I watched the showtime documentary about George Michael last night and I enjoyed it.Thought it was so cool that he mentioned prince quite a few times. I am big fan of prince and michael jackson but i dont know much of george michaels music aside from the songs that get radio play like Freedom,Careless Whisper,Everything She wants.

Which albums do yall recommend?

I just discorvered the Wham song "Edge of Heaven" and I like that one a lot.I also like "Fast Love" a lot too!

MotownSubdivision said:

Make It Big is the definition of a perfect pop album. It contains the 3 hits their known for.

They're*

And yeah, there isn't many WHAM! albums (only 3 studio), but Make It Big is a great pop album.

The Final / Music from The Edge of Heaven - a collection of tracks sort of left over from other stuff. "The Edge of Heaven" is my favorite. They go out with an eclectic mix of tracks worthy of more than a couple of listens.

Fantastic - is more rudimentary pop for them, but you can hear George honing his songwriting chops in it. The production lacks compared to Make It Big.

I like trilogies, so those three albums are great as the WHAM! discography.

______________________

As far as George's work, I would literally say all of them. His studio discography is small considering his years in the industry.

Faith - the best mix of blue-eyed soul, pop and music innovation. One of the very first albums to ever be recorded digitally. Find the 12" of "I Want Your Sex (Monogamy Mix)". It's the full mix of IWYS Parts 1, 2, and 3. On the album (CD) they're broken up.

Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 - His 180º turn from the pop phenomenon he had become and that drove him almost mad. It's pepper with upbeat dance songs and deeper introspective songs. For me, it's when George started to grow up in his music.

Older - a deeply personal look at his life and the painful journeys he had endured to that point. It was his coming out album, too.

Patience - to me, this one was for the fans. It still has great pop songs about his life, loss, and love, but there is a lighter air to it but not fluff.

Symphonica - I believe this album was for himself. While he loved a dance or upbeat track like anyone, listening to his records you can tell he loved a slower song, a melody that meant something, harmonies that moved your soul, and lyrics that put your shit on blast - with love. All of that comes out with a backing orchestra throughout and it dictates he uses only slower songs (except for 1 or 2) and really pulls out their essence. It's almost like an unplugged album for the 21st century.

unplugged - not a studio record, but a fantastic display of his true vocal abilities and talent, and the ridiculously talented people behind him; most of which worked with him up through his subsequent tours.

With only 4 studio albums, and one orchestral album, get them all. It's truly his journey through love, liberty and sex.

TrivialPursuit said:

TrivialPursuit said:

kookooman73 said:

Another studio album was Songs From The Last Century released in December ‘99. Americans often forget this album as according to Wikipedia it only reached #157 on the Billboard charts.

Indeed, I wanted to focus on original material. SFTLC certainly stands on its own. He was struggling with writer's block and lack of inspiration but he certainly found some outlet with his spin on those songs. Some of them are on Symphonica.

I have an ear for George's earlier (i.e., first two albums) solo stuff. He lost me after 1990-91 when he disappeared into legal hell for years. By the time he came back, his music wasn't to my taste anymore, as it seemed mostly like 90s' R&B slow-jams.

I really think Listen Without Prejudice was his masterpiece. Faith is a nice collection of sex-pop-very 80s'-synths-R&B, and has some stellar songwriting, but it does sound very dated, which Listen Without Prejudice doesn't.

George was probably the most enviable music star in the world c.1991, with the world in the palm of his hand. Lost it quickly, though.

It became clear, in retrospect, that his being gay affected many of his life/career decisions and was a difficult matter (understandably) for him.

He did do some odd things and make some odd choices with his career at times. The rare times I noticed him after early-90s he always seemed excessively self-conscious.

Fantastic has some of the earliest rap songs by white people (Wham! Rap, Young Guns), a few years before the Beastie Boys hit it big with Licensed To Ill. There's actually 3 versions of Wham! Rap, each with different lyrics. The album version, the version on the music video (Social Mix) and a 3rd version with profanity (Unsocial Mix). There's a later remix on the Edge Of Heaven album (Wham Rap! 86). Also, the CD version of Fantastic cuts off the piano part at the end of Young Guns.

MotownSubdivision said:

Make It Big is the definition of a perfect pop album. It contains the 3 hits their known for.

and the album cover was awesome too

Goddess4Real said:

MotownSubdivision said:

Make It Big is the definition of a perfect pop album. It contains the 3 hits their known for.

and the album cover was awesome too

Depends where it was released. This is the US cover:

And another in another part of the world:

.

I think Faith, Listen Without Prejudice, and Older form the meat and potatoes of George's discography. Listen to any of those, and you'll hear GM at his best on both up-tempo tunes and ballads. My personal favourite is Listen Without Prejudice. It's where he grabs creative direction with both hands and really finds his own identity. It's also pretty socially conscious.

.

Also worth checking out is Five Live, an EP in collaboration with Queen featuring mostly live tracks; and his three songs on the Red Hot + Dance charity album are often overlooked as well. I love 'Do You Really Want To Know' and 'Happy'.

.

ginusher said:

.

I think Faith, Listen Without Prejudice, and Older form the meat and potatoes of George's discography. Listen to any of those, and you'll hear GM at his best on both up-tempo tunes and ballads. My personal favourite is Listen Without Prejudice. It's where he grabs creative direction with both hands and really finds his own identity. It's also pretty socially conscious.

.

Also worth checking out is Five Live, an EP in collaboration with Queen featuring mostly live tracks; and his three songs on the Red Hot + Dance charity album are often overlooked as well. I love 'Do You Really Want To Know' and 'Happy'.

.

the live version of 'Somebody To Love' on the Five Live EP is an amazing vocal performance.

