George Michael!!! [MERGED]

Re: George Michael!!!

First of all...I'm a dude.

Secondly....I'm straight.

Thirdly.....I couldn't care less about his backside.

But fourth....He's an incredible artist. What a voice. And he's made so many incredible songs. Especially when it came to his debut solo album in '87. Man...Faith....Father Figure...One More Try.....Kissing A Fool....Hard Day....Hand To Mouth...Monkey....All those great songs.

George Michael is a representative of one of the fav periods in my life. George Michael reminds me most of the hour or two in the summer after Bold & the Beautiful and before I took over the tv to switch it over to MTV and Nickelodeon back in the late 80's. My Mom and my sister would watch the soap operas while I was playing with my GI Joes (during summer break), then they would switch to VH-1 for my sister (and I'd also catch MJ's "The Way You Make Me Feel" during that time along with Rick Astley, Whitney Houston, and Taylor Dane, etc...) then after that I'd have a little time where I'd go between Nickelodeon and MTV to catch the latest artists including the latest news about MJ. :) I loved it.

George Michael's "Faith" is such an incredible album. I'm straight with a wife and 2 kids and I totally don't agree with his lifestyle but I love this album and Listen Without Prejudice. Both of those records are great. I don't even want to think about George Michael doing what he might do sucking....whatever. I don't want to think about that. I don't like it. It disgusts me to be honest.

But he is an INCREDIBLE artist. I love his voice and I love the songs he's created....esp. Kissing a Fool. Man....what a track. Reminds me of back in the day waiting for a girlfriend.....and then I found my beautiful wife. Oh man I love it. :)
 
Re: George Michael!!!

Always loved the man - I'f Mike's the soundtrack of my life, George is the soundtrack of my adolescence - don't know who I would be without him..
 
Re: George Michael!!!

I'm a fan of GM too. :)
His Jesus to a child, Careless whisper ....aweee...mesmerizing


Aww yea....Jesus To A Child is awesome.

How about Fastlife, yall? Anybody remember that track? I loved that song back in the mid-90's.
 
Re: George Michael!!!

There was some discussions to have a Wham! reunion a few years ago, but Andrew wasn't interested in getting back in the spotlight. I wonder if Deon Estus and Pepsi & Shirley were gong to be part of it. It would have been interesting to see "Young Guns" & "Wham! Rap" performed, lol.
 
Re: George Michael!!!

There was some discussions to have a Wham! reunion a few years ago, but Andrew wasn't interested in getting back in the spotlight. I wonder if Deon Estus and Pepsi & Shirley were gong to be part of it. It would have been interesting to see "Young Guns" & "Wham! Rap" performed, lol.


Yes. Those early Wham! tracks would be great to see performed live all these years later.
 
Re: George Michael!!!

I like his music too!
Especially the "Wham!" era!
My song of the moment is "One more try"! I heard it this week at the radio and I learned this song was from him!
 
Re: George Michael!!!

GM is one of the best singer/songwriters. His voice stood up well with Aretha's in their duet, one of the best duets of all time, in my opinion.
 
Re: George Michael!!!

First of all...I'm a dude.

Secondly....I'm straight.

Thirdly.....I couldn't care less about his backside.

But fourth....He's an incredible artist. What a voice. And he's made so many incredible songs. Especially when it came to his debut solo album in '87. Man...Faith....Father Figure...One More Try.....Kissing A Fool....Hard Day....Hand To Mouth...Monkey....All those great songs.

George Michael is a representative of one of the fav periods in my life. George Michael reminds me most of the hour or two in the summer after Bold & the Beautiful and before I took over the tv to switch it over to MTV and Nickelodeon back in the late 80's. My Mom and my sister would watch the soap operas while I was playing with my GI Joes (during summer break), then they would switch to VH-1 for my sister (and I'd also catch MJ's "The Way You Make Me Feel" during that time along with Rick Astley, Whitney Houston, and Taylor Dane, etc...) then after that I'd have a little time where I'd go between Nickelodeon and MTV to catch the latest artists including the latest news about MJ. :) I loved it.

George Michael's "Faith" is such an incredible album. I'm straight with a wife and 2 kids and I totally don't agree with his lifestyle but I love this album and Listen Without Prejudice. Both of those records are great. I don't even want to think about George Michael doing what he might do sucking....whatever. I don't want to think about that. I don't like it. It disgusts me to be honest.

But he is an INCREDIBLE artist. I love his voice and I love the songs he's created....esp. Kissing a Fool. Man....what a track. Reminds me of back in the day waiting for a girlfriend.....and then I found my beautiful wife. Oh man I love it. :)

:hysterical:

For me it was always..
1. MJ
2. GM

Both great artist, their voice, their lyrics...
For me he's one of the last great musicians left here..:(

You have been loved
The lyrics are so beautiful....totally think of MJ when I listen to this song.
 
Re: George Michael!!!

My male 80s-forever trinity: Michael, Prince and George Michael. I usually have LWP, Faith, and some tracks from L&G: TBOGM, Older and Patience on my iPod.
 
