George Michael Hangs Up His Microphone

noah | June 11, 2008 5:30 am

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Now I’m really bummed that I didn’t buy tickets to the MSG show, even if they were overpriced: George Michael has announced that his current tour will be the last of his career, presumably to devote more of his time to scuttling the Wham! biopic that his former manager has been plotting. The last arena shows of his career will take place in London in August, and they’ll be dubbed “The Final Two”–a sequel of sorts to Wham’s last gig, which you may recall was called “The Final.” (And yes, I have the Wham! greatest-hits album of the same name.) In honor of his impending retirement, let’s go back in time via YouTube…

First, here’s George covering one of my favorite songs of all time, Terence Trent d’Arby’s “Sign Your Name” (!):

From that same 1991 show, here’s “I’m Your Man”:

And here’s his combined cover of “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” and Seal’s “Killer,” which actually made me appreciate the original version of the latter in a big way:

Speaking of live covers:

Next, here’s a 1988 performance of “One More Try” (only audio, sorry):

A slightly unsynced version of “Monkey,” because it’s the only one that hasn’t been caught by the Sony BMG “no embedding” police (they have to get that ringtone ad revenue, I guess):

And finally, “Everything She Wants,” because it has live crowd noise (so it counts!) and is also still one of my favorite songs ever, thus making this collection of clips come full circle:

Feel free to post your favorite GM clip in the comments, because I’m sure I missed something.

Michael “to retire from touring [BBC] George Michael “may thwart Wham! film” [Guardian]