Michael Jackson's 1988 Classic Peaked At No. 7 — 13 Years Later, A Hard Rock Cover Gave It New Life

In January 1989, Michael Jackson hit the Top 10 with "Smooth Criminal." An extremely successful release for the King of Pop in his cultural and commercial heyday, it got huge all over again in 2001 when rock band Alien Ant Farm reinterpreted it as an edgy, crunchy alternative track. A herky-jerky bit of frenetic, dance-floor-filling synth pop, "Smooth Criminal" is an enigmatic story song that uses lurid crime language and imagery to tell the story of a bloody murder. Officially released in November 1988, "Smooth Criminal" was the sixth high-charting single off Jackson's blockbuster 1987 album "Bad."

On its first major-label album, 2001's "ANThology," Alien Ant Farm recorded a new version of "Smooth Criminal." While extremely faithful to the source material — down to imitations of Jackson's improvised vocal outbursts — "Smooth Criminal" took a keyboard-heavy and extremely produced song that was very much of its time and turned it into an early-2000s rocker propelled by precise and fuzzy guitars that made it fit right in with the radio rock of the era.

Alien Ant Farm found its biggest success with its take on "Smooth Criminal." Here's how a classic song was brought back to life by a hard rock cover, delighting audiences once again, but in a whole new way, in 2001. 

Michael Jackson scored the most No. 1 hits of the 1980s, but "Smooth Criminal" wasn't one of them — it topped out at No. 7. When it returned 13 years later as a rock song by Alien Ant Farm, it rode the wave of a 2001 Michael Jackson resurgence. That year, tribute performances commemorating 30 years of Jackson's solo work commenced in New York City, and Jackson issued the LP "Invincible," with the Top 10 smash "You Rock My World." And yet, the most significant element of the comeback might have been Alien Ant Farm's rapid-fire, hard-alternative reboot of "Smooth Criminal." 

In their early days, Alien Ant Farm covered familiar hits by Phil Collins and Sade, an '80s musician we completely forgot about, and then someone suggested "Smooth Criminal." "I can't remember who brought in the idea," guitarist Terry Corso told Gigging N.I., "but they were like, 'We got to try this song! It sounds like it was made for guitar!'" The group learned the song, played it live, and added it to their set list because the first crowd that heard it loved it so much. It wasn't even supposed to be a single. Alien Ant Farm's label shopped the song "Movies" to radio, but after influential New York City station K-Rock played "Smooth Criminal" instead, that one took off. Not only did "Smooth Criminal" make it up to No. 23 on the pop chart, but it topped Billboard's alternative rock chart for four weeks.