24 July 1984, London: 21-year-old George Michael releases the single “Careless Whisper” - his first solo project, recorded in parallel with his work in the duo Wham!. By mid-August - #1 UK Singles Chart (3 weeks). In February 1985 - #1 Billboard Hot 100 (3 weeks). #1 in 25 countries worldwide. Global sales by end 1985 - 6 million copies. The legendary saxophone solo - one of the most recognisable hooks of the 20th century - was recorded by Steve Gregory, a British session saxophonist, on the 10th take. To record the single Michael rented Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama - the room where Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin recorded - to chase the American soul sound he'd grown up on. The track, written by Michael aged 17 at a bus stop in Bushey, became the starting point of a solo career that would run 32 years and sell 120 million records.
How the 17-year-old Michael wrote “Careless Whisper”
George Michael (real name Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou) was born on 25 June 1963 in East Finchley, London, into a Greek-Cypriot family. At 13 he moved with the family to Bushey (Hertfordshire). At 16 he met Andrew Ridgeley at Bushey Meads school; at 17 they formed the duo Wham!.
By Michael's own account he wrote “Careless Whisper” in May 1981, waiting at a bus stop in Bushey. The saxophone melody came to him first - “I hummed it to myself walking the bus stop. When I got home I played it on the old piano my parents had bought for my younger sister”.
The lyric he wrote with Ridgeley over several months. The central theme - the guilt felt after infidelity. “Guilty feet have got no rhythm” - the core line Michael wrote himself.
The first versions of “Careless Whisper” Wham! tried to cut in 1982 at a cheap studio in Surrey, budget £3,000. The result struck Michael as bad - “sounds like a pub cover band”. He refused to release that version and shelved the track for two years.
Five recording attempts
By 1984 Wham! were Britain's biggest pop group: “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” - #1 UK. But Michael still wanted to cut “Careless Whisper” right. It came to five recording attempts in different studios:
- 1982, Surrey Sound: first rough take, rejected
- 1983, London Sarm West: second attempt, rejected - “sound is bad”
- February 1984, Muscle Shoals Sound (Alabama, US): third attempt with producer Jerry Wexler (Atlantic Records legend of Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding). Wexler couldn't crack the material - rejected
- March 1984, Sarm West, London: fourth attempt, Michael producing himself. Rough - reworked
- April 1984, Sarm West: the fifth final recording
About US$250,000 spent on all attempts - a huge budget for one single. Sire Records were worried: “we won't get that money back”. But Michael insisted.
“I carried that song in my head for three years. I knew what it should sound like. All five attempts failed to give me what I was hearing in my head. The fifth - fit. I stopped there”, - George Michael in Record Mirror, 1985.
The saxophone solo - 10 takes
The most legendary part of the track is the saxophone solo. It was played by Steve Gregory, a British session saxophonist. Gregory came to Sarm West on 22 March 1984 and tracked the solo over 10 takes.
The story: Michael proposed an initial melody for the saxophone, Gregory played it in the first take. Michael said: “no, too correct”. Gregory offered an alternative melody, also no. By take 5 the melody was ideal but the performance feel wasn't right: “needs a little more meltingness, a bit of floating on the transitions”.
Take 8 - mixing with a light slide effect. Take 10 - final. Gregory used a Conn Selmer 10M saxophone built in 1956, the same one he'd used on the London jazz scene since the 1970s.
Gregory's session fee - £350 (about US$450 in 1984). No royalties - standard for UK session players. By 2024 the “Careless Whisper” saxophone solo is counted among the five most recognisable pop-instrumental moments of the 20th century.
Numbers
- UK: #1 UK Singles Chart, 3 weeks (August 1984); platinum
- US: #1 Billboard Hot 100, 3 weeks (February 1985); 2× platinum
- Canada: #1 RPM, 2 weeks
- Germany: #1, 5 weeks; 2× gold
- Australia: #1, 6 weeks
- France, Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland: #1
- Japan: #3 Oricon
- Total global sales by end 1985: 6 million copies
- Billboard Year-End 1985: #1 single of the year
- Grammy 1986: Song of the Year (nomination, did not win)
Spotify 2024 - over 2.1 billion streams. YouTube video - 1.2 billion views. One of the 20 most-viewed 80s music videos on YouTube.
The Miami video
The video was directed by Duncan Gibbons in June 1984 on Miami Beach, Florida. Budget - US$180,000. Concept: George Michael and his lover argue, meet on the beach, part ways. In one scene Michael dances with actress Lisa Stahl at the Fontainebleau hotel.
MTV put the video into heavy rotation in July 1984. The saxophone solo played in full (2:30-3:14 seconds) without interruption. That made the sax solo familiar to a generation with no interest in jazz - the key factor in the track's virality.
How “Careless Whisper” changed Michael's career
Before “Careless Whisper” George Michael was half of a teen-oriented pop duo Wham!. The single proved he could write serious soul ballads for a grown-up audience. That allowed him in 1987 to release the solo album Faith (10M US copies) and to separate definitively from Wham!.
In 1988 Michael received his first solo royalties for “Careless Whisper” - estimated at US$8M for 1984-1987. That allowed him to buy the Hog Hill Mill studio in Sussex, where he tracked every subsequent solo album.
“Careless Whisper was my first real adult song. That's the moment I understood: I'm not the teen who writes about infatuation. I'm the writer who can talk about shame, guilt, lost love. After that song I couldn't stay in Wham! longer than 2-3 more years”, - George Michael in Q Magazine, 1990.
Michael's death and legacy
George Michael died on 25 December 2016 at his home in Goring-on-Thames (Oxfordshire) of heart failure, aged 53. The cause - cardiomyopathy and fatty liver disease after long-term alcohol and drug use.
After his death “Careless Whisper” re-entered the UK top 10 (for the first time in 32 years). By 2024 the track is in the Grammy Hall of Fame (2021) and in the US National Recording Registry (2023).
Related: “Like a Virgin” Madonna (1984), “Billie Jean” Michael Jackson (1983), “Call Me” Blondie (1980). “Careless Whisper” is the moment when a 17-year-old at a bus stop wrote one of the best-selling singles of the 20th century, and after five recording attempts was able to realise it exactly as he heard it the first time. Sometimes a well-written phrase needs 3 years and US$250,000 to find its sound.