George Michael was just the whole package. A masterful musician and a vocal performer like few others. Btw...Wham's "Freedom" that you mentioned is what the church organ played in the beginning. Would love to see you react to "Too Funky", "I want Your Sex" (which is what the jukebox plays here at the beginning of the video) and "Outside" (which he released as a reaction to his "sex scandal").
Nothing ..Nobody as the king of POP from Uk.: MR. GEORGE MICHAEL. Long live the king .George Michael.. My inspirations. His music inspire me on 90's 2000's and will do it forever... THANK YOU. GEORGE THANK YOU DERECK. Do more react from Him. FAITH/ UNPLUGGED/ LIVE and all his albums.
The song playing on jukebox before record changes and organ starts is I Want Your Sex, which was his previous single which was accompanied by A very controversial video. Kissing a Fool is a GM favourite of mine. Also his duet with Aretha Franklin, I knew you were waiting, is phenomenal. And yes, George Michael was hot af. May he rest in peace.
If you don't know by now, George Michael was part of a duo in the early 80's, Wham! After they announced their split during their last concert together, he emerged in 1987 with FAITH. His first solo album, hence the title track being the first single off that album. So this was the image that symbolizes that solo artist status. When his 2nd album came out in 1990 titled Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1, the songs in that album are more mature sounding and so did his image. That's why if you see the first single "Praying for Time" it's just lyrics and he is nowhere to be found and in "Freedom '90" you never see him at all but instead the music video consist of supermodels lip-synching to his song was his way of telling the public his 'freedom from that image' hence the images from the FAITH era (leather jacket, jukebox) exploding and burning into flames, which symbolizes his departure from that image. That album is basically telling the listeners to "listen" to the music, his work as a maturing singer/SONGWRITER and not be so "prejudiced" that just because it's George Michael, don't always associate him with the image he had in the past but pay attention to what his music/message is putting out as a maturing artist. It was a turning point in his musical career.
You couldn't get away from this song when it came out. Not one of my favorite George Michael songs but the visuals are quite appealing. :) He's never really done a bad song. Hard to imagine not having lived through the George Michael frenzy of the late 80's. He was giving Michael Jackson a run for his money and popularity. It was truly insane, sexual and damn fun! The song came from an amazing album where nearly all the songs were hits.
If you want some great live George Michael, you should check out George Michael and Elton John, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me", also George Michael with Queen, "Somebody To Love" from the tribute to Freddy Mercury concert at Wembley Stadium.
my fav male singer and one of the best male pop stars ever. He has massive hits and his catalog of music is right up there with michael jackson, prince and madonna, he truly was one of the greats. The faith album is one of the best selling albums of all time and the Faith song was the number 1 song of 1988. this was his solo debut album. he was massive back then. he had problems with his record label after this and tried to get out of his contract. this is why he stopped appearing in his music videos for quite some time and why he was "destroying" his image in the freedom 90 video, basically giving the finger to his then record label.
Forgot to mention that you would love the rest of George's music catalog, i bet he'll quickly become one of your favs too. Also of note Deon estus who played base with George also had a big hit of his own Called Heaven help me with george assisting on vocals, you should check this song out too.
Watching your reaction makes me feel old. Like I still cannot get over the fact that younger people have never seen the videos which my generation knew by heart. On the other hand - it is such a fun to watch your reactions.
George was an amazing live singer. Please react to a live performance One More Try (at the Princes Trust concert) or A Different Corner (live at BBC), thank you!
This album (FAITH) is a masterpiece....7 singles released. The song playing on the jukebox at the beginning is “I Want Your Sex”...the lead single and a huge departure from WHAM!
Dereck, I love your reactions! A huge thank you. You make me hear so much more in every song you play. Even in this one, although George Michael is my absolute favourite artist and I listen to him practically every day - what songs I listen to depends on my mood that day. There are loads of songs I would love to hear your take on. For exemple Queens Somebody to love that George Michael sang so masterfully at the concert in honor of Freddie Mercury. Or Outside or Fast love or the amazing duet with Elton John in Don't let the sun go down on me. Or the duet with Aretha Franklin in I knew you were waiting. Or his wonderful live version of Beatles' The long and winding road. Or As (composed by Stevie Wonder) with Mary J Blige. Or the beautiful Like Jesus to a child.....there are so many fantastic songs. Please do some more 😃🇸🇪😀
So glad you like this. If you can please start listening to his stuff in order of release, you will thank me for it later. His evolution is incredible. He started in a pop duo Wham!, their first single was Wham Rap.
