"The Way You Make Me Feel" was recorded by Michael Jackson in 1987 for his seventh studio album Bad, which was released the same year it was recorded. Epic Records released the song as the third single from the album in November that year. "The Way You Make Me Feel" was written and co-produced by Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones. Before the recording of Bad, Jackson had written over sixty songs for the album, with plans of releasing a three disc album, but after Jones convinced Jackson to make Bad a one disc LP, "The Way You Make Me Feel", as well as ten other songs were selected for the album.
"The Way You Make Me Feel" has been featured on multiple greatest hits and compilation albums by Jackson since the song's release,including the first disc of Jackson's two disc complication album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I in 1995, Jackson's greatest hits album, Number Ones in 2003 and the This Is It complication album in 2009. Credited as a being a pop, funk and contemporary R&B song, "The Way You Make Me Feel" is composed of blues harmonies. The song's opening lyrics are "Hey, pretty baby with the high heels on". "The Way You Make Me Feel"'s lyrics pertain to being in love, as well as the feeling of loving someone. Throughout the song Jackson's vocal range spans from B3 to A5. The song is played in the key of F major. "The Way You Make Me Feel" has a mid-tempo of medium rock and has a metronome of 116 beats per minute. The song follows in the chord progression of C—Eb/C—C—C/Eb in the first line, when Jackson sings "Hee-hee! Ooh Go on!" and continues on the same progression in the second line, when Jackson sings "Girl! Aaow!".
"The Way You Make Me Feel" became Bad's third consecutive single to peak at number one on Billboards Hot 100 music chart, and charted mainly within the top ten and twenty internationally. A music short film for "The Way You Make Me Feel" was released at the time showing Jackson pursuing and dancing with a woman. Since the music short film's release, it has become influential on other artists' material. The song has been performed on all of Jackson's world concert tours as a solo artist, and was planned to have been performed during the This Is It concerts from 2009 to 2010. Notable live performances of the song by Jackson include a performance at the 1988 Grammy Awards ceremony.
The music short film for "The Way You Make Me Feel" was directed by Joe Pytka. Almost seven minutes long, the video begins with a female walking down streets alone, with a clip being intercut that shows a male (Jackson) talking with other people. Shortly after the male walks out of an alley and stands in front of the female while she's walking down the street, although she ignores him and keeps walking. He gets her attention by shouting, and then begins singing "The Way You Make Me Feel" to her while also dancing. Uninterested, she walks away. He follows her, having been cheered on by his friends to pursue her. Another dance routine begins, involving the males friends, which leads to the male pursing the female throughout the neighborhood. The video ends with the male eventually winning the female over, and embraces her, while a fire hydrant is spraying out water. Jackson's love interest was played by Tatiana Thumbtzen, and the videoclip also features an appearance by his sister La Toya as one of Thumbtzen's friends.
The music short film was released on October 31, 1987, and received one nomination at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards Ceremony. The short film alongside Jackson's '"Bad" short film, was nominated for Best Choreography, but lost to Jackson's younger sister Janet's video "The Pleasure Principle".
The music short film appear on the video album: Video Greatest Hits - HIStory, Number Ones and Michael Jackson's Vision.
The introduction of the full version of the video also samples the Roy Ayers 1985 song "Hot" from his "You Might Be Surprised" album.
"The Way You Make Me Feel" was performed by Jackson on all three of his world concert series tours as a solo artist as well as during award shows. For a majority of the songs performances, Jackson would wear a blue dress shirt with a white t-shirt and black pants with a white belt. The song was first performed in concert by Jackson during the encore of the second leg of his Bad World Tour from 1987 to 1989. He performed "The Way You Make Me Feel" at the 1988 Grammy Awards Ceremony, during which he wore his signature outfit and his signature black fedora, while doing a dance routine with four other dancers, and performed the song along with another of his songs, "Man In The Mirror".
"The Way You Make Me Feel" was also performed during the first leg of Jackson's Dangerous World Tour from June 1992 to November 1993. The tour was supposed to be longer, but was canceled due to Jackson's health concerns and stress from the child sexual abuse accusations made against him. The next, and what would be the last concert performance of the song, was during Jackson's world concert series tour, HIStory. The song was performed during selected concerts from September 1996 to June 1997. The last performance of the song was at the Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special in 2001 at Madison Square Garden on September 7 and September 10, 2001. The video footage from the performance (which included Britney Spears) was featured on CBS in November 2001, as a two-hour television special. Since March 2009, Jackson was preparing to perform "The Way You Make me Feel'" during his This Is It concert series from 2009 to 2010. Following Jackson's death in June of the same year, video footage of Jackson rehearsing the song was featured in the 2009 concert documentary film, Michael Jackson's This Is It. The video rehearsal footage was also featured on the films DVD in January 2010.
