By 1986, George Michael believed that Wham! had run its course. Partner Andrew Ridgeley and he had started small, but by 1984, the success the duo had with Wham! had exploded into No. 1 hits on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
And so by the spring of 1986, Michael, whose solo career had already taken off with the No. 1 British hit and Top 10 U.S. hit, "A Different Corner," made the announcement that he and Ridgeley were playing their 'farewell" concert. That was on a Saturday afternoon at London's Wembley Stadium on June 28, 1986.
When it was over, it was over.
Michael was suddenly on his own and ready to prove he could branch out. So from there, he went on to help a pair of artists with March 25th birthdays. First, he helped out Elton John on his tour after he had recorded "Wrap Her Up" and "Nikita" for John's 1985 album "Ice On Fire." Then he went into a studio in late 1986 to work on a duet with the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, on a track from her album, "Aretha," called "I Knew You Were Waiting For Me," a future No. 1 duet on both sides of the Atlantic.
By early 1987, Michael was in a London studio to write, produce and record the songs that would make up the album "Faith." And one of the tracks would turn out to be the title cut, a composition that starts with an "ode" to a former Wham! hit. The organ that begins the song, played by Chris Cameron, is the chorus line for "Freedom," a Top 5 hit from the 1984 album "Make It Big."
But after a few seconds, the organ suddenly turns into a familiar piece of music that has been used over the years on such tracks as The Who's "Magic Bus," the Strangeloves' "I Want Candy" and Shirley & Co.'s disco classic "Shame Shame Shame." It's the 1955 blues-rock classic "Bo Diddley," named after and performed by the late great Bo Diddley (born Ellas Otha Bates).
From that point until the end of the record, "Faith" is a rockabilly piece that no fan of Wham!'s or Michael's ever saw coming. But it was pure guilty pleasure pop. And on October 31, 1987, the song, the follow-up to Michael's No. 2 hit from the Beverly Hills Cop II soundtrack and movie, "I Want Your Sex," debuted on American Top 40 at No. 37. By December 5, the song bounced up to No. 3, just behind Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" and Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes' Dirty Dancing anthem, "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" at spots Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, the latter dropping from the No. 1 spot the week before.
One week later, "Faith" ascended to the top spot on AT40 from No. 3 to No. 1 and began a four-week stay at the top to close out 1987. It would be the first of four No. 1 hits from Michael's wildly diverse album called "Faith," and in Billboard's year-end chart for 1988, the song "Faith" would finish as the No. 1 song of the year.
While Michael's song continues to be played on adult pop and 1980s radio, it's the music video that still is remembered about "Faith." Michael reportedly purchased the "BS Artist" leather jacket for the video at a Melrose, Calif. shop called Leathers and Treasures. Wearing a pair of tight jeans, boots, sunglasses and sporting what would be his trademark Five O'Clock shadow stubble, Michael oozed sexuality in the video, leaning up against the famed Wurlitzer jukebox, playing a guitar (that actually is played on the song by musician Hugh Burns).
Michael later said he despised the whole "bad boy image" that the video "Faith" brought him. And in 1990, he "straightened" that whole thing out when he burned the jacket and blew up both the guitar and jukebox in the "Freedom '90" video from his "Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1" CD/album. And, no, "Freedom '90" had nothing to do with the Wham! song "Freedom."
However as hard as Michael would have liked to distance himself from that image portrayed in late 1987 by the music video, it is that image we most think about when we think of the song "Faith."
Yep, it was a time and a place. And we were all witnesses.
Michael would score five solo No. 1 hits between 1987-90, starting with "Faith," the song that gave him faith in his solo career.
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