Track Listing

1. Runaway - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Mike Scott
2. What Have You Done For Me Lately - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Steve Hodge
3. Nasty - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Steve Hodge, Jerome Benton, Jellybean Johnson
4. When I Think Of You - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Steve Hodge
5. Escapade - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Steve Hodge, Dave Barry, Johnny Gill
6. Miss You Much - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Steve Hodge
7. Whoops Now - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis
8. Love Will Never Do (Without You) - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Steve Hodge, Herb Alpert, Rene Elizondo, Anthony Thomas
9. Alright - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis
10. The Best Things In Life Are Free - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Luther Vandross, Terry Lewis, C.J. Mackintosh
11. Control - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Steve Wiese, Steve Hodge
12. The Pleasure Principle - Janet Jackson, Monte Moir, Steve Wiese, Steve Hodge, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis
13. Black Cat - Janet Jackson, Jellybean Johnson, Steve Hodge, Nuno Bettencourt, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Dave Barry, Jesse Johnson, John McClain
14. Rhythm Nation - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, John McClain, Terry Lewis
15. That's The Way Love Goes - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis
16. Come Back To Me - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Steve Hodge, Lee Blaskey, Steve Barnett, Julie Ayer, Carolyn Daws, Hanley Daws, Thomas Kornacker, Frank Lee, Carl Nashan, Elsa Nilsson, Romuald Tecco, Hyacinthe Tlucek, John Tartaglia, Tamas Strasser, Peter Howard, Joshua Koestenbaum, Chris Brown, Kathy Kienzle
17. Let's Wait Awhile - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Melanie Andrews, Steve Hodge, Steve Wiese
18. Twenty Foreplay - Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Mike Scott, Stokley, Carolyn Daws, Brenda Mickens, Helen Foli, Dick Massman, Laurie Hippen, Julia Persitz, Andrea Een, Liz Sobieski, Alice Preves, Hasan Sumen, Joshua Koestenbaum, Laura Sewell, Gregory Hippen, Kenny Holman, Lee Blaske

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4866 in Music
• Released on: 2001-05-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .19 pounds
• Running time: 85 minutes

