“Careless Whisper” by Wham! featuring George Michael

"Careless Whisper" was the second single to come off Make It Big, the 1984 Wham! album, but the credit told you where things were heading: it went out under George Michael's name, a first step toward a solo career. He wrote it with Andrew Ridgeley, having started it as a teenager, then fussed over it, cutting several versions and auditioning several saxophonists before he was satisfied.

Steve Gregory got the job, and that sax line, which Michael composed himself, is the whole song in a nutshell: pop with R&B and soul running underneath. Michael produced, arranged and sang lead, with Hugh Burns on guitar, Deon Estus on bass, Trevor Morrell on drums, and Anne Dudley, Chris Cameron and Andy Richards on keys. It went to number one in Britain, America and Australia and sold more than 11 million copies.

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