On this day in 1988, George Michael had his sixth #1 US single with “Father Figure.” This was the first time he didn’t break the top 10 with a hit in his own country, with “Father Figure” only reaching #11 in the UK.
This song has such a haunting sexiness to it, but did you know that was not the initial intention? George Michael once said: The initial concept was completely different from the way the song turned out. In fact, the initial concept for “Father Figure’ was to make it a kind of mid-tempo dance track. And what happened was I wanted to hear something in my mix so I happened to cut out the snare on the board and suddenly it changed the whole entire mood of the track. Suddenly it just seemed really dreamy. And this was halfway through writing it – because I was writing the song as I was going along in the studio. And I just thought, well, hey, this is actually much better! So I worked the rest of the feel of the track around this kind of spacey type sound. And it ended up, in my mind, being the most original sounding thing on the album.
I can’t imagine it being anything other than the “Father Figure” we know today!
And you just know, you just KNOW, he must smell like Drakkar.