CD Description
Need to replace your worn-out copies of CONTROL and RHYTHM NATION 1814? DESIGN OF A DECADE is the two-for-one answer, whittling those two '80s R&B landmarks down to their thirteenblockbuster hits, adding the 1993 single "That's The Way Love Goes" and two new tracks. It's one beat-crazy disc that will rival Madonna's THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION as the essential document of female pop of the '80s.
Janet Jackson's solo career began in 1982, but it didn't really take off until1986. CONTROL left everything else behind. The title track is a declaration of independence that explicitly dismissed her famous parents and her brief marriage to James DeBarge. In doing so, Jackson launched her music inexorably forward. CONTROL's songs are bottom-heavy, keyboard-controlled blasts of electronic pop that shook off her family's sweet soul in favour of the raw funk feel and steely techno sound of modern clubland. They continued the mid-'80s pop revolution started by brother Michael and Prince, and added an unmistakable feminist stamp. Yet the revolution also allowed such pillowypop moments as "Let's Wait Awhile", an apparent ode to virginity. RHYTHM NATION--from which seven of this compilation'stracks are drawn--went even further, blowing up the music'sfunky bottom and adding shots of heavy-metal guitar and heavy-mental social conscience.
DESIGN OF A DECADE begins and ends with new recordings. "Twenty Foreplay", a demand for total devotion from her lover, is a ballad on which Jackson sounds eerily like her brother, except in her sexual frankness. "Runaway" is a breezy, xylophone-driven pop tune that may seem like a retreat from her funkiest advances; then again, it may be just one more stretch in Janet Jackson's universal pop ambitions.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
This is a fantastic Greatest Hits CD from Janet Jackson and is up there with Madonna's The Immaculate Collection as one of the best Greatest Hits albums of the 90s. It boasts a fantastic collection of hits from 1986's Nasty and Control to 1996's Runaway and Twenty Foreplay. This Greatest Hits got to No.2 in the UK Charts. Janet's only UK No.1 album to date is Janet (1993). Albums such as All For You (UK No.2), Control (UK No.8) and Rhythm Nation (UK No.4) should have all made No.1, like they did in the US.
The album kicks off with a brand new track (or brand new at the time) Runaway (UK No.6). We then go all the way back to two of her first hits What Have You Done For Me Lately (UK No.3) and Nasty (underrated UK No.19). This is followed by When I Think Of You (UK No.10), Escapade (UK No.17) and Miss You Much (UK No.22). This is followed up by Whoops Now (UK No.9) from the Janet album. Following this is Love Will Never Do (Without You) (UK No.34!) released in 1990 from the Rhythm Nation album. Alright (UK No.20) is a fantastic track and is the best track on the album to dance to. The Best Things In Life Are Free, (UK No.2) a duet with Luther Vandross proved to be Janet's biggest hit in the UK to date. Control (UK No.42) is the only song from this Greatest Hits album to not make the UK Top 40. It was one of Janet's first ever singles back in 1986. This is followed by The Pleasure Principle (UK No.24) and Black Cat (UK No.15). The best track on the album Rhythm Nation (UK No.23) is a fantastic slice of dance, R'n'B and pop with the cool "woo!" every 4 seconds. That's The Way Love Goes proved to be Janet's biggest hit in the US. It was No.1 in the US for 8 weeks and was one of her 10 No.1s in America. The most recent been All For You (10 weeks at US No.1). This will probably be one of her 11 No.1s as Son of A Gun will probably go to No.1 too! That's The Way Love Goes (UK No.2) is without a doubt the best Janet ballad ever and is one of her biggest hits along with The Best Things In Life Are Free. Come Back To Me (UK No.20) and Let's Wait Awhile (UK No.3) come before the albums' final track, the new (in 1995) Twenty Foreplay (UK No.22).
This album only features 7 UK Top 10 singles but every track on the album made the Top 10 in America. Janet Jackson is a fantastic artist, actress, dancer, writer and producer and in my opinion is better than her brother. Most of the tracks on this album are dance tracks with 4 ballads. The songs after this album are from the Velvet Rope and All For You albums such as Together Again (UK No.4), All For You (UK No.3) and Doesn't Really Matter (UK No.5). It's hard to believe that Janet's never had a UK No.1 single, but I think her time will come...

Should include more songs
Janet, if you released a "best of" album in the same year your brother did, at least you should have made it a double album just like his. :) I think a "best of" album should include songs from all of the artist's previous albums. Her first two albums were completely (and the fifth was almost completely) ignored when she recorded "Design of a Decade", although there were pretty good songs on those albums. I also miss "Scream", the duet with her brother, it is really a cool song.
After the self-consciousness and freedom expressed by "Control", the social sensibility of "Rhythm Nation 1814" and the sexy spirit of "janet." this album seems like "a little bit of this, a little bit of that". But "Design of a Decade" is still worth buying, not only because the two bonus songs "Runaway" and "Twenty Foreplay", and the duet with Luther Vandross, "Best Things In Life Are Free" (this is the only Janet album which includes this song) but also because all the songs are slightly different versions than the ones on "Control" and "Rhythm Nation 1814" - most of them were only shortened, but "Alright", "Black Cat" and "Come Back To Me" were also remixed, and they're cool. Also includes a booklet in which you can learn more about the beginning of Janet's career.

Rhythm Icon
Design of a Decade: 1986-1996 is a misleading title. The bulk of Janet Jackson's greatest-hits collection concentrates on Control and Rhythm Nation 1814, simply by contractual necessity. That is far from a fatal flaw. The hits from those two albums were state-of-the-art dance-pop productions at the time of their release, filled with bottomless beats and memorable, catchy hooks. None of the songs has lost any of its impact, from the funk of "Miss You Much" and "What Have You Done for Me Lately," to the ballads "Let's Wait Awhile" and "Come Back to Me." In addition to all 13 Top 40 hits from Control and Rhythm Nation - all but one went into the Top Five - Design of a Decade includes the biggest and best hit from janet., the sultry "That's the Way Love Goes," and two new songs, "Runaway" and "Twenty Foreplay." It's a credit to Janet that the two new numbers feel like genuine hits, not tacked-on filler, and help make the album a compulsively listenable greatest-hits collection.