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DailyBoom Your Old School Music Authority

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Daily Boom 80's Throwback: George Michael - 'Careless Whisper'


"I feel so unsure
As I take your hand and lead you to the dance floor
As the music dies
Something in your eyes
Calls to mind a silver screen
And all its sad goodbyes

I'm never gonna dance again
Guilty feet have got no rhythm
Though it's easy to pretend
I know you're not a fool
I should have known better than to cheat a friend
And waste a chance that I'd been given
So I'm never gonna dance again
The way I danced with you"

I miss just about every radio friendly song containing a sax solo. It's like the calling card for any 80's song that still gets airplay. A great sax solo can turn a song into a bonafide hit. "Careless Whisper" is one of those songs. It is unmistakable. Twenty seconds in you know exactly what song it is. I remember my dad first bringing the single home all kinds of excited. It was by this new British group called Wham and I HAD TO listen to it, immediately. He insisted and I couldn't understand his overwhelming need to share it.

Then it started and I totally got it.  It really WAS different and it really was a musical moment for me. One of the first songs that I remember really hitting me on a deep level. It wasn't superficial bubble gum pop. It wasn't a great synth beat with no meaning. It was deep and it was the first time that I ever had a song show me just how music connects people.

George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley had written it years earlier and while it was technically released as George's first solo single, it's known as a Wham song. It appears on their Make It Big album and was performed by them from the very start. I know you already know the song, but how does it make you feel?