George Michael - Careless Whisper (4K Remaster) [AM 2160p | HEVC 10-bit | PCM 24-bit | DD+ Dolby Atmos]

Genre: Funk / Soul, Pop
Style: Soul, Ballad
Year: 1984, this release: 2024
Video Source: Apple Music
Audio Source: Qobuz & Apple Music

"Careless Whisper" is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter George Michael. Released as the second single from Wham!'s second studio album Make It Big (1984), it was written by Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, with Michael producing the song. Although the song was released as part of Make It Big, the single release is credited to either Wham! featuring George Michael (in the United States and several other countries) or solely to George Michael (in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and some nations in Europe).

In 1981, Michael (age 18) was working as a DJ at the Bel Air Restaurant in Northwood, London, near Bushey, Hertfordshire. Michael explained in his autobiography, Bare, that he conceptualised "Careless Whisper" based on events from his childhood. Michael wrote, "I was on my way to DJ at the Bel Air when I wrote 'Careless Whisper'. I have always written on buses, trains and in cars. It always happens on journeys... With 'Careless Whisper' I remember exactly where it first came to me, where I came up with the sax line... I remember I was handing the money over to the guy on the bus and I got this line, the sax line... I wrote it totally in my head. I worked on it for about three months in my head."
"When I was twelve, thirteen, I used to have to chaperone my sister, who was two years older, to an ice rink at Queensway in London," he explained. "There was a girl there with long blonde hair whose name was Jane. I was a fat boy in glasses and I had a big crush on her—though I didn't stand a chance. My sister used to go and do what she wanted when we got to the skating rink and I would spend the afternoon swooning over this girl Jane." "A few years later, when I was sixteen, I had my first relationship with a girl called Helen," Michael continued.
"It had just started to cool off a bit when I discovered that the blonde girl from Queensway had moved in just around the corner from my school. She had moved in right next to where I used to stand and wait for my next-door neighbour, who used to give me a lift home from school. And one day I saw her walk down the path next to me and I thought – now where did SHE come from? She didn't know it was me. It was a few years later and I looked a lot different. Then we played a school disco with the Executive and she saw me singing and decided she fancied me. By this time she was that much older and a big buxom thing – and eventually I started seeing her. She invited me in one day when I was waiting for my lift and I was... in heaven."
Michael observed that after he stopped wearing glasses, he began getting invited to parties. "And the girl who didn't even see me when I was twelve invited me in," he noted. "So I went out with her for a couple of months but I didn't stop seeing Helen. I thought I was being smart – I had gone from being a total loser to being a two-timer. And I remember my sisters used to give me a hard time because they found out and they really liked the first girl. The whole idea of "Careless Whisper" was the first girl finding out about the second – which she never did. But I started another relationship with a girl called Alexis without finishing the one with Jane. It all got a bit complicated. Jane found out about her and got rid of me... The whole time I thought I was being cool, being this two-timer, but there really wasn't that much emotion involved. I did feel guilty about the first girl – and I have seen her since – and the idea of the song was about her. "Careless Whisper" was us dancing, because we danced a lot, and the idea was – we are dancing... but she knows... and it's finished."

Andrew Ridgeley came up with the chord sequence on his Fender Telecaster he had received for his 18th birthday. They continued to work together on the music and lyrics both at Michael's house in Radlett, and Shirlie Holliman's aunt's basement flat in Peckham, where Ridgeley was living.

"Careless Whisper" received mainly positive reception upon its release. Music critic Alexis Petridis of The Guardian ranked the song number five of George Michael's 30 greatest songs, stating, "it's a brilliant pop song regardless, and, in 'guilty feet have got no rhythm', it boasts one of the great once-heard-never-forgotten lyrics". Billboard referred to the track as a "polished-pop approach", stating, "[the] saxy ballad will tug at many a heartstring". Rolling Stone placed the song as George Michael's 2nd best song, describing it as "a soulful, saxophone-laden ballad" with "infidelity-themed lyrics".
Cash Box said the song illustrates Wham!'s "versatility and range" when compared to the previous single "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", calling this song "soft, beguiling and memorable" and saying that it features "a highly romantic instrumental arrangement as well as an extremely well-written melody and lyric". Amy Hanson of AllMusic described the song as "perfect for dance floor canoodling", stating, "built around a simmering Latin-lite tempo, sultry sax and Michael's own impassioned delivery, 'Careless Whisper' touched fans and passive listeners alike to become one of, if not the only, love songs of 1985".

