|
 One
of the major international pop stars of the '80s, George Michael (b.
Yorgos Kyriatou Panayiotou, June 25, 1963, Finchley, North London)
ascended the pop ladder with the significant help of rock video,
which--as its influence quickly spread throughout the
world--consistently glued his pretty, deliberately stubble-faced mug to
nearly every television screen in the Free World. Helping considerably,
of course, was the singer's noticeable growth as both singer and
songwriter since his earliest days in the pop duo Wham!--which began as
a nondescript pop/dance group and quickly metamorphosed into a huge
international hit machine.
Michael's entry into the music business came in the late '70s, when he
and friend Andrew Ridgely, under the spell of such dance artists as Chic
and Sylvester, began writing songs together. Soon fascinated by the
music of the U.K.'s ska revival, the pair formed their own ska group,
the Executives; by 1982, the duo had signed a deal with the
CBS-distributed Innervision label as Wham!, and released their first
single, "Young Guns (Go For It)," which swiftly became a club hit. A
string of similarly successful singles, including "Wham Rap (Enjoy What
You Do)," "Bad Boys," and "Club Tropicana," all shot to the U.K. top 10,
and before long Wham! were teen-idol contemporaries of New Romantic
sensations Duran Duran.
George
Michael Links
TEnough of a
buzz was felt in American clubs to send the duo's 1983 debut album
Fantastic into the top 100, despite the comparative mainstream failure
of their earlier singles. All that changed, however, with 1984's "Wake
Me Up Before You Go-Go," Wham!'s international hit, which climbed to the
top of the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for three weeks. An
immediate MTV smash, the track merely opened the floodgates for hits to
come. Next up was "Careless Whisper"--credited solely to singer Michael
in the U.K., but to "Wham! featuring George Michael" in the States. In
both countries, the lush, romantic track established Michael as a
swoonworthy crooner of the first degree; like its predecessor, it held
the No. 1 slot for another three weeks. Two more top 5 hits ("Freedom"
and "I'm You Man") helped propel Make It Big to the top of the album
charts and send it into quintuple-platinum territory.
Wham! became superstars of the highest order: Singer Michael duetted
with Elton John at Live Aid, the pair became the first Western pop group
to perform in China, and the antics of Andrew Ridgely, who drove racing
cars for sport and often crashed them, made newspapers worldwide. Many
wondered why Ridgely remained around: Since Michael wrote and sang
virtually all the pair's hits (except the rhythm-heavy "Wham Rap"
single), his pretty partner seemed largely expendable. Indeed, after the
release of three more top 10 singles--"I'm Your Man" and "The Edge Of
Heaven," both credited to Wham!, and "A Different Corner," released only
under Michael's name--the singer pulled the plug in 1986, and Wham! was
no more. A final album hodgepodge of new and old singles, Music From The
Edge Of Heaven, commemorated the duo's demise and made the top 10 that
summer.
George Michael's 1987 return to the spotlight remains his most
impressive achievement to date: Faith was a royal tour-de-force for the
singer, loaded with, unbelievably, a total of six top 5 hits, four of
which ("Faith," "Father Figure," "One More Try," and "Monkey") went to
No. 1. Establishing him as an extremely credible writer and singer, the
album was No. 1 for 12 weeks and won the 1988 Grammy for album of the
year.
Michael's ascension into the highest ranks of superstardom then led him
to make a bold artistic decision for which he should be commended: He
made himself scarce. Specifically, after recording his 1990 follow-up
Listen Without Prejudice, he opted to refuse all interview requests
and--much more courageously--not appear in rock videos promoting the
album. The result? Listen peaked at No. 2, and bore only two top 10
hits--"Praying For Time" and "Freedom." Compared to Faith, which had
sold over 15 million copies worldwide, it was a major commercial
disappointment and sold barely a third of that figure.
Though Michael would later score hits in 1993 with Elton John ("Don't
Let The Sun Go Down On Me") and Queen ("Killer/Papa Was A Rollin'
Stone"), his own recording career suddenly ground to a halt. Claiming
his contract with Sony Music was grossly unfair, the singer filed suit
against his label in British High Court in 1993. Among his complaints
was that the company's U.S. division was "not prepared" to support the
singer's change of career direction, as evidenced by their handling of
Listen Without Prejudice. According to Michael's attorney, the singer's
decision to not appear in his own music videos was a major factor in the
suit: "Following the success of [Faith], Michael felt that he needed a
change of direction--he wanted to concentrate on his music and play down
the image of being a sex symbol...He was entitled by his contract to
make these decisions, but at the same time he realized he needed the
cooperation of the record company, and was anxious that it should
support him...However, he felt that his record company in the United
States was not prepared to do this."
Eventually Michael won his release from Columbia and became the first
major signee to Dreamworks Records. How unsettling for all parties,
therefore, when Michael's album Older--a surprisingly mature, nearly
meditative work in parts--proved to be one of the major sales
disappointments of 1996. Insult was added to injury when, on April 7,
1998, Michael was arrested and charged with committing a "lewd act" in a
Beverly Hills park men's room. As the saying goes: Wham! Bam! Thank you,
ma'am. |
