Careless Whisper

Story of Song

In his book George admits writing this song, while on a city bus. He was young and was seeing a girl, but then he started seeing another girl–so he cheated and felt guilty about it. George then wrote the entire song on a bus ride. However, now he doesn’t really like the song, although he still sings it at his concerts, but it doesn’t weigh on his heart like it did decades ago.

This song was a very important one for George Michael’s career, but he later said that he felt little connection with it. When he released his Faith album in 1987, he stated: “While ‘Careless Whisper’ was loved by many, it did nothing for me emotionally. Most likely because it seems like it’s from another lifetime.”

The song was George Michael’s first solo single although he was still performing with Wham! at the time and it was also included on Wham!’s album “Make It Big”. According to 1000 UK number 1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Michael said, “I wasn’t secure enough to write something that would expose my feelings, so it’s very clichéd in a lot of its terms.” He also has complained, “It disappoints me that you can write a lyric very flippantly and it can mean so much to so many people.”

Release date

The song was released on July 24, 1984

Songwriter/s

Andrew Ridgeley, George Michael

Label

Columbia records in north America

Epic Records in the United Kingdom, Japan, and other countries.

Chart Rankings

US – 1

UK – 1

GERMANY  – 3

It was released as a single and became a huge commercial success on both sides of the Atlantic. It reached number 1 in nearly 25 countries selling about 6 million copies around the world. In August 18, 1984 it was number 1 for 3 weeks in the UK.

Artist’s age on release date

Michael was 21 years old then.  The band “Wham!”  was active for 2 years.

Cover Versions

The song has been covered by a number of artists since its first release, including 2Play (2005), Slinkee Minx (2004), Bananarama (2001) on their Exotica album, Brian McKnight(2007), Julio Iglesias (2006),  Seether (2007) on their album Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces and Kenny G featuring McKnight (2004) from At Last…The Duets Album