Hot damn! Everybody let's play the GEORGE MICHAEL TRACKS POLL results thread

I love Waiting For That Day.. Not sure if this clip was posted earlier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNS4xJRlMlM
Great dancing too

I can think of 7 songs that are a lock and yeah "Freeek" isn't one of them. (x-post)

what do y'all think of "A Different Corner" as confession by a gay man in love with a friend?

I tend to forget how unusual "Faith" was in 1987. One of the shorter #1s too.

A Different Corner is one of the most beautiful number one singles ever. I love it more and more as the years go by.

My mother-in-law and I were singing it together at the weekend. It'd've been her no.1, had she voted.

"Faith" really *was* unusual at the time, especially after "I Want Your Sex". Great at karaoke too! (x-post)

ADC as confession - it might well be that, but there are some songs that demand that sort of reading and I wouldn't say it was one of them. It *does* sound very specific though.

http://s19.postimg.org/pan77a99f/6_Fastlove.jpg

6. Fastlove
312 points, fourteen votes, one number one vote
from Older, 1996

I didn't think so either; it was a suspicion based on the longing. It didn't seem particularly...masculine? Hetero?

Anyway, Marcello:

The giveaway comes in the lines, “I would promise you all of my life/But to lose you would cut like a knife/So I don’t dare.” In other words, he loves his best friend (“‘Cos I’ve never come close in all of these years/You are the only one to stop my tears”) but he loves him that way also, and he is tortured because he cannot bring himself to tell him (his “I’m so scared” is the reddest of excoriating wounds) – the same subtext compelled to remain within the shadows of “Johnny Remember Me” and “Have I The Right?” The music’s careful placidity is a striking counterpart to his agonised voice – and where does that “And if all that there is, is this feeling of being used” come in, when really it’s the paralysing fear of rejection that prevents him from getting close to his desired Other but also stops him from moving away; the torture of lifelong compromise – “I should go back to being lonely and confused/If I could…I would…I swear.” Then his unheard pledge also echoes into the far horizon, just as the man retreats into the greenery, walking away…in silence.

that "So I don't dare," coupled with the oceans-of-sound production is wayyyyyyy too histrionic for het feeling. It just doesn't code as a man too afraid to approach a woman.

was convinced A Different Corner had a chance for number 1

http://s19.postimg.org/jp5dgyxyb/5_Try.jpg

5. One More Try
313 points, eleven votes, two number one votes
from Faith, 1987

oh god this song

another one where the gay overtones are as loud as a snare drum

#1 R&B in America -- a rare thing then and now

I was convinced this one had a chance for #1. I thought ballads were boring when I was a kid, but I loved this. Again, his voice is just untouchable.

Wow, I assumed Fastlove would be number one. I was the number one vote. Genius song.

God I still swoon every time I hear him sing "Just trying to find some peace…" in One More Try

YES! 'Fastlove' in the Top 10, as it should be. Should have been Top 5, IMO.

'Fastlove' actually would have been my number one if I'd bothered to vote.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B5F1ihUIYAAm363.jpg

Always used to be amused at the 'FONY' part in the video.

FONY is so classic

http://s19.postimg.org/awoetactf/4_Whisper.jpg

4. Careless Whisper
333 points, fourteen votes
single, and from Make It Big, 1985

I didn't vote for CW lol

Now that I've been harping on this, I'll admit: watching George Michael in this video was my first stirrings of homolust.

Haha probably one of mine too. This is another song that will be heard 100 years from now. Doesn't get much more classic than this.

There aren't many moments in music that I love as much as the climax of Careless Whisper. The bit where he sings, "We could have been so good together, we could have lived this dance forever, But no one's gonna dance with me, please stay" is just incredible.

The Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright cover of this is one of my favourite covers ever https://youtu.be/Q01WCVrgQaU

"Careless Whispers" is the only George Michael song I think is genuinely great, surprised it didn't hit #1 (I did not vote in this poll)

I'm not mad at any of the 3 remaining songs being #1.

