Top 100 Soul/R&B Songs

#74: Wham! Featuring George Michael 'Careless Whisper'

Harlem  |  05/06/2008 at 6:00 PM  |  Comments (5)

On a countdown like this, where we're committed to listing our favorite soul and R&B tracks, a song like "Careless Whisper" is a must.  Not only because it's straight rhythm and blues, but also because it epitomizes what the genre used to be all about, long before everything started becoming compartmentalized and segregated.  While working as an usher in a London cinema house in 1981, George Michael, along with his Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley, wrote this ode to lost love that became certified 3x platinum over the years. 

When the single was originally released in the UK in 1984 as a Michael solo track, it only took a week before it catapulted all the way to the number one spot on the charts, where it stayed for three weeks.  Later, it reached the top of the charts in seventeen different countries, including the US Billboard Hot 100 in February 1985, where it was released as Wham! featuring George Michael.  The song also ranked atop Billboard's year-end chart for 1985.  Here's some useless yet interesting trivia: The soaring saxaphone riff that defines the song was written by Michael as he boarded a bus heading home from work.  And it orginally had words.  And no, the words were never revealed, with Michael only stating in an interview once that they were "poorly written lyrics".  Good stuff.  Great song.

Tags: andrew ridgeley, george michael, wham