The first three records George Michael truly loved: “Real obsession”
George Michael was the pop mastermind of a generation, but it would be doing his life and work a total disservice to say that his only aim in life was to dominate the top of the charts.
Of course, there was always an element of his eyes being set on the prize – it would be nonsensical for him not to be – but, at least in the early stages of his career, Michael was a man very much geared by the mantra of passion first, fortune second. He simply couldn’t have created some of the greatest pop songs of his era if he were only motivated by money and fame. Ultimately, he had a musical ear that many would kill for, and he knew it was his life’s purpose to use that to his advantage.
Bizarrely, however, he always claimed that his interest in music was sparked by a very oddly specific event. It wasn’t the spin of a tune that stopped him in his tracks, or the influence of family and friends and whatever they were constantly playing – although, admittedly, those influences would play a role later. No, Michael was permanently steadfast in admitting that it was a knock to the head he suffered at the age of eight that reconfigured his life in a whole different sonic direction.
From there, almost like tuning a guitar or a piano to hit just the right note, the sounds all fell into place in dictating the course of the rest of this young boy’s life. After that, naturally, those seminal records began to take up a greater and greater position in his psyche, determining the path he would later be set to travel. In his eyes, looking back, there were three in particular that made home within the most prized spot in his heart, although they may not be exactly what you would expect.
As someone who lived and died by the sword of 1980s new wave and synth pop, it’s difficult to imagine Michael under any other guise. But, of course, those forces only stormed through the industry at a specific point in time that was a tiny spark in the distance in those days, so there was no real pop blueprint to work from. Instead, he said his true infatuation began with three dusty old records thrown aside by his mother.
“The first sign of real obsession with music was with an old wind-up gramophone that mum had thrown out into the garage,” Michael famously later recalled. “My parents gave me three old 45s — two Supremes records and one Tom Jones record — and I used to come home from school literally every day, go out to the garage, wind this thing up, and play them.”
Sure, the combination of a Motown girl group and an old-school crooner may not be the obvious choice in the making of a future pop legend – but everyone has to start somewhere.
In this sense, as much as The Supremes and Jones have their own respective seismic achievements, you’d imagine hypothetically that they’d be quite pleased to know they had a helping hand in shaping the musical education of a future pop culture icon. It may not have been by the most conventional means, nor have stayed in the same form over the rest of his life, but if one thing is certain, Michael’s obsession with the pair was the catalyst for changing his entire life.
