Songoftheday 12/29/13 - I feel so unsure as i take your hand and lead you to the dancefloor...

Wham! featuring George Michael - "Careless Whisper"
from the album Make It Big (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17

Today's Song of the Day is from the English pop duo Wham!, who on their second album Make It Big fulfilled their prophetic title with the #1 hit "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" in 1984. For it's follow-up George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley released the ballad "Careless Whisper", credited to the pair, and way different of a sound than their previous pop ditties....

"Careless Whisper" became Wham!'s second #1 hit in America in February of 1985, while also topping the adult-contemporary chart and even making it to #8 on the R&B chart (then called the "Black Singles" chart in Billboard). Internationally, the song was huge, reaching the top of the singles chart in England, Ireland, Italy, Australia, The Netherlands, Switzerland, and top-ten just about everywhere else. It tied with Klymaxx's "I Miss You" for most amount of weeks in the top-40 in 1985, and ended up Billboard's top pop single of 1985 in the U.S.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


And here's Wham! live with "Careless Whisper" from their concert film Foreign Skies...

Before George Michael produced the single version himself, renowned soul producer Jerry Wexler originally helmed the track, which George rejected (rightfully so, surprisingly)...

..and here is George solo in concert...

In 1993, dance music singer Sarah Washington just missed the UK top-40 at #45 with a HI-NRG cover...

Eight years later, Bananarama put out a version as the first single from their big-time flop album from 2001 Exotica...

Alt-rockers the Gossip performed the song for a BBC anniversary album in 2007...

Most recently, South African post-grunge band Seether released "Careless Whisper" as a single, reaching #4 on the US rock radio chart, #31 on Adult top-40, and #63 on the Hot 100 in 2009 (with a totally awesome two-bit video)...

 Up tomorrow: a Journey-man has a silly organ.