George Michael said he was in 'awe' of THIS pop song: 'It could not fail'
25 November 2025, 13:44 | Updated: 25 November 2025, 13:50
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He was in many ways the perfect pop star.
Dashing good looks, charming in buckets, style and grace, and to top it all off, a voice that could melt the iciest of hearts.
But it was because of these qualities George Michael possessed that he was often misunderstood.
Pop stars have, more often than not, rarely been taken seriously when it comes to being considered the mind behind their music.
Yes, the pop music industry has produced stars who have become successful based on little more than being beautiful and having an OK-ish voice that gets them by.
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George, however, certainly doesn't fit in that category – he wrote the lion's share of the music he released throughout his career.
Having such a knack for penning commercial pop hits from such an early age, it's safe to say that George knew what made a song an earworm.
One song in particular, George described as pop "perfection", and he was right as it was a mega hit.
The pop record in question? The Human League's 'Don't You Want Me'.
Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in 1963 to a Greek Cypriot father who owned a restaurant and a mother who was a dancer, George immersed himself in music from a young age.
Though he listened to a broad spectrum of music in his youth, spanning Joy Division to David Bowie to Aretha Franklin, it was pop music that spoke to him.
Hence why he started Wham! with his best friend Andrew Ridgeley in 1982, which transformed them both into teen idols.
Despite the hits, George wasn't taken seriously as an artist, so left to pursue more mature themes in his songs.
The likes of 'Careless Whisper', 'Faith', 'Father Figure' and 'Jesus To A Child' of course came later.
But that's because George knew the power of music and that he was capable of reaching new heights with his own output.
“I watch people who are not driven by creativity any more, and I think how dull it must be to produce the same kind of thing,” he once told The Guardian.
“If you don’t feel you’re reaching something new, then don’t do it.
"I think there are things about my journey that might be useful to other people, and coming up with a hit record on its own doesn’t seem to be enough any more.”
Though George wanted more than simply a great pop record, he had a sixth sense for identifying what would work commercially.
Which is why the first time he heard The Human League's 'Don't You Want Me', it set off bells ringing.
Human League - Don't You Want Me (1982) • TopPop
Before 'Don't You Want Me' was first released, The Human League struggled to crack America.
Of course, that completely changed after audiences across the pond caught wind of the synth-pop sizzler.
Rolling Stone magazine dubbed it the "breakthrough song" of the Second British Invasion of the US, when MTV ruled the airwaves and British bands like Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Eurythmics were in vogue.
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Capturing George's attention too after he first heard 'Don't You Want Me', he recalled that "this is going to be f*cking massive."
Saying how “symmetrical and poppy” it was in an interview with journalist Mark Goodier in 2010, the song inspired George.
“This was when we were still at school and I remember being in awe of the perfection of it - the commercial perfection of it. It could not fail.
"But it wasn’t cheesy,” he continued. "Maybe it was a bit cheesy, but it was still a cool record.
"I just knew that they’d made this perfect commercial record, and I knew which influences responded with what I could do."
So there you have it, George Michael taking influence from The Human League. The funniest thing was, he also admitted that 'Don't You Want Me' wasn't even his favourite song of theirs!
