George Michael – Careless Whisper

“Careless Whisper” – Single by George Michael/Wham! from the album “Make It Big”

George Michael transformed himself overnight from a boyband member to a leading pop icon with this 1980s ballad.

But what is ‘Careless Whisper’ about and how was it made? Here are all the facts you need to know:
George Michael co-wrote ‘Careless Whisper’ with his Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley.
The pair had written it together while developing as artists in 1981 in Watford, when they were aged just 17.
George said in his autobiography Bare: “I was on my way to DJ at the Bel Air when I wrote ‘Careless Whisper’. I have always written on buses, trains and in cars. It always happens on journeys.

The song went through at least two attempts at production.

The first was during a trip George made to the legendary Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama, where he worked with producer Jerry Wexler.

However, George was unhappy with the version that was originally produced by Wexler, and he decided to re-record and produce the song himself, which ended up being the version that was released.

After Wexler booked the top saxophone player from Los Angeles to do the famous solo: “He arrived at eleven and should have been gone by twelve,” said Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell. “Instead, after two hours, he was still there while everyone in the studio shuddered with embarrassment. He just couldn’t play the opening riff the way George wanted it, the way it had been on the demo. But that had been made two years earlier by a friend of George’s who lived round the corner and played sax for fun in the pub.”

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The official music video (which uses the shorter single version instead of the full album version and was directed by Duncan Gibbins, who previously directed “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”) shows the guilt felt by a man (portrayed by Michael) over an affair, and his acknowledgement that his partner (Lisa Stahl) is going to find out. Madeline Andrews-Hodge plays the woman who lures George away. It was filmed on location in Miami, Florida, in February 1984 and features such locales as Coconut Grove and Watson Island. The final part of the video shows Michael leaning out of a top floor balcony of Miami’s Grove Towers.

A first original version of the video was edited with the Jerry Wexler 1983 version, and featured Ridgeley as a cameo, handing over a letter to a dark-haired Michael. This version had a more detailed storyline, but was then re-edited later.

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