The Philadelphia Inquirer said that the song was "a hard-rock dance tune with blaring synthesizers and buzzing guitars." The reviewer, however, didn't like the song, summing it up with one word: "Yawn." The Sacramento Bee complimented Jackie Jackson for being the only person "besides Michael" to "rise above the generic," citing "Torture" as one of the two songs by Jackie that were more than exceptional on the album. William Ruhlmann of Allmusic considered the song a "Track pick", and mentioned that its popularity probably had to do more with the fact that Michael Jackson was involved. "So, here one has the ludicrous situation of an album in which Marlon Jackson has as prominent a role as Michael Jackson. That's how it sounded to listeners in 1984, anyway, and they weren't fooled — "State of Shock", on which Michael shared vocals with Mick Jagger, was a gold Top Ten hit, and "Torture", which teamed Michael with Jermaine, made the Top 40, while the album went platinum. But the tracks by other group members went virtually ignored," Ruhlmann said. In popular culture The video makes an appearance in the season 2 episode of Beavis and Butt-Head titled "At the Sideshow." Personnel Jermaine Jackson – lead and background vocals Michael Jackson – lead and background vocals Jackie Jackson – ad lib vocals, background vocals, arrangements, horn arrangements Randy Jackson – background vocals, keyboards, synthesizers, percussion Marlon Jackson – background vocals Tito Jackson – background vocals, guitar John Barnes – Fairlight computerized keyboard Michael Boddicker – keyboards, synthesizers, synth horns, synth programming David Ervin – additional synth programming Jeff Porcaro – drums Jack Wargo – guitar solo Jerry Hey – trumpet, horn arrangements Bill Bottrell – engineer, mixing Paul Erickson, Mitch Gibson, Bino Espinoza – assistant engineers Nelson Hayes – project coordinator Charts References 1984 singles The Jackson 5 songs Vocal collaborations Songs written by Jackie Jackson Songs written by Kathy Wakefield 1984 songs Epic Records singles