Wham! It's the GEORGE MICHAEL TRACKS POLL voting thread (voting ends Saturday 17 September)

http://news.images.itv.com/image/file/484126/stream_img.jpg

It had to happen. Welcome to the ILM George Michael Tracks Poll.

• check out the spotify playlist
• Select your top twenty tracks. Wham!, solo George and featuring George are equally welcome
• no side polls
• send your ballot to ismaelklata at gmail dot com
• voting closes Saturday 17 September

Happy listening!

Spotify playlist: whole discography

I've made a list of George's oddly short discography, nearly all of which is in the link above. I count 120 tracks, which feels like very little for someone who's been a megastar, off and on, for thirty years. The more so because he obviously really loves music; he just doesn't make that much of it.

FANTASTIC

Bad Boys
A Ray of Sunshine
Love Machine
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)
Club Tropicana
Nothing Looks the Same in the Light
Come On!
Young Guns (Go For It!)

MAKE IT BIG

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
Everything She Wants
Heartbeat
Like A Baby
Freedom
If You Were There
Credit Card Baby
Careless Whisper

WHAM! ERA MISCELLANY

The Edge of Heaven
Battlestations
I’m Your Man
Do It Right
A Different Corner
Blue (Armed With Love)
Where Did Your Heart Go?
Wheel Me Out
Last Christmas
Like A Baby
Club Fantastic Megamix

FAITH

Faith
Father Figure
I Want Your Sex
One More Try
Hard Day
Hand to Mouth
Look at Your Hands
Monkey
Kissing a Fool
A Last Request
Look at Your Hands
Love's in Need of Love Today

LISTEN WITHOUT PREJUDICE VOL 1

Praying for Time
Freedom 90
They Won't Go When I Go
Something to Save
Cowboys and Angels
Waiting for That Day
Mother's Pride
Heal the Pain
Soul Free
Waiting (Reprise)
If You Were My Woman
Fantasy

OLDER

Jesus to a Child
Fastlove
Older
Spinning the Wheel
It Doesn't Really Matter
The Strangest Thing
To Be Forgiven
Move On
Star People
You Have Been Loved
Free
You Know That I Want To
Safe

SONGS FROM THE LAST CENTURY

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
Roxanne
You've Changed
My Baby Just Cares for Me
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Miss Sarajevo
I Remember You
Secret Love
Wild Is the Wind
Where or When/It's All Right with Me

PATIENCE

Patience
Amazing
John and Elvis Are Dead
Cars and Trains
Round Here
Shoot the Dog
My Mother Had a Brother
Flawless (Go to the City)
American Angel
Precious Box
Please Send Me Someone (Anselmo's Song)
Freeek! 04
Through

ON SYMPHONICA ONLY

Let Her Down Easy
Feeling Good
Going to a Town
Idol

FIVE LIVE EP (WITH QUEEN)

Somebody to Love
Killer/Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone
These are the Days of our Lives
Calling You
Dear Friends

GEORGE ERA MISCELLANY

Jive Talkin’ (with Boogie Box High)
Gave it all Away (with Boogie Box High)
I Knew You Were Waiting For Me (with Aretha)
Heaven Help Me (with Deon Estus)
Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (with Elton)
Too Funky
Crazyman Dance
Waltz Away Dreaming (with Toby Bourke)
I Believe
I Can't Make You Love Me
Desafinado
Outside
As (with Mary J Blige)
If I Told You That (with Whitney)
This is not Real Love (with Mutya)
Edith and the Kingpin
An Easier Affair
Understand
December Song
Jingle (A Musical Interlewd)
True Faith
You and I
White Light
Song to the Siren

I'LL TELL YOU THAT I'M HAPPY IF YOU WANT ME TO

Yeah that's probably number 1 but there's a few from the solo albums right up there too

What was the GM tune that appeared on one of those HIV awareness compilations? I really liked that one + its video as a teen.

I can't imagine anything else than "Freedom 90" winning this, and deservedly so. Such a monster jam!

And an iconic video that was, er, well loved by many straight teenage boys around that time.

my top 5 would be :
club tropicana - fun and careless partying.
everything she wants - almost an MJ circa Thriller track. that good !
one more try - just a great ballad.
Freedom 90 - otm Tuomas
As - the original is fantastic but the cover reminds me of nice student'years.

he has totally disappeared, hasn't he ?

I can't imagine anything else than "Freedom 90" winning this, and deservedly so.

It will, but only because "I'm Your Man '96" has been left out of the nominations. Corrupt poll - Sad!

I will accept off-list and third-party votes, if you can identify any. He seems never to have had many b-sides until a brief period around Patience, and has far fewer guest appearances than you'd think, so we're not going to unearth many deep cuts I fear.

