George Michael wasn't just a brilliant purveyor of pop—he was a scholar of it, studying the ins and outs with a keen eye and taking those lessons to heart in the studio and on the stage. As he told Rolling Stone in 1988, “If you listen to a Supremes record or a Beatles record, which were made in the days when pop was accepted as an art of sorts, how can you not realize that the elation of a good pop record is an art form? Somewhere along the way, pop lost all its respect. And I think I kind of stubbornly stick up for all of that.” Michael’s extensive repertoire of covers further reveals the deep respect he had for pop’s artistic merits and ability to bring people together. Here are 10 of his covers that stand out, though there are dozens more to choose from.
“If You Were There” (with Wham!, 1984)
Wham!'s take on this 1973 Isley Brothers track is hyper-spit-shined, even by the standards of the duo’s ultra glossy second album, Make It Big. But Michael's sweet vocal, which smooths out and soars into falsetto where Ron Isley's frays, shows how he was able to put his own spin on soul classics while also retaining their inherent spirit.
“Love’s in Need of Love Today” (with Stevie Wonder, 1985)
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Theater in 1985, NBC threw a party spotlighting the legacy of Motown. On the bill, alongside the likes of Little Richard, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, and then-hot-young-Motown-thing El DeBarge, was George Michael, who performed two duets with soul legends—and really held his own. Smokey Robinson dueted with Michael on Wham!'s signature tearjerker “Careless Whisper,” which would go on to be that year's No. 1 single. But Michael and Wonder teaming up for “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” the wistful yet hopeful opener of the landmark Songs in the Key of Life, was a generation-bridging call-and-response that underscored the song's still-potent message.
“Jive Talkin’” (with Boogie Box High, 1987)
Boogie Box High was a project headed up by Michael's cousin Andros Georgiou, and for its debut single the rotating cast of musicians decided to take on no less a pop powerhouse than the Bee Gees. Michael's vocals—lead and backing—on this fizzy reworking of their 1975 lite-funk smash “Jive Talkin’” channeled Barry's falsetto and his brothers' harmonies, though George's vocal phrasing peeked through now and again.
“What a Fool Believes” (1991)
Michael's second solo world tour, in support of 1990's Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1, was called Cover to Cover, and the setlist showed not only how he'd been shaped by pop, but what artists he considered his equals, including tracks like Terence Trent D'Arby's sinewy “Sign Your Name” alongside the Eagles' unkillable “Desperado.” A bootleg of the tour's Birmingham stop contains a rip-roaring version of Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins’ smooth-rock chestnut “What a Fool Believes,” which he dedicates to the "soul boys and soul girls" and absolutely nails, giving the song's central loser even more pathos with his amped-up performance.
“Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me” (with Elton John, 1992)
Elton John's pleading “Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me” was a staple of the Cover to Cover Tour's sets, and on his second-to-last-night at London’s Wembley Arena, he brought John out to finish the song out with him. The exuberance with which he introduces his duet partner—“Ladies and gentlemen, Mister Elton John!!!”—reveals not only his deep respect for him but his love of the song and of pop music, and the commingling of registers that comes from Michael's clarion instrument and John's slight growl is a delight. Their duet was recorded that day and released as a charity single, which ended up topping the Hot 100 in 1992.
“Somebody to Love” (1992)
The 1992 concert honoring Freddie Mercury, who had passed away from AIDS-related pneumonia the autumn before, offered up a rotating cast of singers fronting Queen alongside its three remaining members. Michael's tour de force performance of the pomp-rock legends’ searching “Somebody To Love” showed that his vocal range was as impressive as the man he was celebrating, but this was no mere mimicry. Michael hit every note while wringing poignancy out of each syllable. During the song's final build, he led the Wembley crowd in a triumphant singalong that further saluted the late frontman.
“I Can't Make You Love Me” (1997)
Michael's reading of Bonnie Raitt's tender 1991 hit was initially released as the B-side to his 1997 single “Older,” though its position on his 1998 greatest-hits album Ladies and Gentlemen… The Best Of George Michael is well-deserved. He transforms Raitt's signature track into a piano ballad that echoes Faith’s “Kissing a Fool,” with a vocal performance that's both impassioned and muted, adding a dimension to the pathos he'd exhibited on previous chronicles of heartbreak.
“Miss Sarajevo” (1999)
On 1999's Songs From The Last Century, Michael took stock of the pop music that had come to be over the previous 100 years, tackling ’30s laments like “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” all the way through to his contemporaries like the Police. “Miss Sarajevo,” a 1995 duet by the U2-Brian Eno project Passengers (and, in its original form, featuring mighty tenor Luciano Pavarotti), would seem like an unexpected choice—but then again, so much of what made Michael's pop his own was the fact that his reference points were stubbornly idiosyncratic. Showcasing the softer side of his voice and accented with a gently muted trumpet, this cover allows him to stretch out and sound lovely.
“As” (with Mary J. Blige, 1999)
The combination of Stevie Wonder's compositional genius and Michael's and Mary J. Blige's vocal prowess is irresistible, though it wound up being left off the American edition of Ladies and Gentlemen… due to what Michael claimed was fallout from his legal troubles in 1998. Nevertheless, Michael's deep knowledge of and affection for Songs in the Key of Life is evident here, and his teaming up with Blige once again shows how his R&B savvy extended to a keen facility with give-and-take male-female duets.
“True Faith” (2011)
While a guest on the British chat show “Eight Days A Week” in 1984, Michael shocked the panel—which included a particularly crabby Morrissey—by not only claiming fandom of Joy Division, but knowing what he was talking about while talking up Closer as his favorite album of theirs. This 2011 cover of Joy Division heirs New Order's 1987 single "True Faith," which Michael recorded for the British charity Comic Relief, is ponderous and slathered in vocal effects. It's worth a spin as a curiosity, and Michael's profanity-filled Twitter rant in response to critics' lukewarm reaction (“thank you all, and f**k the journos who are trying to kill the record. Which, by the way, they do pretty much every time, lol”) shows his later-career facility with social media.