin flavored version of "Smooth Criminal", from the album Unity: The Latin Tribute to Michael Jackson (2015), including a section in Spanish. A video of their 2016 performance at the offices of Sirius XM went viral.