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"Careless Whisper" received mainly positive reception upon its release. Music critic Alexis Petridis of The Guardian ranked the song number five of George Michael's 30 greatest songs, stating, "it’s a brilliant pop song regardless, and, in 'guilty feet have got no rhythm', it boasts one of the great once-heard-never-forgotten lyrics".
Jerry Wexler did one recording of "Careless Whisper" with me. Then we re-mixed that, which meant re-shooting the video and then we completely re-did the track about four weeks before it was due to be released. When we originally made it I was totally in awe of Jerry Wexler and it was the first time that I had ever felt like that about anybody that I'd worked with. Usually I have trouble convincing myself that people know what they're doing. In this case I had to get drunk in order to sing, I was so nervous. Anyway, my publisher [Dick Leahy] and I had loads of discussions about whether the record was good enough for the song and whether there was enough of me in it because it just did not sound like me.
As the band felt they had "screwed up" the video, further footage of George singing on-stage was later shot at the Lyceum Theatre in London.
After Wexler booked the top saxophone player from Los Angeles to do the famous solo: "He arrived at eleven and should have been gone by twelve," said Wham! manager Simon Napier-Bell. "Instead, after two hours, he was still there while everyone in the studio shuddered with embarrassment.
Although you and I can’t hear what it is, it may be the very thing that will make the record a hit. The success of pop records is so ephemeral, so unbelievably unpredictable, we just can’t take the risk of being impatient. But this sax player's not going to get it, is he!"
"But I started another relationship with a girl called Alexis without finishing the one with Jane. It all got a bit complicated. Jane found out about her and got rid of me.
"When I was twelve, thirteen, I used to have to chaperone my sister, who was two years older, to an ice rink at Queensway in London," he explained. "There was a girl there with long blonde hair whose name was Jane.
So I went out with her for a couple of months but I didn't stop seeing Helen. I thought I was being smart – I had gone from being a total loser to being a two-timer. And I remember my sisters used to give me a hard time because they found out and they really liked the first girl. The whole idea of "Careless Whisper" was the first girl finding out about the second – which she never did. But I started another relationship with a girl called Alexis without finishing the one with Jane.
The saxophone riff, played by Steve Gregory, became one of the most recognizable and beloved parts of the song, adding a haunting, melancholic feel to the track.
@phoog Yes, the composer and the artist can of course have nothing to do with each other. I just find this song curious since it was first released as a Wham! song on "Make it Big" and then as a George Michael single despite being basically the same!
"One of the most incredible moments of my life was hearing 'Careless Whisper' demoed properly, with a band, a sax and everything. It was ironic that we signed the contract with Mark [Dean] that day, the day I finally believed we had number-one material.
"Instead, after two hours, he was still there while everyone in the studio shuddered with embarrassment. He just couldn't play the opening riff the way George wanted it, the way it had been on the demo. But that had been made two years earlier by a friend of George's who lived round the corner and played sax for fun in the pub."[25]
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