Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 2

Seven weeks into 1985 a new pop song reached Number One on the USA’s Billboard “Hot 100”. It was only the third song to do so in that timeframe, and it, too, had a multi-week run. On February 16, 1985, “Careless Whisper” (video up top) hit Number One. The song was credited in some countries to “Wham! Featuring George Michael”, and in the UK, Ireland, and other European countries to George Michael. The song was also the second single from the second Wham! album, Make It Big (the first single was “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, which was the subject of “Weekend Diversion: 1984, Part 17” back on November 17 of last year). Like the previous single, “Careless Whisper” would stay at Number One for three weeks.

Michael originally wrote the song when he was 18 and on his way to his job as a DJ at a hotel. He said that as he paid the bus driver, he came up with the famous sax riff, and then wrote the rest of the song on his commute. His bandmate, Andrew Ridgeley, was a co-writer.

I very clearly remember this song and its video, which was directed by Duncan Gibbins, who also directed the video for their previous single, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go". At the time this song was a hit, we still didn’t (officially…) know about George Michael’s sexuality, though there was certainly speculation. That doesn’t matter for the song itself, which isn’t gender specific, but it’s a key part of of the music video. Music videos tell a very specific story, and in the case of “Careless Whisper”, while the song itself and the video are about the same thing (cheating on a partner), the video leaves no doubt it’s about a man cheating on a woman, something one could ignore in the song. That didn’t matter to me, but I did prefer the song to the video for that very reason.

I’ve talked before about “filling in the blanks” in pop music to make them a song a better fit for me as a young gay man, to make it something I could personally identify with. I assumed that sort of thing never crossed the minds of young heterosexuals, and it’s probably something that only mattered, to the extent it did at all, to an LGBTQ+ person—or who intensely disliked those who were LGBTQ+. Times have changed, and nowadays there are songs and music videos with positive LGBTQ+ storylines, something I couldn’t have even imagined way back in 1985.

Personally, I mainly just liked the sound of the song, that sax riff, and the words, especially the first two lines of the chorus: “I'm never gonna dance again / Guilty feet have got no rhythm”, which to me was a very evocative phrasing. This wasn’t unusual for me: I’ve often had my attention captured by a couple lines of a song—even the choice of one specific word—which is probably because my own creativity, such as it is, centres on the written word (I know nothing about music composition). I suppose this just reinforces the fact that songs are a very personal thing in many different ways.

“Careless Whisper” reached Number One in Australia (2X Platinum) and Canada (5X Platinum), Number 3 in New Zealand (3X Platinum), and Number One in the UK (2x Platinum). It was also Number One on the USA’s Billboard “Hot 100” and on their “Adult Contemporary” charts. The song was also 7X Platinum in the USA.

The album Make It Big reached Number One in Australia (Platinum), Canada (6x Platinum), New Zealand (Platinum), in the UK (4x Platinum), and on the USA’s “Billboard 200”. It was Certified 6x Platinum in the USA.

This series will return March 9 with the next Number One from 1985.

Previously in the “Weekend Diversion – 1985” series:

Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 1 – February 2, 2025