Everything She Wants as a Thriller track is an incredible idea. I'm sad that we'll never hear it.

"Too Funky" better hit the top ten.

'Fastlove' FTW!

I hope we'll discuss the phenomenon whereby Older became a best seller in every country except the United States; that album was everywhere in 1996-1997.

I didn't know it didn't do so well in the US, but Older was definitely inescapable here. It was seen as being his triumphant post-Sony comeback, even if it was quite a downbeat record.

yeah it's not a bad record but it charted in America on good will, even the top tens "Fastlove" and "Jesus to a Child."

It really was. I spent a bit of time in Tunisia in that period and there were three albums that were everywhere - something by Madonna, something by Michael Jackson (not real albums iirc, just bootleg hits tapes) and Older (also a bootleg, but this time of the actual album). You wouldn't see anything else. More than anything else, that's what made me realise just how big he was.

i may not have a job but i have a good time with the boys i meet down on the line

'Spinning That Wheel' made #2 here, and would have been #1 if it wasn't for the Spice Girls' 'Wannabe'

ALL THAT BULLSHIT CONVERSATION

whoa:

At the time of release, the album was a huge commercial hit, particularly in Europe, but was received in America with a lukewarm critical approval and mediocre sales figures.[1] In the UK, the album was particularly notable for producing six Top Three hit singles in a two-year span, creating a record still unsurpassed.

The steady sales of the album were the result of good promotion market and the release of six hit singles throughout a 2-year period. All of these singles (except for the one for the title track) were released and promoted as EP's, in two available formats, most of them containing previously unreleased material (including live tracks, alternate versions and, in the case for the Spinning the Wheel EP, two new studio recordings of brand-new George Michael compositions). Most of these singles were promoted with live performances at Top of the Pops and also music videos were recorded for the four first singles. All of this helped to push the album sales from one week to another, with the album usually returning to the Top 10 in the British charts. For example, when "Star People '97" was released in mid-1997, Older achieved a 21-14-10-7 progression on the charts. Very much the same happened when "You Have Been Loved/The Strangest Thing '97" was issued as the sixth single (fourteen months after the original release of the album), and Older showed a 24-14-7 move on the UK charts. I

GUILTY FEET HAVE GOT NO RHYTHM

Ha! I seem to remember around this time George Michael doing 'Star People' at an awards ceremony and Bryan Adams (who was on his own promo cycle with '18 Til I Die') called him out for allegedly lip-syncing. MTV made some kind of huge deal over it.

ALL THAT BULLSHIT CONVERSATION

I didn't do any side polls, but if I had it would've been to poll eras - Wham! George vs Faith George vs Artist George vs Busted George. I'm fondest of the first and last of these I think. He covers quite serious topics throughout his career, but the frowniness of the middle two makes them feel a bit heavy to me. He wears his own - and life's - ridiculousness really well.

The alternative was a Wham! member ballot side poll.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Andrew_Ridgeley_Son_of_Albert_album_art.JPG

I should have done the ANDREW RIDGELEY TRACKS POLL instead shouldn't I?

All for the trilogy that is Too Funky / Fastlove / Outside

Now that we're on the subject of sales let me remind those who weren't around at the time how omnipresent Faith was in 1987-88: six singles, four #1s, including a rare #1 on the R&B chart.

I really really hate "I Want Your Sex."

that's silly

yay, glad this poll has gotten underway.

George was such a hot babe circa Wham!

I really really hate "I Want Your Sex."

oh c-c-c-c-c-c-c'mon

wow.. oh man.

closest thing we ever got to Prince in the UK. i never cared much for Wham at first, as a kid. then someone left a home-taped copy of Faith at our house. by mistake i started on Side 2 which went..

"Hard Day"
"Hand to Mouth"
"Look at Your Hands"
"Monkey"
"Kissing a Fool"

nothing was ever the same tbh.

Now that we're on the subject of sales let me remind those who weren't around at the time how omnipresent Faith was in 1987-88: six singles, four #1s, including a rare #1 on the R&B chart.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, September 8, 2016 9:25 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, it was absolutely massive. The only other album of the time that was as huge was Bad.

yeah wasn't it number 1 in the States for like.. 2 months?

as Mariah testifies in this disjointed montage "people who only listened to rap had that album,
people who only listened to rock had that album"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXVfrzAmIL0

Faith was so big that it astounds that it did...OK business in the UK? It's the reverse of Older.

I don't really know how much Faith has sold in the UK in the long run, but I do seem to remember many of the singles from the album getting a huge amount of airplay and it seems to be one of those albums that I find keeps cropping up in people's CD collections even if it's one of the few pop albums they own.

