A languorous saxophone solo, a romantic and ardent voice, a heady chorus, in 1984 the song Careless Whisper ensures a triumph for George Michael (1963-2016). The young London singer, who has just left his group Wham!, achieved pop superstar status at the age of 21 with this song. Careless Whisper takes the lead in the charts of 25 countries. The record sold six million copies during 1984. It is today certified seven times platinum in the United States and several times platinum or diamond in 20 other countries including France.
George Michael reveals himself to be a surprisingly gifted singer. He modulates his voice with soul, rhythm’n’blues and funk inflections. His expressiveness, his lyricism and his young physique capsize adolescent hearts, without critical recognition immediately following. However, in 1984 the singer-songwriter was the first artist to top the charts as a soloist and as a member of a group in the same year, with a much more bouncy song, Wake me Up Before you Go-Go des Wham !
Its enveloping melody, the desperate tenderness of the lyrics, and the masterful vibrato of George Michael make Careless Whisper the essential slow song of the evenings of the 1980s. The song remains the most emblematic of the English artist alongside Last ChristmasOne More Try or even Jesus to a Child.
A triumph at Madison Square Garden in New York
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of its release, Careless Whisper is now reissued by Sony Music in a small collector’s disc in EP format, the equivalent of a 45-rpm record (€10 for a CD, €18 for a maxi-vinyl). It includes four tracks: the original remastered song, a long version, another instrumental and an unreleased one, the live recording of Careless Whisper at Madison Square Garden in New York during George Michael’s exceptional concert on July 23, 2008. The artist, then on tour after a break of seventeen years, had gathered more than 1.3 million fans around the world.
Unwearable tube, Careless Whisper finds, forty years after its release, a lot of resonance with young people. The song, discovered by a new generation of listeners, has made a strong comeback on social networks and the Internet. It displays 700 million views on TikTok and nearly half a million views per day on average on YouTube in 2024. It is also one of the tracks listened to more than a billion times on YouTube and Spotify.
Covered by Julio Iglesias, Gloria Gaynor, Beth Ditto of the group Gossip, or the singer of Rwandan origin Corneille in his album Love & Soul, Careless Whisper features prominently in several films and series. Released in 2019, and bathed in titles from George Michael, the romantic comedy Last Christmas by Paul Feig with Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Emma Thomson and Michelle Yeoh, contributed greatly to the return of this languorous hit which invites you to dance while proclaiming “I’m never gonna dance again/I’ll never dance again”.
