Freedom! '90
"Freedom '90" (also known simply as "Freedom") is a song written and performed by George Michael, and released on Columbia Records in 1990. The "'90" added to the end of the title is to prevent confusion with an international hit by Michael's former band, Wham!, also titled "Freedom".
It was the third single taken from Listen without Prejudice, Vol. 1 ,"Freedom 90" was one of a few uptempo songs on this album, it was also a major hit and hit #8 in the US. The song is referring to George's past success with Wham! but also shows a new side of himself as a new man, who is more cynical about the music business then he had been before. Michael refused to appear in the video and let a group of supermodels appear instead.
Composition
"Freedom! '90" sampled Aretha Franklin's 1968 song "Think" and James Brown's "Funky Drummer".
Music video
Michael does not appear in the music video - which was directed by David Fincher and shot by Jeff Cronenweth - and instead recruited a number of supermodels (including Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, Cindy Crawford, and male models John Pearson, Mario Sorrenti, and Peter Formby) to mouth the words. It also featured the destruction of the three items from "Faith" that had come to symbolize Michael's career at that point: his leather jacket (burned), jukebox (exploded) and guitar (exploded).
Chart performance
"Freedom '90" was 6:30 long, but a shorter version was made available for radio consumption cutting down the intro and the bridge. The addition of the year to the title was to distinguish the song from "Freedom", a #1 hit in the UK for Wham! in 1984 (#3 in the US in 1985). It was the second US single from the album Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, and had contrasting fortunes on each side of the Atlantic - it peaked #28 on the UK Singles Chart, but was a major success on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, reaching #8 and selling over 500,000 copies to earn a Gold certification from the RIAA. It remained in the Billboard Top 40 for 12 weeks in late 1990 and early 1991.[1]
Charts and certifications
Chart procession and succession
| Chart (1991) |
Position |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[10] |
95 |
Formats and track listings
CD single (USA)
(Released December 15, 1990)
- "Freedom! '90" – 6:29
- "Fantasy" – 4:12
Cover versions
Robbie Williams version
"Freedom" was covered in 1996 by Robbie Williams who released it as his debut single since leaving Take That. It reached #2 in the UK, twenty-six places higher than George Michael's original, and had not been included on any of his albums until 2010, when it was included on Williams' greatest hits album In and Out of Consciousness: The Greatest Hits 1990–2010. The single had sold 280,000 copies by the end of 1996, being certified Silver by the BPI.[11] Williams had left Take That the previous year and therefore could identify himself with much of the sentiment in the song, although he did not use the line "we had every bigshot goodtime band on the run boy, we were living in a fantasy" in his version. The music video shows Williams dancing in the sea and in a field, celebrating his separation from his former group. Williams later admitted that the song had not even been recorded by the scheduled date of filming and instead mimed to George Michael's version of the song.
Track listings
- UK CD1
- "Freedom"
- "Freedom" (Arthur Baker Mix)
- "Freedom" (Instrumental)
- "Interview - Part One"
- UK CD2
- "Freedom" (Radio Edit)
- "Freedom" (The Next Big Genn Mix)
- "Freedom" (Arthur Baker's Shake And Bake Mix)
- "Interview - Part Two"
Charts
| Chart (1996) |
Peak
positions[12] |
| Australia ARIA Singles Chart |
6 |
| Austrian ARIA Singles Chart |
19 |
| Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart |
16 |
| Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart |
16 |
| Dutch Singles Chart |
12 |
| Finnish Singles Chart |
7 |
| German Singles Chart |
10 |
| Irish Singles Chart |
6 |
| Italian Singles Chart |
8 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart |
39 |
| Swedish Singles Chart |
24 |
| Swiss Singles Chart |
8 |
| UK Singles Chart |
2 |
References
- ^ Joel Whitburn, The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (8th Ed. 2004)
- ^ a b c d e George Michael - Freedom '90 (song). Retrieved May 22, 2011.
- ^ Top Singles - Volume 53, No. 7, January 19 1991. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
- ^ Nederlandse Top 40. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
- ^ Single-Chartverfolgung. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
- ^ The Irish Charts. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
- ^ Top 75 Releases. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
- ^ a b c Freedom! '90 - George Michael. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
- ^ Gold & Platinum: Searchable Database. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
- ^ "Billboard Top 100 - 1991". http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php?year=1991. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
- ^ "Freedom" Silver Certification
- ^ Chart Positions for "Freedom"
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