Re: George Michael!!!

George definitely has one of the great voices, I don't care much for his more recent work, but his late 80's/early 90s stuff is just classic, he seems to have lost his way lately, I hope he can sort himself out and make some great music again.
 
Re: George Michael!!!

My own fan life with George Michael - I apologise if you have already seen it on prince.org but I feel you Michael Jackson fans would love it too, as some of the crap around the media and George Michael was like some of the trials MJ had to go through (Although nowhere near as severe as MJ had to go through)



My life started with him at 7 when Club Tropicana was a hit and I kind of liked its party feel and the song always made me feel good like a lot of sunny early 80s pop (Culture Club, Michael Jackson, Hayzee Fantasee, all the usual suspects for me). It was a moderate hit, but when "Wake me up before you go go" came out, it was a #1 global hit and made them cross out of UK success to global success as they competed with Culture club for the 1980s British Invasion. After that it was hit after after in 1985 and 1986, everyone loved Careless Whisper and I got the Make it big album in 1985 aged 9, then my brother got the final in 1986. We even liked the filler tracks like "Credit card baby" - come on it had a great melody!
.
87 saw Faith come up and again it blew the charts away, all the kids dug him and the hits like on Bad, poured on into 1989, Father Figure, One More Try, Monkey, I want your sex etc. But even then my brother would say "Oh that George Michael is gay,look at his hair, I had no idea what a gay was then - I soon found out by the time Listen without Prejudice dropped in 1990, I had questions about GM and myself. I was 14 and dug the singles - Praying for Time and Freedom90. The latter had a real angry feel and was a contrast next to the party pop of Wham! and the polished sound of Faith. We knew George was having a Barney with Sony and by 1991 I had moved to Color me badd, MJ and even discovered Prince. 1992 had the song Too Funky, which to me was his coming out song (George apparently said he came out on Listen without Prejudice with the song "You have been loved"). All this shouting at models and gay dance beat made me know and then 1993 came and he had the trial with Sony, his hair and outfit were complete Erasure!
.
By 1996 I was into Prince and rap, but still made time for Older (The gap between LWP in 1990 and Older in 1996 was interminable). 1996 was a tough year for me, still stuck in the closet but wanting to burst out. 1998 I was and now it seemed so was George. I felt for him, I never approve of cottaging (Cruising the bogs) but I knew he was lonely after Anselmo died. whereas the arrest got all the wrong publicity and caused the gutter media to go wild after all the fuss over Diana's death had died down, GM turned the whole episode into his coming out hit - Outside, which was really funky. Then came the Ladies and Gentlemen, the very best of George Michael, an excellent album I still have today. A good range of hits, duets, new material like Outside and his version of AS featuring Mary J Bilge and a version of a Portuguese fada song called Desafinado. To hammer home the gay factor, it was given to me as an Xmas gift by my first Partner in 1998.
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After that there were a few creative missteps with Songs of the 20th century and the whole Freek! and Shoot the dog thing with its video of Tony Blair as a puppet of Dubya (I like it, but the song was weak - Freek! was quite good. After that we have Patience,(An album I have, but alas I just can't get into. I need to go back to it). Then there was a blur of arrests for drunk and stoned driving, the fat old lorry driver who was caught with GM sucking him off and tabloid crap right up to his death, my newspaper online even had the gall to criticise him for his Xmas single in 2015 stalling at #14 in the UK and called it a flop!
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I ignore that shit, being a big fan of Michael Jackson and Prince, I am kind of wary of the gutter media, English tabloids and TMC type outlets.
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So that is my journey with Georgie - Does anyone care to explain theirs?
 
Re: George Michael!!!

I just realize that mj died on GM birthday and GM died ten years on the same day as James Brown. So sad.
 
Re: George Michael!!!

I was going to bump this ages back, but seeing the last post was in 2009 I thought not to.

Anywho, one I've always loved:

 
Re: George Michael!!!

I was going to bump this ages back, but seeing the last post was in 2009 I thought not to.
That's probably because most of the people who used to post in this part of the site haven't been here in a long time, or at least haven't posted. The entire site used to be busier years ago than it is now.
 
Re: George Michael!!!

Much like MJ, everyone's going on about his vastly commercial 80s period with Wham! and Careless Whisper and Faith, but Listen Without Prejudice and Older are his masterpieces.

I implore anyone to YouTube his 1996 Unplugged performance. All the stars lines up for him for this one. Perfection.
 
George Michael's History on Billboard's R&B Charts

By Amaya Mendizabal | December 28, 2016 | Billboard
George-Michael-sony-1990-billboard-1548.jpg

While he reigned as a pop powerhouse, Michael's soulful sounds made an impact at R&B formats.

George Michael, who died on Christmas, leaves behind an extensive Billboard chart history that includes numerous R&B hits. The multifaceted singer, songwriter and producer made major R&B inroads first as the frontman of duo Wham! (with Andrew Ridgeley) and then as a soloist.