The song has been covered by several artists since its release, including Brian McKnight, Seether, Roger Williams, Kenny G and Julio Iglesias, among others. A contemporary pop song with R&B and soul influences, it features a prominent saxophone riff composed by Michael and played by Steve Gregory. It became a commercial success, topping record charts in at least ten countries and selling about 6 million copies worldwide—2 million of them in the United States. The song later achieved popularity on social media, mainly due to the saxophone riff being used in many movies and as a popular internet meme. With sales of over 11 million copies worldwide, it is one of the best selling songs of all time.

The official music video (which uses the shorter single version instead of the full album version) was directed by Duncan Gibbins (who previously directed "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go") and shows the guilt felt by a man (portrayed by Michael) over an affair, and his acknowledgement that his partner (Lisa Stahl) is going to find out. Madeline Andrews-Hodge plays the woman who lures George away. It was filmed on location in Miami, Florida, in February 1984 and features such locales as Coconut Grove and Watson Island. The final part of the video shows Michael leaning out of a top floor balcony of Miami's Grove Towers.

According to producer Jon Roseman, production of the video was "a fucking disaster". According to Michael's co-star Lisa Stahl, "They lost footage of our kissing scene so we had to reshoot it, which I didn't complain about ... Then George decided he didn't like his hair so he flew his sister over from England to cut it and we had to reshoot more scenes." As the band felt they had "screwed up" the video, further footage of Michael singing the song onstage was later shot at the Lyceum Theatre, London.
The video performance (1984 version) was officially uploaded to the George Michael YouTube channel on 24 October 2009. As of October 2024, the video had surpassed 1.3 billion views.

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of George Michael's iconic song, a special EP titled "Careless Whisper (40th Anniversary)" was released. This EP, available on various formats including marbled red vinyl, black vinyl, picture disc, and CD, features a previously unreleased live recording from George Michael's performance at Madison Square Garden in New York City on July 23, 2008. Additionally, the EP includes newly mastered versions of the original single, the extended mix, and the instrumental version.

Release Info
The video track is the 4K Remaster, downloaded from Apple Music and left as is (HEVC 10-bit)
The PCM tracks (Qobuz 24-bit 44.1 kHz) are synced to the video with Adobe Audition
The Atmos tracks are lossy and synced by muxing (modified delay, no quality loss)
The timed lyrics are synced and edited. Enable the subtitles to see the lyrics

This release contains 4 tracks from the 40th Anniversary EP
1) Single Version - PCM 24-bit 44.1 kHz
2) Instrumental Version - PCM 24-bit 44.1 kHz
3) Single Version - DD+ with Dolby Atmos
4) Instrumental Version - DD+ with Dolby Atmos

Spoiler: Media Info

Code:

General
Unique ID                      : 178386930011458971448794792452616123831 (0x863412B16A3CB5492915D25F2A3875B7)
Complete name                  : George Michael - Careless Whisper (4K Remaster).mkv
Format                         : Matroska
Format version                 : Version 4 / Version 2
File size                      : 948 MiB
Duration                       : 5 min 4 s
Overall bit rate               : 26.1 Mb/s
Frame rate                     : 25.000 FPS

Video
ID                             : 1
Format                         : HEVC
Format/Info                    : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                 : Main 10@L5@High
Codec ID                       : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration                       : 5 min 4 s
Bit rate                       : 19.8 Mb/s
Width                          : 3 540 pixels
Height                         : 2 160 pixels
Display aspect ratio           : 16:10
Frame rate mode                : Constant
Frame rate                     : 25.000 FPS
Color space                    : YUV
Chroma subsampling             : 4:2:0
Bit depth                      : 10 bits
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)             : 0.104
Stream size                    : 720 MiB (76%)
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No
Color range                    : Limited
Color primaries                : BT.709
Transfer characteristics       : BT.709
Matrix coefficients            : BT.709

