"Careless Whisper" is a song by the English singer-songwriter George Michael,released as the second single from Wham!'s second album,Make It Big (1984). It was produced by Michael and written by Michael and his Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley. The single was credited to Michael as part of his transition to a solo career.
A contemporary pop song with R&B and soul influences,"Careless Whisper" features a prominent saxophoneriff composed by Michael and played by Steve Gregory. Michael composed it as a teenager and recorded several versions,auditioning several saxophone players,before he was satisfied.
Michael wrote "Careless Whisper" on a bus at the age of 17, while he was travelling to his job as a DJ at a restaurant near Bushey, Hertfordshire.[10] He worked on the song "in his head" for three months.[11] Michael wrote in his autobiography, Bare, that he based the lyrics on events from his childhood.[12] He said the lyrics were inspired by his experience of infidelity, imagining a situation in which his partner discovered him. He wrote, "'Careless Whisper' was us dancing, because we danced a lot, and the idea was – we are dancing... but she knows... and it's finished."[13]
Andrew Ridgeley, Michael's bandmate in the pop group Wham!, wrote the chord sequence on the Fender Telecaster he received for his 18th birthday, with Michael singing the saxophone line.[14] The pair worked on the song at Michael's family home in Radlett, and the basement flat in Peckham, where Ridgeley was living.[14][15]
Michael and Ridgeley recorded the first demo on a Portastudio with a local producer, Paul Mex, in Ridgeley's family home in 1981 for £20.[11] They recorded it quickly in a single take, as they had spent most of the session recording another demo, for their 1982 song "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)".[11] It featured a Doctor Rhythm drum machine, an acoustic guitar played by Ridgeley, and a bass guitar played by Dave West. Michael's vocal was recorded with a microphone attached to a broom handle.[16][17]
Michael recorded a more complete demo, including a backing band, on 24 March 1982 at Halligan Band Centre, Holloway, London.[11] According to the Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell, the saxophone part was recorded by a friend of Michael's who lived nearby "and played sax for fun in the pub".[11] Michael wrote that hearing "Careless Whisper" recorded with a band was "one of the most incredible moments of my life ... that day I finally believed we had number-one material".[18] On Michael's final night working as a DJ, he played the "Careless Whisper" demo. He wrote in his memoir: "They had never heard it before and... the floor filled. I remember thinking - that's a good sign."[19]
"Careless Whisper" was not included on the first Wham! album, Fantastic, in 1983.[11] That year, Michael recorded a version of "Careless Whisper" with the producer Jerry Wexler at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama.[20][21] Wexler booked Tom Scott to perform the saxophone part, but Michael was not satisfied with his performance. Michael would hum the part to him repeatedly, asking for adjustments.[22] The Wham! manager, Simon Napier-Bell, recalled: "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."[11]
Though Napier-Bell and Wexler could not hear what was missing from the performance, Wexler trusted Michael's intuition and felt it would be risky to release the song. He speculated that the saxophone player on the demo had used incorrect fingering, creating a different feel, and that Scott was "just too good to get it".[11] Michael wrote later that the version was too "middle of the road ... It just didn’t have any of my character on it."[11] He said he had been in awe of Wexler and had been nervous working with him.[23] However, Michael took Wexler's advice not to add a key change, saying it was a cliche.[11]
Innervision Records had planned to release "Careless Whisper" in 1983. Michael's song publisher, Dick Leahy, was able to stop the release as Michael controlled the copyright. He said: "We knew how big that song could be, so it was necessary to upset a few people to stop it."[24] Additionally, Michael was committed to touring with Wham! to promote Fantastic, and felt it would not have made sense to release "Careless Whisper" as a solo single at that point.[25]
A few weeks after the Muscle Shoals session, Michael contacted Chris Porter, who had produced some of the other tracks on Make It Big, and asked him to help record another version of "Careless Whisper". They recorded it in Sarm West Studio 2, London, with a live rhythm section.[26] Michael felt the results were better as he was more relaxed and the Sarm musicians did a better job, but the saxophone part had still not been recorded.[11] According to Porter, they auditioned 11 different saxophone players until they found one, Steve Gregory, who could perform the main phrase in one breath.[26] Gregory said he was the ninth to audition.[11] Another player, Ray Warleigh, waited until midnight for Michael to arrive and went home, giving his position to Gregory.[27]
According to Gregory, the part would have been easier on an alto saxophone; however, Michael insisted on tenor, and Gregory's saxophone was unable to play the top note without the use of fake fingering. At Gregory's suggestion, Porter lowered the recording by a semitone, Gregory performed the part in a lower key using the proper fingering, and the recording was returned to the original speed and key. Michael was satisfied with the part.[11] Ridgley wrote, "At last the nuanced melody that had lived inside his head for so long found expression from a saxophonist with soul and sensibility as well as virtuosity. George had recorded his first masterpiece and nobody was more pleased about it than I was."[11]
