Songfacts®:

• This was the title track of Michael Jackson's eighth solo studio album. It was intended to the tenth single to be taken from Dangerous. However, the plans were scrapped after allegations of child sexual abuse were made against Jackson in August 1993.
• The song was written and composed by Michael Jackson, Bill Bottrell and Teddy Riley and produced by Riley and Jackson. Riley recalled to Musicradar.com that this song, "was about a woman who was just so beyond, you know, beyond the best girl he's ever been with." He added: "That was the name of the album, so we thought about doing a song called Dangerous, and Michael came up with the hook. So I said, 'Let me get into the music'. I went to my lab and put the track together. The track evolved: Michael came in with the hook, I did the music and then we finalised the song. We used a drum machine, the Akai MPC-60, and a lot of the sounds from that and samples I had on my sample CDs. There's no science to it, I just feel my way through the production. I always feel my way – I never do anything the same."
• Jackson's live performances, notably his 1993 American Music Awards and 1995 MTV Video Music Awards appearances, were influenced by Judy Garland's song-and-dance number "Get Happy" from the 1950 movie musical Summer Stock. Jackson and his dancers are wearing suits and fedoras as a nod to Garland's costume, and Jackson's introduction mirrors Garland's from the film scene.
• The lyrics about the strange woman with a mouth smoother than oil were taken from Proverbs 5:3-5 in the Bible. The passage warns against allowing a seductive woman to lead you down the wrong path, which Jackson seems all too happy to do. "But I loved it," he sings of her touch, "'Cause it's dangerous."