Audio #1
ID                             : 2
Format                         : PCM
Format settings                : Little / Signed
Codec ID                       : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration                       : 5 min 4 s
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 2 117 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
Sampling rate                  : 44.1 kHz
Bit depth                      : 24 bits
Delay relative to video        : 100 ms
Stream size                    : 76.9 MiB (8%)
Title                          : Lossless 24-bit
Language                       : English
Default                        : Yes
Forced                         : No

Audio #2
ID                             : 3
Format                         : PCM
Format settings                : Little / Signed
Codec ID                       : A_PCM/INT/LIT
Duration                       : 5 min 4 s
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 2 117 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 2 channels
Sampling rate                  : 44.1 kHz
Bit depth                      : 24 bits
Delay relative to video        : 100 ms
Stream size                    : 76.9 MiB (8%)
Title                          : Lossless 24-bit Instrumental
Language                       : English
Default                        : No
Forced                         : No

Audio #3
ID                             : 4
Format                         : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                       : A_EAC3
Duration                       : 5 min 4 s
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode               : Lossy
Stream size                    : 27.9 MiB (3%)
Title                          : Dolby Atmos
Language                       : English
Service kind                   : Complete Main
Default                        : No
Forced                         : No
Complexity index               : 16
Number of dynamic objects      : 15
Bed channel count              : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration      : LFE
Dialog Normalization           : -18 dB
compr                          : -0.28 dB
dmixmod                        : Lo/Ro
ltrtcmixlev                    : -3.0 dB
ltrtsurmixlev                  : -3.0 dB
lorocmixlev                    : -3.0 dB
lorosurmixlev                  : -3.0 dB
dialnorm_Average               : -18 dB
dialnorm_Minimum               : -18 dB
dialnorm_Maximum               : -18 dB

Audio #4
ID                             : 5
Format                         : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                    : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name                : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Codec ID                       : A_EAC3
Duration                       : 5 min 4 s
Bit rate mode                  : Constant
Bit rate                       : 768 kb/s
Channel(s)                     : 6 channels
Channel layout                 : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate                  : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                     : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode               : Lossy
Delay relative to video        : 100 ms
Stream size                    : 27.9 MiB (3%)
Title                          : Dolby Atmos Instrumental
Language                       : English
Service kind                   : Complete Main
Default                        : No
Forced                         : No
Complexity index               : 16
Number of dynamic objects      : 15
Bed channel count              : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration      : LFE
Dialog Normalization           : -18 dB
compr                          : 9.54 dB
dmixmod                        : Lo/Ro
ltrtcmixlev                    : -3.0 dB
ltrtsurmixlev                  : -3.0 dB
lorocmixlev                    : -3.0 dB
lorosurmixlev                  : -3.0 dB
dialnorm_Average               : -18 dB
dialnorm_Minimum               : -18 dB
dialnorm_Maximum               : -18 dB

Text
ID                             : 6
Format                         : UTF-8
Codec ID                       : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info                  : UTF-8 Plain Text
Title                          : Lyrics
Language                       : English
Default                        : No
Forced                         : No

Note to the peeps @ RuTracker: Give credit if you post the work of someone else!
- Hurby4 aka ADHDerby

Hidden Content:

You must reply before you can see the hidden data contained here.

Hidden Content:

You must reply before you can see the hidden data contained here.

 

This is exactly what I needed and have been looking for!
Great addition to the audio files with this immortal song you have uploaded recently – the melody still gives me goosebumps, pure masterpiece of a song.
And I know how hard it is sometimes to add an audio track and subtitles to a video, great job!

 

thanks

 

Thanks

 

omg thanks!

 

thanks

 

Thanks for this classic

 

gracias

 

thanks

 

Gracias

 

thanks

 

thanks

 

Thank you

 

Thank you

 

Thanks

 

Thanks so much, classic !!!

 

thank you

 

Thanks

 

thanks

 

Thanks