Although most will say "Make It Big" over "Fantastic" for the best Wham album.. I'd disagree. "Fantastic" is George & Andrew at their ambitious best.. making perfect pop records to make their mark. The singles like Wham Rap, Club Tropicana and Bad Boys were huge in the UK.. the USA only started to pay major attention with the more finessed (and over produced?) "Make It Big" material IMHO..

There isn't 1 GM/Wham! album that has all you need, so you need to buy them all

All Wham! albums surely + Faith and Listen Wo Prejudice = the basics
I can't remember now if there isn't still some single that wasn't included on any album? (C. Whisper, Diff Corner, remix of Everything she wants, Last Christmas: are they all on some album?)

His solo albums after LWP aren't for me, never liked those songs.

TheFman said:

There isn't 1 GM/Wham! album that has all you need, so you need to buy them all

It makes me think the closest thing to that is probably TwentyFive, the three-disk set. It's certainly vast and expansive.

TrivialPursuit said:

TheFman said:

There isn't 1 GM/Wham! album that has all you need, so you need to buy them all

It makes me think the closest thing to that is probably TwentyFive, the three-disk set. It's certainly vast and expansive.

True, still it misses some must-have songs (i think a single from the first album, between others)
That's why i didnt buy that box myself.

TheFman said:

TrivialPursuit said:

It makes me think the closest thing to that is probably TwentyFive, the three-disk set. It's certainly vast and expansive.

True, still it misses some must-have songs (i think a single from the first album, between others)
That's why i didnt buy that box myself.

There is a two-disc set that serves better. "For Living" - the upbeat schitt. "For Loving" - his ballads. The only thing the three disc version has is "For The Loyal" or something which is a bunch of truly FAN-ONLY stuff, like his crooner covers.

For George's stuff, I really liked Ladies & Gentlemen but he only put Part 2 of "I Want Your Sex" on it, and no Wham! At least TwentyFive had some Wham!

The best Wham! overview is called The Final, and was also remastered in 2011 (the first time he almost died on Christmas!) and also available with a DVD of most of their videos.

TheFman said:

I can't remember now if there isn't still some single that wasn't included on any album? (C. Whisper, Diff Corner, remix of Everything she wants, Last Christmas: are they all on some album?)

All that stuff is either on The Edge Of Heaven or The Final.

Here's some stuff on other people's records

Cinny said:

TheFman said:

True, still it misses some must-have songs (i think a single from the first album, between others)
That's why i didnt buy that box myself.

There is a two-disc set that serves better. "For Living" - the upbeat schitt. "For Loving" - his ballads. The only thing the three disc version has is "For The Loyal" or something which is a bunch of truly FAN-ONLY stuff, like his crooner covers.

It's not crooner covers. It's the deeper cuts that fans would appreciate.

Understand (new song)

Precious Box (Patience)

Roxanne (Songs From The Last Century)

Fantasy (Red Hot + Dance)

Cars and Trains (Patience)

Patience (Patience)

You Know What I Want To (Older & Upper)

My Mother Had A Brother (Patience)

If You Were There - (Wham!)

Safe (Spinning The Wheel EP)

American Angel (Patience)

My Baby Cares For Me (Songs From The Last Century)

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? (with Pavarotti & Friends)

Please Send Me Someone (Anselmo's Song) (Patience)

Through (Patience)

If someone wants to go off-grid and find the non-radio stuff or less-radio-popular GM, that's the disk to do it with.

The Final, if only for the fact that this is on it :

TrivialPursuit said:

And another in another part of the world:

is that an erection pun?

CherryMoon57 said:

ginusher said:

CherryMoon57 said:

The Final, if only for the fact that this is on it :

. Only on the vinyl release, I have The Final on CD and it's not on there. .

Yeah, the track listings are slightly diff for The Final on LP/Cass vs CD. MFTEOH is a shorter version in general.

MFTEOH was only released in North America and Japan. The Final was released elsewhere. Below is a tracklist comparison.

Music From The Edge of Heaven

1. The Edge of Heaven
2. Battlestations
3. I’m Your Man (slightly edited from Stimulation Mix; newly-recorded spoken bridge)
4. Wham! Rap ’86
5. A Different Corner (intro doesn’t appear anywhere else aside from video)
6. Blue (Live in China) (only appearance on CD of the song anywhere)
7. Where Did Your Heart Go?
8. Last Christmas

The Final (LP/cassette)

1. Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)
2. Young Guns (Go For It!) (12” version)
3. Bad Boys (12” version)
4. Club Tropicana
5. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
6. Careless Whisper (12” version)
7. Freedom (7” version)
8. Last Christmas (pudding mix)
9. Everything She Wants (Remix)
10. I’m Your Man (Extended Stimulation)
11. Blue (Armed With Love)
12. A Different Corner
13. Battlestations
14. Where Did Your Heart Go
15. The Edge of Heaven

The Final (CD)

1. Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) (Special US Re-Mix)
2. Young Guns (Go For It!) (12” version)
3. Bad Boys
4. Club Tropicana
5. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
6. Careless Whisper (7” version)
7. Freedom (7” version)
8. Last Christmas (pudding mix)
9. Everything She Wants (Remix)
10. I’m Your Man
11. A Different Corner
12. Battlestations
13. Where Did Your Heart Go
14. The Edge of Heaven

"Blue" is the only major track different, in its absence. Shorter versions of some songs are on the CD, but longer versions are on the LP/Cassette.

^I only have the vinyl (I carried on buying vinyls until the early nineties).

This compilation is also one of my mum's all time favourite and she still doesn't have a CD player / doesn't want one.

dance4me3121 said: