Song · Janet Jackson
“Black Cat” by Janet Jackson
From the album Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989)
“Black Cat” by Janet Jackson appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1990 and 2021. It was first released in 1989 on the album Rhythm Nation 1814. Its best result is #78 on the CFNY Top 90 Songs of 1990. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #232 alternative song of 1990.
"Black Cat" throws the curveball on Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814: it was the last song cut for the 1989 album, and the one where she swaps industrial dance-pop for a full-bore hard rock stomp. She wrote it herself and produced it with Jellybean Johnson, after hammering out the main riff with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis because the record still needed a rock song. Nuno Bettencourt adds guitar, Steve Hodge recorded and mixed it, and the lyric stares down drugs and gang violence.
Issued in 1990 as the album's sixth single, it climbed to number one on the Hot 100 and earned her a Grammy nod in the Best Female Rock Vocal Performance category. Wayne Isham's video, shot on her Rhythm Nation World Tour 1990, cuts her stage show with footage of a black panther.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 78 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge Toronto, ON | CFNY Top 90 Songs of 1990 | 90 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 702 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s | 909 |
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