Faith (George Michael album)
Faith is the debut solo album by the British singer-songwriter George Michael, released in October 1987 by Columbia Records and Epic Records. The album has won several awards including the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1989. To date, the album has sold over 25 million copies worldwide, and received diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.
Faith spawned six top five singles that substantially helped it dominate the chart of 1988. In 2003, the album was ranked number 480 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. In 2012, the album ranked at #472 on an updated list by the magazine. The album was also notable for entering the R&B albums chart at number one making it the first album by a Caucasian artist to hit the top spot on that chart, mainly due to the R&B/funk-leaning singles that were released from the album, most notably “One More Try”, “I Want Your Sex”, and “Father Figure”.
Michael spent the most part of 1987 writing and recording the songs for the Faith album. In addition to playing a large number of instruments on the album, he wrote and produced every track on the recording except for one, “Look at Your Hands”, which he co-wrote with David Austin. Using the then-revolutionary Synclavier 9600 Tapeless Studio, Faith was Michael’s first digital recording.
George Michael embarked on a world tour to promote the album in February 1988, opening at Tokyo’s Budokan Stadium, before going on to dates in Australia, Europe and North America. In Los Angeles, Michael was joined on stage by Aretha Franklin for a duet on “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)”. While on tour, new singles from the album continued to be released. In June, George interrupted the tour to sing three songs at Wembley Stadium’s Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute.
Track listing
All songs written and composed by George Michael, except where noted.
Side one
“Faith” – 3:16
“Father Figure” – 5:36
“I Want Your Sex (Parts I & II)” – 9:17
“One More Try” – 5:50
Side two
“Hard Day” – 4:48
“Hand to Mouth” – 4:36
“Look at Your Hands” (Michael, David Austin) – 4:37
“Monkey” – 5:06
“Kissing a Fool” – 4:35