Release
The album was released August 31, 1987. By September 26, it had debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, remaining there for the next six weeks. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Bad eight time platinum for having sold eight million copies in the United States alone. Though Jackson furthered his stance as a global pop superstar, in the United States Bad failed to match the sales of Thriller, causing some in the media to label the album a "disappointment" in comparison.
Internationally, Bad was commercially successful. In the United Kingdom, the album sold 500,000 copies in its first five days of release, and as of 2008 is certified 13× platinum, for sales of 3.9 million, making it Jackson's second biggest-selling album in the United Kingdom. Bad peaked at number one in 25 countries including Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, New Zealand, Austria, Sweden and Norway. The album charted at number three in Italy and number thirteen in Spain, Mexico and Australia, as well as number twenty two in Puerto Rico. Bad has received various certifications worldwide. Bad was certified 7× platinum for the shipment of over 700,000 units in Canada by the Canadian Recording Industry Association. In Europe, Bad was certified platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for the sales of one million units. The album was also certified platinum by the IFPI for the shipment of over 20,000 units in Hong Kong. Globally, Bad is Jackson's overall second best-selling album, behind Thriller, with a reported sales between 30 to 45 million units as of 2012.
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Famous quotes containing the word release:
“The shallow consider liberty a release from all law, from every constraint. The wise man sees in it, on the contrary, the potent Law of Laws.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“As nature requires whirlwinds and cyclones to release its excessive force in a violent revolt against its own existence, so the spirit requires a demonic human being from time to time whose excessive strength rebels against the community of thought and the monotony of morality ... only by looking at those beyond its limits does humanity come to know its own utmost limits.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)