Notably, Michael became the first white soloist to top the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart (then called Top Black Albums) when his debut solo set Faith, featuring a more mature and gospel-tinged sound than his Wham! output, led the list for six weeks in 1988. (Average White Band became the first white act overall to top the chart, with two sets in 1975.)

Faith reached the top of the chart after a lengthy 25-week climb (and four months after first topping the Billboard 200). To date, only three other albums have taken longer to hit No. 1: Guy's self-titled set (40 weeks, 1989), Vanessa Williams' The Comfort Zone (34 weeks, 1992) and Terence Trent D'Arby's Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby (26 weeks, 1988).

In September 1988, Michael told JET magazine, "I was much happier with [Faith] being the No. 1 Black [chart] album than I was when it became the No. 1 pop album. There was much more of a sense of achievement. I knew this album would be a shock or a surprise to people in this country. The uptempo side of the new music is more overtly sexual, more black."

Michael first appeared on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 1985 (when it was called Hot Black Singles), billed as a featured act on Wham!'s "Careless Whisper." The track spent 15 weeks on the chart and peaked at No. 8, the highest-charting of three Wham! entries on the tally.

As a soloist, Michael ticked 12 more entries on the chart. In all, he hit the top 10 six times and earned one No. 1: "One More Try," from Faith (June 18, 1988). His first entry as a solo act was the Aretha Franklin duet "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)." The song reached No. 5 and earned Michael his first Grammy Award, for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals in 1988.

George Michael's Chart History on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
Title, Peak Position, Peak Date
"Careless Whisper" (Wham! featuring George Michael), No. 8, March 16, 1985
"Everything She Wants" (Wham!), No. 12, June 8, 1985
"I'm Your Man" (Wham!), No. 55, Feb. 8, 1986
"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (Aretha Franklin & George Michael), No. 5, April 18, 1987
"I Want Your Sex," No. 43, July 25, 1987
"Hard Day," No. 21, Nov. 21, 1987
"Father Figure," No. 6, March 26, 1988
"One More Try," No. 1 (one week), June 18, 1988
"Monkey," No. 8, Sept. 10, 1988
"Kissing a Fool," No. 33, Nov. 26, 1988
"Heaven Help Me" (Deon Estus with George Michael), No. 3, May 20, 1989
"Killer/Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," No. 88, July 31, 1993
"Jesus to a Child," No. 22, Feb. 24, 1996
"Fastlove," No. 44, June 29, 1996
"As" (George Michael with Mary J. Blige), No. 57, March 27, 1999
 
Re: George Michael!!!

The fact that George and Mary never performed "As" live is so frustrating. Mary's label is said to have taken the song off the US version of "Ladies and Gentlemen" because of the bathroom thing.

Anyway, here is a great video which was uploaded a few days ago.

 
Re: George Michael!!!

@TonyR: In Matty's "Patience thread" (I do not want to keep derailing it), you told me George had lip synced only once (Star People at the mtv video music awards). I thought you were a specialist. Just teasing. Is the caucasian woman behind George the beautiful Jo Bryant (the woman who's also in the 1996 unplugged performance) ? :)


He could sing it live though. It makes me like the song more. Very nice. :)


What do you guys think of his use of autotune/vocoder/whatever it's called on "Where I Hope You Are" during the symphonica tour ?
 
Re: George Michael!!!

^ Ha! Well if he lip synced another twice in a 30 year career that's still pretty impressive and puts him a league of his own in that respect.

Yes, his had a lot of the same gospel style backing singers for most of his career post Faith. You can see them on tour including Symphonica and especially on the amazing Unplugged show.

I don't mind the vocoder on that one song. It wasn't to make him sing better it was for effect. He also used it on his True Faith cover he did for charity.
 
Re: George Michael!!!


THIS! ... needs to be here!!!

I have loved this duet ever since it came out!
 
Re: George Michael!!!

The very short part at 50:04 makes me think "Hold on, there's behind-the-scenes footage of one of my favorite videos ?! Where the f**k is the rest ?!". :(

 
Re: George Michael!!!

As it was George's funeral yesterday, a shout out to The Man.

 
George Michael & Friends - Stand By Me Benefit Concert (April 1, 1987)

George Michael (with Deon Estus) - 1-2-3
Communards - Don't Leave Me This Way
Elton John - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Boy George - Freedom
Kim Wilde & Marti Wilde - Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
George Michael - Love's In Need Of Love Today
Holly Johnson - Born To Run
Communards - Never No More
Elton John - I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues
George Michael (with Andrew Ridgeley) - Everything She Wants
All Star Band - Stand By Me
 
George Michael

Is there any GM fans on here? I adore that man his passing hit me real hard almost as hard as when Michael died, took me a good few days to get over it. I know it sounds silly to feel sad about some famous passing on but i loved George he was one of the best song-writers and one of the best voices of our generation.

Is anyone going to get the reissue of Listen Without Prejudice? I'm picking it up the day it comes out (October 20th here in the UK)

My favourite GM track

 
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