Understanding Careless Whisper

When you think iconic saxophone songs, there's practically nothing in the same league as George Michael and Wham!'s Careless Whisper. Ok, maybe Baker Street. And Born To Run. And Giant Steps, in its own way. And... ok, look, the point is Careless Whisper has become practically synonymous with the sax in popular culture, taking on all the rambunctious, seductive connotations of the instrument, and I wanna talk about a saxophone so I'm gonna do it. Who's gonna stop me?

And thanks as well to Henry Reich, Gene Lushtak, Eugene Bulkin, Oliver, Adam Neely, Dave Mayer, David Bartz, CodenaCrow, Arnas, Caroline Simpson, Michael Alan Dorman, Blake Boyd, Charles Gaskell, Tom Evans, David Conrad, Ducky, Nikolay Semyonov, Chris Connett, Kenneth Kousen, h2g2guy, W. Dennis Sorrell, Andrew Engel, Peter Brinkmann, naomio, Alex Mole, Betsy, Tonya Custis, Walther, Graeme Lewis, Jake Sand, Jim Hayes, Scott Albertine, Evan Satinsky, Conor Stuart Roe, ZagOnEm, רועי סיני, Brian Miller, Thomas Morgan, Matty Crocker, Adam Ziegenhals, Mark, Amelia Lewis, Justin St John-Brooks, DialMForManning, JD White, Andrew Wyld, gunnito, Graham Orndorff, Douglas Anderson, Foreign Man in a Foreign Land, Tom, William Christie, Kyle Kinkaid, Joyce Orndorff, Mike Wyer, Stephen Tolputt, Isaac Hampton, Mark Mitchell Gloster, Andy Maurer, William Spratley, Don Jennings, Cormag81, Derek Hiemforth, Bryan, Mikeyxote, Milan Durnell, Dan Whitmer, Thel 'Vadam, FAD3 Chaos, Michael Morris, Bill Owens, Martin Romano, George Burgyan, Marc Testart, Carlfish, Matthew Soddy, Flavor Dave, DraconicDon, John W Campbell, Jimmy2Guys, Megan Oberfield, morolin, An Oni Moose, Ken Birdwell, Blue 5alamander, Panda, Cliff Hudson, Olivia Herald, Alin Nica, JayneOfCanton, or dahan, Ethan Savaglio, Robert Bailey, Deirdre Saoirse Moen, juneau, Sina Bahram, Ira Kroll, Patrick Minton, Justin Katz, Roahn Wynar, Chuck Dukhoff of The Stagger Lee Archives, Bob D'Errico, Robert Shaw, Shawn Beshears, David Shlapak, Donald Murray, JD, Rennie Allen, Travis Briggs, Cindy Klenk (Highlands Recording Arts LLC), Jonah C., Greyson Erickson, Matt Deeds, StephAgosta, Claire Postlethwaite, Jordan Nordstrom-Young, Strife, Brian Covey, Miles_Naismith, Jay Harris, Sean Murphy, JasperJackal, Tommy Transplant, Wolfgang Giersche, Autographedcat, ParzivaLore, Amanda Jones, Olaf, Colleen Chapman, Gil, M. Dodge Mumford, Jon Purdy, Ken Brown, Colin Kennedy, The Mauses, Tom Belknap, christopher porto, Steffan Andrews, Katherine Drevis, William Wallace, Billy Abbott, Karel P Kerezman, Ted Trainor, mightstill, Nick Loh, Randy Thomson, Antarct, Erika Lee, Vinayak Nagaraj, sandra zarbatany, and Jan Hofman! Your support helps make 12tone even better!

Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold!

[tone]

Some additional thoughts/corrections:

1) I should note that, while the Bb chord resolving to A is, I think, the strongest resolution in the loop, it's still not _that_ strong: It's Bb major 7, which means it contains an A, and if you're trying to resolve somewhere you usually don't want to play the root of your target chord before you actually go there. The presence of the A means that gravitational pull is a little blocked, but I think the melodic emphasis on Bb still gets you some resolution even if it's not as strong as, say, Bb7 would be.

2) Yes, one possible name for the pattern I described is "syncopation". Very clever, thanks for noticing. My point is specifically the structure of starting on the downbeat, then bouncing off it with a shortened note and staying there for some predetermined amount of time before returning to the beat. It's a subset of the broader category of syncopation.

