{"id":1245,"date":"2024-10-14T00:03:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T00:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=1245"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:03:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T00:03:07","slug":"careless-whisper-guitarist-reveals-made-george-michael-unique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=1245","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Careless Whisper\u2019 guitarist reveals what made George Michael Very \u2018unique\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Michael\u00a0was a \u201cunique\u201d artist who had a \u201cnatural feel for music that you can\u2019t teach\u201d, according to the guitarist who performed on his classic hit,\u00a0\u201cCareless Whisper\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the release of a special 40th anniversary edition of the track, Hugh Burns told The Independent\u00a0<\/em>what it was like to record with the late singer, who wrote \u201cCareless Whisper\u201d with his\u00a0Wham!\u00a0bandmate\u00a0Andrew Ridgley\u00a0when they were just 17 years old.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Released in 1984, \u201cCareless Whisper\u201d remains Michael\u2019s biggest hit, selling more than six million copies around the world and topping the charts in 25 countries, helping him to break through as a solo artist following his success in Wham!.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Scottish musician Burns, who had by then played on Wham!\u2019s 1984 track \u201cWake Me Up Before You Go-Go\u201d, was booked by their manager Simon Napier-Bell to join Michael\u2019s studio sessions. He worked with the singer in a number of settings, including in the south of France while Wham! were recording their second album,\u00a0Make It Big.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about George that was exceptional \u2013 and I\u2019ve worked with a lot of wonderful singers \u2013 is that he had all his ideas in his head,\u201d Burns said. \u201cVery often he would sing it to you, to give you an idea. He was very strict on detail, and he had a remarkable talent for getting the feel just right.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

According to Burns, Michael had \u201ca natural feel for music that you can\u2019t teach \u2013 his first take was often perfect, and that\u2019s extremely unusual.\u201d He recalled a live performance where he played guitar for Michael where he sang \u201cJesus to a Child\u201d outside the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, for the MTV Europe Music Awards in 1994.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"George<\/div>
George Michael on \u2018Top of the Pops\u2019 in 1986\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cEven his live singing was immaculate,\u201d Burns pointed out. \u201cThat is not an easy song to sing, but he did it live, and it sounded perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

In his 1991 autobiography,\u00a0BARE<\/em>,\u00a0Michael was somewhat derisive of \u201cCareless Whisper, claiming that it was \u201cnot an integral part of my emotional development\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a 2009 conversation with the\u00a0Big Issue<\/em>, he doubled down on his remarks, commenting: \u201cI’m still a bit puzzled why it’s made such an impression on people.<\/p>\n

\u201dIs it because so many people have cheated on their partners? Is that why they connect with it? I have no idea, but it’s ironic that this song – which has come to define me in some way \u2013 should have been written right at the beginning of my career when I was still so young.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"George<\/div>
George Michael said he didn\u2019t understand why \u2018Careless Whisper\u2019 was such a hit\u00a0<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

While Burns said that he never heard Michael discuss the song in that way, he noted that his lyrics did become \u201cmore sophisticated\u201d later in his career: \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cHe really was very unique,\u201d he added. \u201cHis songs and those performances actually stand the test of time, that’s my opinion. I think they hold together very well. There are few artists who can make music that does that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Careless Whisper\u00a0<\/em>EP is released by George Michael Entertainment and Sony Music on 18 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Michael\u00a0was a \u201cunique\u201d artist who had a \u201cnatural feel for music that you can\u2019t teach\u201d, according to the guitarist who performed on his classic hit,\u00a0\u201cCareless Whisper\u201d. Ahead of the release of a special 40th anniversary edition of the track, Hugh Burns told The Independent\u00a0what it was like to record with the late singer, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1-150x150.avif",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1-300x225.avif",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false],"large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false],"jnews-360x180":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1-360x180.avif",360,180,true],"jnews-750x375":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1-640x375.avif",640,375,true],"jnews-1140x570":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false],"jnews-120x86":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1-120x86.avif",120,86,true],"jnews-350x250":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1-350x250.avif",350,250,true],"jnews-750x536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false],"jnews-1140x815":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false],"jnews-360x504":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1-360x480.avif",360,480,true],"jnews-75x75":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1-75x75.avif",75,75,true],"jnews-350x350":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1-350x350.avif",350,350,true],"jnews-featured-750":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false],"jnews-featured-1140":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif",640,480,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Newssoccer","author_link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Blog<\/a>","tag_info":"Blog","comment_count":"0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/newFile-7-1.avif","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1247,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions\/1247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}