In fact, thinking about it, I guess The Joshua Tree and Whitney were as huge as Faith or Bad. I have a feeling, though, that Bad may have sold the most out of all of 'em.

Sometimes you wake up in the morning with a bassline

I was reading a 2005 interview with George where he's talking about cutting down on dope, but he can't go without because it's an aid to creativity. But when I count up, between Older and his last release (2014, so eighteen years) I get only 19 or 20 tracks that he's written, and 13 of those are on one album.

"Waiting for that Day" a contender for me. Top 3 at least.

YOU'RE A FOOL, BOY

Excited for this. I was listening to Patience a lot earlier this year. It's a patchy record but there's some great stuff on there. Precious Box will be really high on my list. Cars & Trains and Freeek will be up there too.

"Waiting for that Day" a contender for me. Top 3 at least.

― andrew m., Friday, September 9, 2016

top five for me

what do y'all think of "A Different Corner"? It codes to me as the story of a guy's unrequited passion for his straight male friend.

A Different Corner is gorgeous. One of the most minimal songs to ever hit number one.

minimal except for that vocal, which gets overripe in places.

Didn't NME compare it to Eno?

No idea. Pretty weird comparison if they did.

Just glancing over the available tracks, it really is surprising how little material he's recorded in his career, especially with Wham.

Tom Ewing has published excellent reconsiderations at Populist. Here's one: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/11/george-michael-a-different-corner/comment-page-1/

That's interesting. I'd never given any thought to George-as-producer before - I guess I'd assumed he was happy to hire his own guns, but I see he gets sole credit on Patience. He does a pretty good job I'd say - it's a pretty dense sound, but doesn't feel heavy at all to me.

I was trying to find news about a new album a while back and came across this from Attitude about him working on new music. It's from June 2014! http://attitude.co.uk/george-michael-im-working-dance-tracks-new-album/

Love this quote at the end.

“I’m too close to the album at the moment to gauge how it stacks up against my other work, so I’ll be interested to know – when it’s released – which of the tracks the public thinks will be the potential classics,” he concluded.

btw i voted

That's interesting. I'd never given any thought to George-as-producer before - I guess I'd assumed he was happy to hire his own guns, but I see he gets sole credit on Patience. He does a pretty good job I'd say - it's a pretty dense sound, but doesn't feel heavy at all to me.

from Make It Big onward he's always produced himself; it was the first time young Soto had noticed such a credit.

Currently going through the back catalogue preparing to vote. Going back to the wham of my youth was so refreshing this morning. Really enjoying patience.

Lost heart trying to parse the Liam quote upthread...

I went to see the Beatles film tonight. They did a feed from the red carpet beforehand and Liam turned up there as well. I haven't thought about him this much in years.

He was with what looked like his two sons. He took them up to the end of the carpet, kissed them goodnight, and went in on his own.

I did not see George there.

How was it?? Everyone's raving about the Shea concert footage.

Was noel still in George's garden?

Yeah, that was the real treat. Really amazing to see the Beatles as a gigging band, on the big screen. It's great footage and they're tight as anything, somehow. I guess it couldn't be anything other than an incredible setlist, but still wow - the sound was terrific too. I laughed at the very idea of closing with I'm Down, though. Also how obviously stoned Paul is, drifting off while introducing songs. John's a great frontman.

I feel like I must have seen it before, but I hadn't obviously. I'd seen clips, but possibly not that many. It *must* have been released before though, as Brian Epstein's name is on the credits. Where's it been all these years? Anyway I sat at the front with the idea that the more it surrounded me, the more it'd feel like I was there. But I realise now that for an authentic experience I should've sat two hundred yards away.

The doc itself was fine, though by now you know them too well to be blown away. At this point it's more like meeting up with your best school friends and seeing they're still the best guys ever. There was still some new stuff though, most obviously the live footage. I read that they'd uncovered, and sync'ed and cleaned up, soundboard recordings, and found a lot more super 8 stuff - so that really was new. Really what I wanted was more and more of that, but it always cut away too soon.

My favourite Beatles bit was Paul talking about the 'bigger than Jesus' apology press conference, and how it's all so horrible that John's dying to break into a joke but knows he can't. They play it and he totally is - you can see the sheer willpower needed to stay contrite for about thirty seconds.

Otherwise the footage of the singing Kop, or New York teenagers losing it ("I love them. Even if I live to be a hundred and five, I will always love 'em.") will never fail to bring the tears.

xp, that was

Anyway enough Beatles, this is the George Michael poll. I have seven or eight ballots, with tomorrow the last day to submit. I had been hoping for double that, so please do get one done if you can.

just finishing off my ballot.. it's incredibly tough this..

the Fabs movie sounds amazing although the separate Shea footage won't be coming out as part of the DVD it seems, there's been a 'rights issue' over the footage!

I'm blown away by "Precious Box." Thanks, y'all.

My ballot is coming soon.

will anyone vote for "Praying For Time"?

i did!

The memory of how startling it was hearing this pushy acoustic lament around Maxi Priest and Wilson Phillips is still fresh.

the og lyric video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b2ZXKX9NSY

I'll be voting

sent!

will send tomorrow

Listening to these GM jams reminds me of what I loved about the Junior Boys. Those first two JB records (Last Exit and So This is Goodbye) are 21st-century Wham. The hooks aren't as sharp but the feel is there.

I can kind of see where you're coming from with that, but I'm not sure there's any indie can really stand up beside George; the vocal gap is always too big.

Speaking of which, here's a bit of toffee from Rolling Stone's review of Fantastic:

Probably the biggest problem with Wham! is that the group lacks a really distinctive vocalist. George Michael's earnest whine is as synthetic and overly familiar as the cheap keyboards so prevalent nowadays.

no one in Junior Boys could sing or had top 40 aspirations

what else they got?

Not to derail this thread, but JB : Wham — similar sighing vocals, like weak GM karaoke, similar melodies and jittery dance grooves. Yes, JB are less chart-friendly without the overt R&B influence but they're from a different era. I hear them as kin. E.g:

https://youtu.be/L7nAgVki33c

Last 24 hours of voting. VegemiteGrrl - get a move on.

Thought for the day: when Wham! played Wembley Stadium in 1986, they did so off a catalogue of less than thirty songs.

and a load of covers too.. among others, Why by Carly Simon!

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/wham/1986/wembley-stadium-london-england-43d3934b.html

does anyone here know of any good writing on "Father Figure". that song is...very important to me.

is it...something special? something sacred?

you could say that

plenty about it here

http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/george-michael-faith.html

http://www.elitedesignweb.com/IMAGES/vote3113.gif

I have sixteen ballots now, so we're officially quorate. That's a cracking effort today, thanks everybody.

I'll count them up at some point tomorrow, and then results probably Monday and Tuesday. I'll post again just to officially close voting, so anybody still thinking of throwing one together - Veg, I'm still looking at you - can still go for it any time 'til then.

PS I've acknowledged all ballots by email. If you haven't heard from me, let me know.

Klata wtf

yeah, I know

I'm going to sneak in a last-minute mini-ballot. Currently listening to Wham! album tracks I haven't heard since about 1985 over breakfast.

NBS

I don't know how to break this to you that it won't be brutal but that dn was an ad jingle for our national enterprise board at least 15 years ago

I'm sorry

that was brutal but neither nasty not short enough

the opening of "Freedom" would make a good ringtone

Freedom Wham or "Freedom '90"?

otm either way

wham, the doo-doo-doo opening would be pretty striking

hellz yeah.

I don't know how to break this to you that it won't be brutal but that dn was an ad jingle for our national enterprise board at least 15 years ago

Seriously????

I'm not gonna have time to put together a ballot after all, sorry Ismael

but i will excitedly follow the rollout

maybe I am the only person who finally figured this out but the church organ intro to 'Faith' is playing the slowed down melody from the 'Freedom' chorus

No worries, I've been out all day anyway - I got into a stupid shouting match in the street with a woman who accused me of harassing her dogs. "How dare you. How dare you," I hissed, jabbing a finger in her direction. Not great, but at least exhilarating. The unpleasant consequence was half-an-hour later, as I was picking my way along a track, I heard more dogs barking up ahead, lost my nerve, and took a diversion across some fields. I ended up in some thick reedbeds, standing water everywhere, sure that my next step was going to leave me thigh-deep in mud. Miraculously, solid ground held out until I reached dry land again.

Anyway arguably I digress - the point is I wasn't holding back specially. I'll close voting now, think about sourceing a few pics, and get things moving tomorrow.

No worries, I've been out all day anyway - I got into a stupid shouting match in the street with a woman who accused me of harassing her dogs. "How dare you. How dare you,"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8DU4TxIw4k

You're amongst friends here, you can tell us, we won't judge you: why were you harassing her dogs?

A George Michael-worthy excuse for hanging round waste ground til dusk on yr own

DON'T BRING ME DOWN

the opening of "Freedom" would make a good ringtone

― droit au butt (Euler), Sunday, September 18, 2016 7:03 AM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Freedom Wham or "Freedom '90"?

otm either way

― Neanderthal, Sunday, September 18, 2016 7:05 AM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ringtone: http://picosong.com/Tj3z/
Ringtone '90: http://picosong.com/TjnZ/

I've grown to love this album: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/george-michael-listen-without-prejudice-vol-1/