George Michael part 1

George Michael was the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984–2004. Yesterday we dealt with his early career in Wham!. Today, we'll focus on his solo career and collaborations.

His first solo offering should be rightfully considered to be Careless Whisper, but since it was made in the middle of his Wham! period, many consider it a half-way Wham! single, which we featured yesterday. So today we begin with Different Corner, from 1986. Although it was credited to George Michael all over the world and Ridgeley had absolutely nothing to do with it, it did appear in Wham!'s final studio album. Go figure.

It was another luscious ballad, on the subject of how serendipity can figure in the forming of a love affair. A #1 hit in the UK, Canada, Norway and the Netherlands, #2 in Ireland, #3 in Italy, Switzerland and New Zealand #7 in the US and Germany and #16 in France.

He started off 1987 with two collaborations: one was with Boogie Box High, a project headed by his cousin Andros Georgiou. They released a cover of the Bee Gees' Jive Talkin', which went to #4 in the Netherlands, #7 in the UK, but got no action anywhere else.

The other was I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me). It was a duet with none other than the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin. I love this song and so do millions of others: it made #1 in the US, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Australia, #4 in Sweden and #5 in Germany and Switzerland.

By the end of 1987, his first solo album, Faith, was released. Getting excellent reviews (4 and 5 stars out of 5 from most major critics), selling more than 25 million copies around the world and producing an amazing string of hit singles, including 6 in the US Top 5 (4 of which were #1s), the album was the best beginning to a solo career anyone could hope for. First single off the album was the lively and infectious I Want Your Sex:

Faith was next. Another great song:

This was followed up by two beautiful ballads. First there was Father Figure:

Then came the sublime (my personal favorite of this album) One More Try:

Monkey was funky:

Finally, Kissing A Fool was delicate:

The Album won the Grammy for Album of the Year. His world tour broke box-office records, but George was tired. He waited until 1991 before he released his next album...

... Which was called Listen Without Prejudice Volume 1. It was an album with largely acoustic instrumentation and a sombre intensity in many of the lyrics and melodies. The critics liked it slightly less than Faith. I liked it as much, if not more. It sold "only" around 8 million copies around the world, which is a huge number, but compared to the +25m of the previous one, it disappointed George and made the men in grey suits rather jittery. The more dance-oriented Vol. 2 was ostensibly scheduled to follow, but was scrapped for reasons known only to Michael and his record company. It was the album's disappointing sales in the U.S. that led to Michael's legal battles against his company, in which he accused the corporation of not fully supporting him as an artist. That led to a 6-year period of artistic silence.

The lead single Praying For Time, #1 in the US and Canada, was hailed by critics: Rolling Stone's James Hunter described the song as "a distraught look at the world's astounding woundedness. Michael offers the healing passage of time as the only balm for physical and emotional hunger, poverty, hypocrisy and hatred."

Waiting for That Day was a tip of the hat to my favorite Rolling Stones' song, You Can't Always Get What You Want. In fact, Jagger-Richards are given co-songwriting credit. The song wasn't a big hit, but it was an excellent song.

Freedom '90 was a gold record in the US and #1 in Canada. One of the two upbeat tracks of the album, the lyrics were personal and made the first shy attempt of a public coming out:

Heaven knows we sure had some fun boy

What a kick just a buddy and me

We had every big shot good-time band on the run boy

We were living in a fantasy

We won the race

Got out of the place

I went back home got a brand new face

For the boys at MTV

But today the way I play the game has got to change

Oh yeah

Now I'm gonna get myself happy

I think there's something you should know

I think it's time I stopped the show

There's something deep inside of me

There's someone I forgot to be

Take back your picture in a frame

Don't think that I'll be back again

I just hope you understand

Sometimes the clothes do not make the man

All we have to do now

Is take these lies and make them true somehow

All we have to see

Is that I don't belong to you

And you don't belong to me, yeah yeah

Freedom, freedom, freedom

You've gotta give for what you take

Freedom, freedom, freedom

You've gotta give for what you take

Well it looks like the road to heaven

But it feels like the road to hell

When I knew which side my bread was buttered

I took the knife as well

Posing for another picture

Everybody's got to sell

But when you shake your ass

They notice fast

And some mistakes were built to last

That's what you get

I say that's what you get

That's what you get for changing your mind

And after all this time

I just hope you understand

Sometimes the clothes

Do not make the man

The video was directed by none other than David Fincher and included top models lip-synching to the song's lyrics.

Cowboys and Angels was only successful in Ireland & the Netherlands (#15) and less so in France (#36). In 2014, George revealed that the song was about a short lived bisexual three way relationship he was in, wherein the woman had fallen in love with him and he had fallen in love with the man. It has happened before...

I was under the impression that George's solo career would take only one day to walk through, but no... There's lots of interesting stuff still to come. See you tomorrow with the rest of it!