Careless Whisper, Wham Rap! and Club Tropicana are Andrew's three co-writes. He's got to be pretty happy with that.

My top 3 might actually be in the top 3. This poll is amazing.

http://s19.postimg.org/6otmkjbdv/3_Figure.jpg

3. Father Figure
338 points, twelve votes, three number one votes
from Faith, 1987

I didn't vote for this. I had no idea it would be this high.

that's what the cops said in 1998

The vocals with the choir on this record are just sumptuous. Had a hard time deciding between this and my pick for number 1 as the top spot. So happy to see it place so high.

Me too. I couldn't decide if I liked "One More Try" or this better. In the end I put OMT at 2 and this at 3.

'Freedom '90' for the win!

Pretty sure it will.

http://s19.postimg.org/az8ag4ggz/2_Wants.jpg

2. Everything She Wants
403 points, thirteen votes, two number one votes
from Make It Big, 1985

Freedom's single mix is ever-so-slightly different from the Make It Big mix; the piano in the verses etc. it pops more than the album version. there's no mention that i can see anywhere of the mixes being different but you can really tell. this was just 'a thing' in the mid to late 80s it seems; giving the radio mixes a lick and polish.

― piscesx, Thursday, September 22, 2016 4:23 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

y'know, I always thought when I bought Make It Big that the version didn't sound like the one I remembered, and now you've confirmed that. listening to the 12" now and this is what I remember from the radio!

YES EVERYTHING SHE WANTS!!!

http://s19.postimg.org/5p7x2kllv/1_Freedom_90.jpg

1. Freedom '90
425 points, fifteen votes, one number one vote
from Listen Without Prejudice vol.1, 1990

is there a better, subtler song about Thatcherism than "Everything She Wants"?

xpost I want a mojito now

Both amazing songs. Still completely baffled that "Freedom '90" only made it to #28 in the UK. Even #8 in the US is low for such a monster hit.

Pretty surprised Freedom only received one #1 vote in this poll

Freedom '90 that is

FULL RESULTS

425 Freedom ’90
403 Everything She Wants

338 Father Figure
333 Careless Whisper
313 One More Try
312 Fastlove

246 A Different Corner
235 Faith
232 Too Funky
231 Last Christmas
228 Waiting For That Day

189 Praying For Time
185 Cowboys And Angels

164 Freedom
163 Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
157 Heal The Pain
157 Outside
155 Precious Box
150 Young Guns
146 Jesus To A Child

122 Club Tropicana
122 Monkey
116 Amazing
109 Hard Day
106 I’m Your Man
104 Killer/Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone
102 Kissing A Fool
101 A Ray Of Sunshine
99 The Edge of Heaven
99 Cars And Trains

97 Wham Rap!
89 The Strangest Thing
88 Shoot The Dog
85 Something To Save
77 I Want Your Sex
73 Hand To Mouth
68 Flawless
61 Older
61 Star People
61 I Knew You Were Waiting

58 As
52 December Song
48 Mother’s Pride
46 Freeek! 04
44 Bad Boys
42 I Can’t Make You Love Me
42 Jive Talkin’
40 Waiting (Reprise)
38 Do You Really Want To Know
37 Somebody To Love

36 You Have Been Loved
34 Heartbeat
30 Blue (Armed With Love)
29 Nothing Looks The Same In The Light
29 Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me
26 Come On!
26 Look At Your Hands
26 To Be Forgiven
24 My Mother Had A Brother
22 Like A Baby

21 They Won’t Go When I Go
20 White light
20 Battlestations
20 Soul Free
19 It Doesn’t Really Matter
19 Patience
18 If You Were There
18 Spinning The Wheel
18 Heaven Help Me
15 An Easier Affair
15 Happy
15 A Last Request
14 Where Did Your Heart Go?

Thank you and goodnight!