I Want Your Sex
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| “I Want Your Sex” | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by George Michael from the album Faith |
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| B-side | "I Want Your Sex" (Rhythm 2: Brass In Love) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Released | June 1, 1987 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Format | 7", 12", CD | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | 1987 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Pop, Dance pop | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:44 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | Epic - LUST 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | George Michael | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | George Michael | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Certification | Platinum | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| George Michael singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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"I Want Your Sex" was a single released from both the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II and George Michael's Faith album, and first charted in July 1987.
Contents |
[edit] History
The song was banned on many daytime radio stations in both the United States and Great Britain, due to its suggestive lyrics. The music video station MTV would only show the video featuring celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung in basque and suspenders[1], in the late night hours due to the music video's implied nudity. The grounds that the song had been banned upon were completely the opposite of Michael's intention, as the theme of the video had blatantly been shown; instead of promiscuous sex, he showed the audience that the act was a beautiful thing if the sex was monogamous (The nine minute album version is even labelled as the "Monogamy Mix" in the liner notes.) One of the racier scenes attacked involved Michael "writing" the word "explore" on Jeung's thigh in lipstick, followed by the word "monogamy" on her back. The end of the music video displayed the phrase "explore monogamy."
Many radio stations played a toned-down version of the song, I Want Your Love, which was mainly the word "love" replacing "sex".
Also because of the song's controversial content, on American Top 40, host Casey Kasem refused to announce the name of the song; only its artist. Also, due to the song's suggestiveness, the show's structure was altered slightly, so stations could opt out of the song. The only time the title of the song was announced on AT40 was when it left the charts several weeks later.
The 12" version clocked in at just over thirteen minutes and consisted of the three parts of the song: "Rhythm 1 Lust" (the single), "Rhythm 2 Brass In Love" and "Rhythm 3 A Last Request"; the latter of which was appended to cassette and CD copies as a bonus track. This mix, like the album version, is also known as the "Monogamy Mix". The 7" single had "Rhythm 1" on the A-side and "Rhythm 2" on the B-side, while the album version had Rhythms 1 and 2 as one track.
The song's drums came mainly from the Linn 9000 drum machine, which was released in the spring of 1985. Like all songs on Faith, "I Want Your Sex" was recorded on the Synclavier 9600 tapeless recording studio, and used many Synclavier sounds in addition. "Rhythm 3 A Last Request" added TR-808 machine to the mix, while the electric piano lead was none other than the then-ubiquitous DX7 Rhodes.
[edit] Chart performance
"I Want Your Sex" became George Michael's second number-one single in the World after the song "I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me)" (Duet With Aretha Franklin)
Despite censorship and airplay issues (due to the length of both parts of the songs clocking around 9:17), the single was popular enough to reach #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, the week of August 8, 1987. Moreover, the single remained in the Top 10 for six weeks and the Top 40 for a total of fourteen weeks, becoming one of the most popular dance-pop singles of the Summer of 1987.
The song charted up to #3 in Britain. In Britain, the song's reprise maintained an audience for many years thanks to BBC Radio 1 breakfast show host Simon Mayo using a looped version as backing music for his daily feature On This Day In History.
In 2002, several years after the major controversy that followed the release of the song, the music video was featured at #3 on MTV2's countdown of The Most Controversial Videos Ever to Air on MTV.
[edit] Peak positions
| Chart (1987) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| The Netherlands | 1[2] |
| United States Hot 100 | 2 |
| United States Hot Dance Club Play | 2 |
| United States Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs | 34 |
| United States Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | - |
| UK Single Charts | 3 |
| United World Chart | 1 |
[edit] Track listing
[edit] 7": Epic / LUST 1 (UK)
- "I Want Your Sex" (Rhythm 1: Lust) - 4:44
- "I Want Your Sex" (Rhythm 2: Brass In Love) - 4:43
[edit] 12": Epic / LUST T1 (UK)
- "I Want Your Sex" (Monogamy Mix)" - 13:12
- "Hard Day" - 4:51
[edit] CD: Epic / CD LUST 1 (UK)
- "I Want Your Sex" (Monogamy Mix)" - 13:12
[edit] CD: Epic / 654 601-3 (UK)
- "I Want Your Sex" (Parts 1 & 2) - 9:13
- "A Different Corner" - 3:59
- "Careless Whisper" (Extended mix) - 6:30
- released in 1989
[edit] External
[edit] References
- ^ MTV.com: Whose Prerogative?
- ^ De Nederlandse Top 40, week 28, 1987. Retrieved on 2008-03-10.
| Preceded by "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" by Whitney Houston |
United World Chart number-one single August 1, 1987 |
Succeeded by "Who's That Girl" by Madonna |
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