Has he ever disclosed that himself? It’s the first time I’ve ever heard about it. Even if it was one of Michael’s favorite songs at that time, it doesn’t mean it almost made it onto “Bad”.
The song selection was a group effort. Quincy had a say in it, Bruce most likely also had a say in it, and obviously Michael. But it wasn’t solely Michael’s decision.
Michael was very fond of Buffalo Bill in late- 1983 and ”knew” it would be a big hit. Yet we still haven’t heard it, til’ this day. He also preferred ‘Streetwalker’ over ‘Another Part of Me’, yet the latter made the album.
And again, ‘Cheater’ was written very late during the ‘Bad’ sessions and it couldn’t have been considered for the album. They would have had another 4 months to record and still had to do a lot of work on the existing songs chosen by Quincy and Michael for proper recording with the A-team. Not to even mention that Michael was filming ‘Chicago Nights’ a.k.a ‘Smooth Criminal’ at the same time.
It has been revealed by people who worked with him on that album.
Note also that 'Cheater' continued to be one of his favourite songs in the following years, considering that he later decided to include it on the 'The Ultimate Collection' box set.
'Streetwalker' was another of his favourite songs (from the 'BAD' album sessions), and it also almost made that album.
Generally, the song selection was a group effort, but in certain cases Quincy Jones' role was the most important one in that regard.
The 'Thriller' album comes to mind, for example.
As the producer revealed to Jian Ghomeshi broadcaster, when they reached to the final track list of the album (with 9 songs), then Quincy Jones chose the 4 weakest ones that they had to be removed.
In the place of those songs that Quincy Jones had removed, they later put 'Beat It', 'Human Nature', 'P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)' and 'The Lady In My Life', and after those changes the official track list of the album was born.