This whole album was huge, I think the album equalled the record for producing the most #1 singles on the UK charts. And yep they called it "designer stubble". Cheers from Down Under;)
Yes,a very simplistic tune,but at the same time,a very well constructed song with a nice video to it..nice melody ...a well worth song in a very good album...I hope you will do more George Michael and Wham,videos...for example Club Tropicana with Wham..
GM was feeling James Dean vibes with the stubbles, faded jeans and leather jacket. The guitar solo was influenced by Bo Didley. GM wrote, arranged and produced the Faith album, which won album of the year. It sold 25 million albums. He was the first white singer to land at #1 on the R&B with One More Try. He was 23. His duet with Aretha Franklin, I Knew You Were Waiting for Me also hit #1 earlier, right after he went solo.
My favorite songs by George Michael are the early Careless Whisper, Jesus to a child and Amazing (2002). My favorite Wham song is the Christmas song Last Christmas. Thanks for your work!
I think that his best and most impressive live performance was at mtv unplugged in 1996, Concert Of Hope in 1993 or his performance at the Tribute Concert for Freddie Mercury.
Faith and Freedom 90 are such great songs! Faith was when he was reinventing himself after leaving Wham and it was such an effortless sexy image. Freedom 90 was another rebirth in my opinion but all the imagery in that video makes sense if you knew who he was from Wham to his solo career. You need to review "Dont Let The Sun Go Down on Me" a duet he did with Elton John. That song is wonderful and shows another dynamic of George Michael
Thank you for reacting to George Michael. My absolute favorite male vocalist of all time. No other artist's voice and songwriting makes my heart ache like he does. There are so many suggestions I have for you. But if you want to continue on the "Faith" album journey, I would highly recommend "One More Try" and "Kissing a Fool." My live perfomance recommendations are "Calling You" from Rock in Rio '91 and also "Love's in Need of Love Today." God bless and take care... Love your channel!
You are spot on he went solo after Wham cos he wasn't happy then Faith created this image which took him beyond stardom so the burning of the jacket blowing up the jukebox was to get away from the image that is what Freedom 90 was about George loved dancing and he would dance when ever he could , he was a genius I adore him
I love this reaction and the way you analyzed the song and what he's doing with it aurally is really good! Well done! Thanks for doing this. You should so more George Michael (try One More Try and Careless Whisper next!).
A bit of behind the scenes here. So George had seen sales of between 30-40 million over 4 years with Wham! He’d had the collaboration with Aretha Franklin and their smash hit I Knew You Were Waiting For Me, he’d been a backing vocalist on Elton John’s 1985 album Ice On Fire (highlighted by his backing vocal on the smash hit track Nikita) on that album and sharing vocal duties with Elton on the track Wrap Her Up. Faith was his first solo Album and it was HUGE in today’s language it went viral, massive in the USA and his native UK and pretty much everywhere else, about half dozen hit singles were spawned from it. George had eclipsed the success of Wham! with just this album and of course everybody wanted a part of him and this he found the most difficult to cope with, although he’d achieved great success with Wham! he at least had somebody to share it with and share the pressures. So George was not in a great rush to follow it up, he needed some time to absorb it all and take a breather. The greedy little shits at his record label didn’t see it that way. That’s where things began to go south, George had been tied to Sony/Columbia since his Wham! days and he wanted out as he felt that the contract gave him very little control of anything and felt as the record company treated him little more that a piece of software. So in 1990 I think it was the long battle began as George took Sony to court. In the meantime while this was ongoing he wrote, recorded and produced his album Listen Without Prejudice (a title incidentally he chose as some a-holes in the industry had list their shot because the Faith album had been given a couple of high-profile R & B awards), as a further middle finger to the record company George deliberately did not appear on the album cover of Listen Without Prejudice (as he’d done with that iconic image of the Faith album) and he decided point-blank no to publicise & promote the album in any way, no interviews, nothing. And he found a loop-hole which meant although he had to provide a music video, he did not have to appear in it, THAT EXPLAINS the Freedom 90 VIDEO where he filled it with the top fashion ladies of the time. And the song reflects his earlier successes when her was the record company’s darling and his need to get away from all that and this explains BURNING the leather jacket from the Faith video, and blowing up the guitar and jukebox!! You really need to checkout the documentary film George Michael: Freedom (2017), George was just putting the final touches to this doc film when he passed away on Christmas Day 2016. It’s a great insight on his life from the last days of Wham! and all that followed!! 😊
This video makes me immediately think of his single, Freedom '90, just three years later, and how differently he felt about the commercialism of pop music. The video specifically makes me think of the line from Freedom '90: "Cause when you shake your ass, they notice fast!. He so desperately wanted to be valued for his music but shook the tush in order to play the game. Music today is all about image because most of it seems unlistenable.