Release
"Careless Whisper" was released on Wham!'s second album, Make It Big, in 1984.[11] It was released as a single on 23 July. It entered the UKsingles chart at reached number one two weeks later, displacing "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. It stayed at number one for three weeks and became the UK's fifth-best-selling single that year.[11] It reached number one in 25 other countries, including the US Billboard Hot 100 in February 1985.[11] It was named Billboard's number-one song of 1985.[11][28]
The "Careless Whisper" single was credited to Michael as part of the strategy to transition him to a solo artist.[11] Michael told the media it was issued as a solo record as it did not fit the style of Wham!, but told his management that Wham! would break up.[11] In the US, where Wham! were less well known, it was credited to "Wham! featuring George Michael".[11]
Critical reception
"Careless Whisper" received mainly positive reviews. Music critic Alexis Petridis of The Guardian ranked the song number five of Michael's 30 greatest songs, stating, "it's a brilliant pop song regardless, and, in 'guilty feet have got no rhythm', it boasts one of the great once-heard-never-forgotten lyrics".[29]Billboard referred to the track as a "polished-pop approach", stating, "[the] saxy ballad will tug at many a heartstring".[30]Rolling Stone named it Michael's second-best song, describing it as "a soulful, saxophone-laden ballad.[31]
Cash Box said the song illustrates Wham!'s "versatility and range" when compared to the previous single "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", calling this song "soft, beguiling and memorable" and saying that it features "a highly romantic instrumental arrangement as well as an extremely well-written melody and lyric".[32] Amy Hanson of AllMusic described the song as "perfect for dance floor canoodling", stating, "built around a simmering Latin-lite tempo, sultry sax and Michael's own impassioned delivery, 'Careless Whisper' touched fans and passive listeners alike to become one of, if not the only, love songs of 1985".[33]
Michael stated in interviews that he was not fond of the song. He said in 1991 that it "was not an integral part of my emotional development [...] it disappoints me that you can write a lyric very flippantly—and not a particularly good lyric—and it can mean so much to so many people. That's disillusioning for a writer."[24]
Music video
The music video (which uses the shorter single version instead of the full album version) was directed by Duncan Gibbins (who previously directed "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go") and 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[34] and features such locales as Coconut Grove and Watson Island.[35] The final part of the video shows Michael leaning out of a top floor balcony of Miami's Grove Towers.[36]
A first original version of the video was edited with the Jerry Wexler 1983 version, and featured Ridgeley in a cameo, handing over a letter to a dark-haired Michael. This version had a more detailed storyline but was re-edited later.[37]
Filming took place in and around hotels and marinas in Coconut Grove, Miami. According to Napier-Bell, Michael was unhappy with the rushes from the first day's filming, feeling his hair looked "dreadful ... Too long. Too posey. Too poofy." He had his sister, Melanie, flown to Miami to cut it and the first day's filming was reshot, sending the video £17,000 over budget and triggering coverage in the British tabloids.[11] According to the producer Jon Roseman, the production was "a fucking disaster".[38] According to Michael's co-star, Lisa Stahl, the kissing scene had to be reshot after footage was lost.[39] The video was uploaded to YouTube in 2009 and reached one billion views in March 2023.[40]
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. † Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.
"Careless Whisper" has been covered by many other artists. Among the most notable versions are:
Saxophonist Dave Koz recorded a version for his 1999 album The Dance, featuring Montell Jordan on lead vocals. It was released in 2000 as the second single from the album and peaked at number 30 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart.[118]
South African rock band Seether covered the song on the reissue of their 2007 album Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces. It was released in March 2009 as the fourth single from the album and charted at number 63 in the US. It was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA and gold by the RMNZ.[120][121][122]
Singer Miguel covered the song live as a tribute to George Michael following the induction of Michael into the 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[123]
↑ "Reviews". Billboard. 15 December 1984. p.72. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
↑ Weingarten, Christopher R.; Heller, Jason; Portwood, Jerry; Freeman, Jon; Spanos, Brittany; Grow, Kory; Johnston, Maura; Doyle, Patrick (26 December 2016). "George Michael: 20 Essential Songs". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 14 July 2023. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
↑ "Reviews"(PDF). Cash Box. 15 December 1984. p.7. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
↑ ワム!のランキング情報 (in Japanese). Oricon. Archived from the original on 30 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023. ケアレス・ウィスパー – 発売日 – 1984年08月25日 – 最高順位 – 12位
↑ Tenente, Fernando (2 March 1985). "Fourth-Quarter Upturn in Portugal"(PDF). Billboard. p.71. Archived(PDF) from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2022– via World Radio History.
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