The classic pop song George Michael was “in awe of”

There was much more to the late George Michael than what meets the eye. Ostensibly, he might have been one of the most successful pop stars the world has ever seen, but beneath the glitz and the glamour, he was one of the music industry’s standout personalities who never failed to keep onlookers on their toes.

It seems ironic that George Michael’s music taste stretched far outside pop. Still, this quality clearly had a significant hand in him establishing himself as a masterful songwriter, penning an array of timeless songs that continue to resonate with different generations. From being an aficionado of The Beatles to his lifelong fandom of Joy Division, Michael’s record collection was likely better than most of whom he rubbed shoulders with at the top of the charts. One only has to note that this was the era of cheesy hits produced by the songwriting trio Stock Aitken Waterman. In the words of the late Lux Interior, George Michael had good taste.

Demonstrating just how far outside his immediate realm Michael’s preference reached, he was also a big fan of grunge pioneers Nirvana. Choosing their era-defining 1991 hit ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ when appearing on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs, he said: “This record is the best-produced rock record in the history of rock, I think. It’s not necessarily the greatest song – it’s a phenomenal record – obviously, it was a music industry-changing record”.

When speaking to Mark Goodier in 2010 for an interview included in the Faith: Legacy Edition release, Michael was told that his influences were vast. In response, he recalled when he and his best friend and Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley were still in school, and they first heard The Human League’s 1981 hit, ‘Don’t You Want Me’. He explained that although he didn’t love the song and preferred ‘Love Action’, he was “in awe of” the commercial perfection of it, which proved to be influential for him.

He said: “Exactly. Most of what’s huge about my career is completely coincidental. It’s just luck of the draw that the music I love means I don’t have to compromise in any way to make successful records. It’s not like I don’t love records that aren’t symmetrical and poppy — I grew up listening to Joy Division — but I always knew that wasn’t what I was supposed to do, that wasn’t where my talent was. I remember sitting in Andrew Ridgeley’s bedroom when we were kids and hearing the Human League’s ‘Don’t You Want Me’, and it wasn’t that I loved it, because I much preferred ‘Love Action’, but I said, ‘This is going to be fucking massive.’”

The late Wham! legend continued: “And at the time, no one would have believed the Human League would have a number one in America. This was when we were still at school, and I remember being in awe of the perfection of it — the commercial perfection of it; it could not fail. But it wasn’t cheesy … Maybe it was a bit cheesy, but it was still a cool record. I just knew that they’d made this perfect commercial record, and I knew which influences responded with what I could do.”

Listen to ‘Don’t You Want Me’ below.

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