Below is the write-up about WHAM!’s song “Careless Whisper” from the book “The Billboard Book of Number One Hits: The Inside Story Behind Every Number One Single on Billboard’s Hot 100 from 1955 to Present” by Fred Bronson.
Writers: George Michael / Andrew Ridgeley
Producer: George Michael
February 16, 1985
3 weeks
George Michael had plenty of time to think while working as an usher in a local cinema in his hometown of Bushey. Just 16, he found the job boring and spent his free time writing song lyrics. One day, while riding on a bus, he thought up the melody to a song he called “Careless Whisper.” It would become a truly international number one four years later—in England, America, and even in the People’s Republic of China.
“It’s very naive when you listen to it, but it still stands up, even if it does sound a little immature in some ways,” Michael told reporter Daryl Morden. “We made up for that, I think, by making sure the production and arrangement didn’t sound simplistic.”
In Britain, “Careless Whisper” was released as a solo single by George. In America, where Wham! finally broke through in December 1984, with their first number one single [see 598—“Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, “Careless Whisper” was released under the name “Wham! Featuring George Michael.” It was the highest new entry on the Hot 100 for the week ending December 22, 1984. Debuting at number 37, it took only eight weeks to become the group’s second American chart-topper.
“We knew it was off-tangent with the rest of what we’d been doing, that’s why it was a solo single,” Michael told Morden. “It was put on the album to show that there was no question of a split, and also because it’s going to sell the record.”
Wham!’s international status jumped up a few notches when they became the first major Western rock band invited to perform behind the Great Wall. The invitation came from the Youth Federation of China and the Minister of Culture in Canton.
More than 12,000 people attended the April 7, 1985, concert at the People’s Gymnasium in Peking. Three days later, Wham! performed for 5,000 people at the 100-year-old Opera House in Canton. Tickets were sold for the equivalent of $1.60 each, with proceeds going to charity and cultural funds. Each ticket buyer received a free cassette of the Make It Big LP. Although Western albums are not available for sale in the People’s Republic, the Chinese people were already familiar with Wham!’s music, thanks to five Cantonese cover versions of “Careless Whisper.” Wham!’s good chart fortunes continued after “Careless Whisper.” In Britain, they had another number one single with “Freedom,” and in December, 1984, peaked at number two with the seasonal “Last Christmas.” That holiday offering was kept out of number one by “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid,
the original British effort to raise funds to help feed the starving people of Africa [see 605—“We Are the World”]. George was one of the vocalists featured on that single.
In America, Wham! followed “Careless Whisper” with another number one single [see 608—“Everything She Wants”]. Did all this success affect Wham!? Some people suggested that the band was arrogant and over-confident even before they had hit records.
“I put on a hard front,” George admitted to Dennis Hunt of the Los Angeles Times, who found the singer “chilly” at the beginning of their luncheon interview, which Hunt thought would not survive the shrimp cocktail. But as they talked, George transformed into a friendly, cheerful chap. “I want to make sure nobody walks on us,” George continued. “If you let people think they can walk all over you, they will. If they’re not sure they can walk on y you they won’t try it. So I come off tough. I don’t like doing it. It makes people think I’m difficult. I’m not, really.”
Later in the interview, Michael went as far to say he is really “perfectly shy.” He said, “If I acted like this shy person, this nice young kid, this innocent idealist who liked everybody and believed what everybody told him, I’d be slaughtered. I wish it wasn’t that way, but it is. So I have to hide the real me sometimes. It’s for survival.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of February 16, 1985
- Careless Whisper – Wham! featuring George Michael
- I Want to Know What Love Is – Foreigner
- Easy Lover – Philip Bailey
- Lover Boy – Billy Ocean
- Method of Modern Love – Hall & Oates
