“Freedom” by George Michael

"Freedom! '90", as the single was officially titled to keep it apart from the old Wham! hit of the same name, arrived in October 1990 from George Michael's Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, and it's a kiss-off to the image he'd outgrown. He wrote it, produced it and sang it, looking back at the Wham! days with a fresh, jaded eye on the business that made him a star.

It's one of the few up-tempo moments on that record, riding a sample of James Brown's "Funky Drummer" into gospel-pop euphoria. Then there's the video: Michael refused to appear, so David Fincher filmed a line-up of supermodels instead, and MTV played it to death. Rolling Stone later put it at 126 on its list of the 500 greatest songs.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.