Great Moments in Vinyl plays tribute to George Michael

October 26, 2017 • Martyrs', Chicago, IL

November 16, 2017 • Wire, Berwyn, IL

There’s a telling moment in a video interview where George Michael talks about what has driven his success.  “It’s not the something extra that makes a star.  It’s the something missing.”

Michael grew up overweight and struggling with acne in an unremarkable corner of London when, like so many adolescents before him, he saw music offering him a way out.  Fueled by his dreams, at age 18, Michael started the pop duo Wham! with his musical partner Andrew Ridgeley.  They were soon vying with Duran Duran and Culture Club for status as the #1 pop band in Britain.  By age 22, the young man who felt something missing had written a series of chart-topping singles for his band and guided the group to sell an astonishing 28 million records in just four years’ time.  

But still he hungered for more.  And so George Michael launched his solo career in search of the recognition as a serious songwriter that he felt had eluded him.

Success was immediate.  Faith, the first George Michael solo album, delivered no less that six Top 5 singles, and went on to sell 28 million copies around the world, 10 million of them here in the U. S.  By the age of 25, he was an international superstar.