Church piano and a woman. Leaving the imagine behind while revealing or, maybe, defining his lifestyle. He doesn't appear in Freedom 90, just voice, I believe... on purpose. [Side note: "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" live version featuring Elton John is great].
Yes, watching artists careers out of order is confusing. This was the image he was Burning in the "Freedom" song. I don't think he liked being the "Pretty Boy" image everyone portrayed of him. It was more about the music & phase he went trough & why he wasn't in many of the early 90's videos. In his later videos he got over it & was back in his videos. Thanks Dereck!!
I don't think you can use as a reaction, but "Careless whispers" is one the most beautiful song ever. He got out from record co., I think David Geffen bought out his contract. Also, "Last Christmas"
You mentioned Deon Estus was on bass. He had a Top 10 called "Heaven Help Me" that George sang background vocals on and I believe also had a hand in writing and producing. Shold check it out if you haven't.
You must react to all of the Faith album tracks... but begin with Father Figure, I want your sex and kissing a fool... From the other albums react to fast love (from older), Too funky ( from The Very best 1995’ s album) and Outside (interesting video!! From the album named twenty five ) !!!! Love him!!! He was a genius!!! A guy who really knows how to write music!!!
hi mate, love your good spirit....it's fun listening to the classics with you....please listen to an old Aussie band i love: MONDO ROCK, my fav's are Chemistry and State of the heart. thx again, Chris in Australia
Sometimes the simplest songs are the best. This is very stripped down and spare, almost like a 1950s rockabilly song in terms of chord progressions and tempo.
the concept of freedom 90 was to destroy the image he was stuck in, cause Faith had a massive success and so did the tour....by the time of listen without prejudice, the label didn t want him to drive away from that direction (consequently ending in courts ,as he sued his american label for not promoting him at all and wantng to be released from them )...he was a very serious artist ,who went his way regardless of being trendy or capitalizing on his success.....and HE was The Voice
Like prince and Toni Braxton Michael had problems with the producer and I think it was Sony stealing his songs and had him contracted to do so many albums before they would release him from his contract and give him his catalogue back. Prince wore the word slave marked on his face and changed his name to ThenArtist Formerly Known as Prince then recorded under that name. Now we understand what Taylor Swift is upset about. It’s all still going on. I worry about Dimash coming to this country which he already has a promoter. His father is an opera and pop singer and a producer. Maybe he will help him. Dimash did not under stand copyright laws when he did covers of vitas song, queens song and other English songs. He got two cease and disist letters from artist. Of course China did care because they make no bones about stealing pattens and have a big black market there. It’s just that dimash is such a great guy. You don’t want to happen to him what has happened to other artist. Dimash is just a millionaire. He gives his money to charities and the poor. His album from the Chinese show went platinum in 47 seconds. His songs and live performances have 1 billion views. I saw a female vocal coach on one of Dimash’s songs analyzations have 3.3 million views. The patron money’s she got could pay her a salary.
Just watched your A-ha video, commenting here because you're more likely to check comments on a new post. If you want more A-ha to check out, they have a video for "The Sun Always Shines On TV" that picks up where the video for "Take On Me" ends. Another great hit is their song and video for "The Living Daylights", the title track from the James Bond film of the same name. I personally love "Crying In the Rain", there is a video for that one. "High and Low" is another video. There are more videos from them than that as well over the years. One you must check out is their recent acoustic live performance of "Take On Me" unplugged, from MTV Unplugged. It's an amazing rendition and arrangement of the classic song.
hi! once you're back to "the 1990s" obviously please don't forget to include "Block Rocking Beats" by The Chemical Brothers - a masterpiece of electronic techno. you will probably enjoy the combination of minimalist bass, un-real drums and underwater explosions. Much love from good old London. Cheers! : )
Here’s some live suggestions: one more try & Father figure (prince’s aid), careless whisper & Blue (live from China), Somebody To Live (Freddie Mercury Tribute)
Dereck, just wanted to ,let you know that Kylie Minogue will be on Jimmy Fallon tonight. You'll have to react to her performance tomorrow. I'm sure she'll be doing "Say Something"...
I could easily recommend 20 songs, LOL, but if you are looking for live performances, check out ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Tzn4YGEPVV8.html. It's a live performance of "Jesus To A Child", the song he wrote after his great love died from AIDS.
BSA pin and embroidery on back of jacket for the Bullshit he had put up to his fans. Freedom was him saying he had enough with that image and changing direction. George was as gay as they came & the studio forced him to play it straight. Good tunes tho.