3) Sources differ on exactly how many saxophonists they went through: Some say 9, others say 11. I found interviews of Gregory saying 9 and couldn't find any first-hand accounts for the 11 one, so I went with 9, but the point is it was a lot.

4) I should note that apparently Michael only heard the sped-up version, and may not have even known that Gregory had initially recorded down a half-step, which may have affected his judgment.

5) What's that? You didn't click on a video about saxophone beeps and boops for an extended digression about the ontology of artistic experience? Well, good news, you got one anyway.

6) As far as I could find, Cummings is just credited with "percussion", so the specific identification of congas and tambourine was my best guess. I think it's right, but I'm less confident than I would be if I'd had a definitive source.

7) In retrospect I wish I'd spent a bit more time on Murrell's part, it's simple in concept but he develops it in some really cool ways. But the video wound up super long as-is and I didn't want to push it further. But his use of cross-sticks in the verse and the low tom joining the tambourine's accent on 4 in later section are both great touches.

8) There's reverb on the vocals in the verse too, but to my ears it's much thicker in the chorus.

[Rubrickety]

“Without getting too graphic…” [Draws a literal graphic of BDSM]

[GibusWearingMann]

To me, the thing that lets this song work in both a sexy and a tragic context can be summed up in just one word: tension.

[beatrixwickson]

I watch your content primarily for the ideas so sometimes I can forget how much fun the drawing is.
I fucking love your elephants.

[RobertFisher]

Vulnerability is sexy. For me, it’s always been the open expression of pain, regret, and self-reflection that makes the song sexy.

[allusiverg]

As a saxophone player, i love seeing this song being covered, it is our instrument's national anthem

[bmac]

I think the saxophone serves as a sorta symbol of empty pleasure in a way. Its a loud, very emotional instrument, but it alone doesn't tell the full story of the song. Sex via cheating is kinda all about empty pleasure, and the voice is what communicates the regret that comes out after. Especially in a minor key like it is. Its also amusing you mention the syncopation too, given one of the most iconic lyrics of the song is "guilty feet have got no rhythm".

[AWPtical]

The saxophone riff being played on a tenor, but sped up to the point that it sounds like an alto is fascinating. Having looked at the sheet music for it though, it's much easier to just play it on an alto. Everything easily fits into its range without any need for tricks in the recording booth.

[liamannegarner]

I went to a Latin convention once in a big roomy hotel, where one kid brought a sax and played this over and over from different locations, and you could hear the echo from across the hotel. Truly a hilariously formative memory.

[AnonymousFreakYT]

I had no idea about the speeding up of the slowed down pace. Once you slowed it back down, I instantly went "THAT'S a proper saxophone!" something I'd never noticed that the sax always felt "off" before, but couldn't articulate.

[gmanley]

I wanted to let you know that one of your videos started a music-oriented butterfly effect on my YT algorithm which eventually resulted in me finally buying a keyboard, which has been so much more rewarding than I ever could have imagined.

Thank you for what you do <3

[euromicelli]

You know what that 11:35 timbre always sounded to me like? An acoustic “lens flare”. Of course I had no idea why it sounded that way, but I sure noticed the result.

[kingyama]

Man, I had always wondered why the sax never sounded like the saxophones I knew, but that pitch shift explains it.

[AndrewWright]

Proposition: A 16th note that is played to move 8th notes into off-beat syncopation should be referred to as an Offset Note.
That's all, that's the post.

[bradylambert]

14:07 "Art is complicated and meaning is always emergent"

Powerful words..

[scuttlefield]

Even though this was the song of my very first slow dance in middle school, I've always thought of this as a sad song rather than a sexy song. The minor key and "never gonna dance again" was enough to do that for me.

[JonMeFree]

A new 12tone breakdown featuring a song with one of the best vocal performances in pop? I'm sat. 🤓

[jj]

finally someone explains how to make sexy music i've been looking for this tutorial forever

[shadowscott]

Empty casual sex is all about physical pleasure and/or emotional pain depending on how aligned the parties involved are, or aren’t. So the transmutation between pain and pleasure with regard to how the riff is read makes perfect sense. Because it’s both. At once. Or can be. Or will be over time. Thus the song. Past George saw and felt the pleasure - present George sees the pain caused by his casual treatment of his partners in pursuit of his pleasure.

[RafaelSolaPACalsaverini]

This song slaps so hard even after so many decades of listening to it. Still can't listen without karaoking it together.