Leave Me Alone - 2012 Remaster

"Leave Me Alone" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson from his seventh studio album, Bad (1987). On February 13, 1989, it was released as the eighth single from the album, though only outside the United States and Canada. It only appears on the CD and 2001 cassette editions of Bad. It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones.

"Leave Me Alone" topped the charts in Greece, the Republic of Ireland, and Spain (in 2006), and peaked within the top ten of the charts in Belgium, New Zealand, Spain (upon its original release), and the United Kingdom. "Leave Me Alone" was generally well received by critics. In the music video, Jackson pokes fun at the rumors about him. The video was the recipient of a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Music Video. The song was never performed on any of Jackson's tours.

"Leave Me Alone" was a response to negative rumors about Jackson that frequently appeared in the tabloids post-1985 after the success of Thriller. Beginning in 1986, the tabloids began to publish rumors about Jackson, one of the first being a story claiming that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process. A picture leaked out to the media of him lying down in a hyperbaric chamber at a hospital he visited.

When Jackson bought a pet chimpanzee named Bubbles, the tabloids viewed it as evidence of Jackson's increasing detachment from reality. It was also reported that Jackson had offered to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man"; Jackson stated that the story was "a complete lie. These stories inspired the derogatory nickname "Wacko Jacko", which Jackson acquired the following year, and would come to despise. Another frequent response from the media was about Jackson's plastic surgery. Jackson's manager said of the media's criticism towards the topic, "So many terrible things have been written. Okay, so he had his nose fixed, and the cleft — big deal. I got news for you, my nose has broke five times. It's been fixed twice. Who gives a shit? Who cares? Elvis had his nose done. Marilyn Monroe had her nose done, had her breasts done? Everybody's had it done.