‘A Different Corner’ was one of George Michael’s biggest hits, and was an early indication of the genius songwriting ability of the Wham! star in the 1980s.
George Michael wrote and produced the song while he was still a member of pop duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley.
Although the song is included on Wham!’s album Music from the Edge of Heaven (in Japan and America), and their compilation The Final, the single was credited to George alone.
As it was his first credited solo single in the US, it paved the way for his debut album Faith to get made a few years later.
Watch Richard Goodall’s cover below.
What inspired the song?
Speaking in 2014, George said: “I think you can tell that ‘A Different Corner’ is genuinely the sound of a man who’s heart’s been broken.
“I was 19 and the best critique I ever heard of that song was from a friend of mine who said, ‘It’s beautiful, pathetic, but beautiful.’”
A note on the back sleeve states: “This record is dedicated to a memory.”
George said of making the song: “I felt like sh*t. I went in and recorded exactly the way I felt, and that’s the way it sounds. It was partly Wham! and partly the end of a relationship.
“It was the farthest I’d ever fallen, and in a very short period of time. I had to get rid of it somehow, I had to write about it. That’s a really perverse side that I’m sure a lot of writers have -‘I feel like sh*t, but maybe I’ll get a good song out of it.’”
According to George, the song took around 14 hours to write and record from beginning to end.