1996 kicks off in the most understated way imaginable – with a slow, slinky, seven-minute bossa nova from George Michael.
Jesus to a Child, by George Michael (his 6th of seven solo #1s)
1 week, from 14th – 21st January 1996
I listen to it, properly, for the first time ever I think, and try to pinpoint the musical reason for this making number one. It’s not catchy – there’s no identifiable chorus – it meanders, weaves its smooth spell, then eventually departs. My thoughts are cast back a decade, to Michael’s similarly understated ‘A Different Corner’. He has a knack for taking unlikely songs to the top. But ‘Jesus to a Child’ makes ‘A Different Corner’ sound like the most instant, bubble-gum pop.
The reasons for it making #1 may have been largely to do with the power of the name. It was his first release for three years, since the ‘Five Live E.P.’, or for four if we only count original material. It was the lead single from ‘Older’ – his first studio album in nearly six years – though he had been performing the song live for over a year. You have to admire the sheer disregard for commercial success he showed in picking this as the first single.
The reasons for George Michael wanting to release this are now well-known, and very sad. ‘Jesus to a Child’ was written as a tribute to his late boyfriend, Anselmo Feleppa, who had died in 1993 after an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage. Michael had been unable to write anything for eighteen months after Feleppa’s death, until he wrote this elegy in under an hour. He set it to a bossa nova beat as a tribute to his lover’s Brazilian heritage.
The lyrics are beautiful: Sadness, In my eyes, No one guessed, Or no one tried, You smiled at me, Like Jesus to a child… and it sounds churlish to call this song ‘boring’. I imagine writing it was powerfully cathartic, and so perhaps we should view it as a poem, or a reading at a funeral. One that just happened to become a chart-topping hit, thanks to the enormous star power of its singer.
What is worth noting that is that even though the song is so clearly about a lost lover – The lover I still miss, Is Jesus to a child… – Michael couldn’t mention anything explicitly. There was rumour, and innuendo, like Freddie Mercury before him; but it would be another two years before he would come out (or be brutally outed, let’s be honest). 1996 is within my living memory, but the idea that a pop star nowadays wouldn’t reveal that a song was about their gay lover seems thankfully unlikely.
In my previous posts on George Michael, I’ve admitted that I don’t quite get the adoration for his music. A lot of it is good; but a lot of it is a bit too glossy, a bit too smooth, for me. Like this, even though many sources class it among his very best work. If this had been his last UK #1, I’d had to have written it of as a bit of a flat ending. Luckily, he has one more chart topper to come very soon, his 7th, and it’s probably my favourite of the lot. What’s not in doubt about George is that he seems to have been an incredibly warm and generous person – it was revealed after his death that all the royalties from this single had been donated to the charity ChildLine, a fact kept secret at his insistence.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I’m not really into the style of music, but you can’t help but be blown away by his voice.
Curiosity has got the better of me . In regard to George Michael, Simply Red etc, what does ‘slick’ and ‘glossy ‘ mean and why is it a bad thing?
I just mean that some artists, and George Michael is often chief among them, tend to over-produce, and everything has a sheen of perfection to it. Simply Red too. It’s usually a soft-rock, soul/R&B problem, for me.
Having said that, it’s probably all down to better recording technology, and I could call pretty much every number one from the mid-90s to eternity ‘glossy’, compared to the 50s, 60s and 70s.
that started in the 80’s, which were my teenage years so that’s probably why I like George, Mick and co..I was one of a handful of blokes at Wham’s final concert in Wembley in 86. I would call a lot of today’s auto tuned songs much more overproduced than Jesus to a child or fairground, and the vocals much poorer, and the modern equivalent of George ( singer/songwriter/producer) would be Sheeran or Adele, who the kindest words I can use to describe are bland and tepid
is that why you hate ‘Vienna’ too?
‘Hate’ is a very strong word…! I just think it’s a bit overrated, and benefits from comparison against the record that kept it from number one.
sorry, smooth not slick. Old people and auto text!
I’ve just realised something regarding our (hopefully) good natured disagreements about various artists/songs. All the ones I champion were at their height when I was a teenager/ in my 20’s. Is it something to do with nostalgia, rose coloured glasses etc? Let’s take an awful group from my childhood, Brotherhood of Man, and compare the group from the late 90’s I ( perhaps unfairly) hated the most, B*Witched, both are equally naff throwaway pop, the music purist in me may actually argue the brotherhood are the worst of the two, but because I heard their heinous records when I was in primary school, and the Irish harridans when I was in my 30’s, the latter will always sound worse to me. We’ll have to agree to disagree over Vienna though, it reminds me of watching top of the pops with my much missed grandfather so, totally irrationally, someone who wasn’t born when he died dissing it is like an attack on my childhood. Sad I know
You know, I have a vivid memory of watching the video to ‘Earth Song’ on TOTP with my late gran – I’d have been nine, probably. I doubt she had much positive to say about it, she rarely did about any form of rock and/or roll, but it still gives that song a deeper emotional charge for me.
Who knows, maybe I’d be less down on the music of Ed Sheeran, had I been a teenager over the past decade… (though I like to think not!)
He was very talented but like you said…just too polished…that old saying…polished the soul out of a song. The Eagles were good at that trick. I want a little edge or it gets boring.
Love this and being over-produced is not something I have ever lost sleep over, though many many friends also hate gloss and prefer roots music. I like both, really can see the best of both sides of the argument, and George was a perfectionist, that’s why he wasn’t very prolific, but as a man he’s a legend, his class and vocal ability were always under-rated cos of the Wham! days. I didn’t know what this song was about at the time, but I still found it very moving, and do now too, if not moreso. George knew heartbreak and how to write about it and his insistence he wasnt going to appear in his videos was a commercial suicide step for the fans of pop but he really wanted to be an album artist, and his albums are terrific, varied and classy….
Re Brotherhood Of Man vs B*Witched, I grew up in the 60’s, and was by 1976 a mature 18 year old (hah!)… I did look down on Brotherhood Of Man, except in their pre-Eurovision hit days, and their Tony Romeo song Oh Boy The Mood I’m In and Abbatastic Angelo. But I can happily hear Save Your Kisses For Me these days and can’t say the same for B*Witched who have been seriously flattered in number ones due to fanbase targeting week one of release. Blame It On The Weatherman is the closest they came to a good record… oops! 🙂
Surely ‘Rollercoaster’ is the only B*Witched record that has stood the test of time! A minor pop classic…
I don’t think I was target audience at the time 🙂 A bit chirpy but I didn’t hate it, I think you’re right, though, and at least it’s not C’Est La Vie which grated pretty quickly for me.
Even as a 12 year old ‘Ces’t la Vie’ very quickly got on my tits…
yay! 🙂