George Michael Photo - The Faith Years / faith20a

From the February 21, 1987, issue of No. 1:

On his duet with Aretha Franklin, George Michael said, "Basically, about two years ago, I was asked if I would like to produce and write something for Aretha. There was no talk of singing then. And at the time I just didn't think I could do it.

"I said I'd love to, but Aretha was my favourite female singer of all time and I just didn't think I could sit behind a desk and tell her what to do. I didn't have the confidence and at the time I'd only just started producing.

"Then last year there was some talk of singing live with her after the show I'd done with Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson in America. I was very flattered and said I'd love to do it but that fell through.

"But we spoke on the phone then for the first time and agreed it would be nice to do something on record. After that it was just a matter of getting sorted out which song it was.

"All those reports about me begging the record company were rubbish. It was a great honour for me to do the song but basically it was a joint thing. We both thought it would be a good idea."

Aretha Franklin said of George: "We spent eight or ten hours making the video and he was great. He is an absolute pro. I'm very happy with the look and the quality of the video. It was nice that we performed together."