'Songs From The Last Century' ...

I love George Michael's voice.

Love it. Adore it. Swoon at the sound of it. From back in the days of Wham! and George's Donald Trump-esque hair and "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go!" all the way through today, I've been a fan. (I've never seen him live. I wanted to catch him in Chicago this summer, but the tix I drew for his show were $250 and I found that very off-putting. I didn't pay that much for McCartney tickets a few years back. And while I love George, he is no Sir Paul McCartney.)

But I own most of Michael's discs (some best-of collections start getting redundant) and I love to sing his songs.

I'm always looking for material to record when Brian and I have our play dates in the studio, so imagine my pleasure when I read my pal Steff's post about George's concert and his performance of "Roxanne" from "Songs from the Last Century." (She wrote about the album another time, too, but damn if I can find the post.)

Somehow, this album had managed to fly under my radar all these years.

So I ordered it from Amazon as part of my quarterly box of fun. (I allow myself to spend $100 of my quarterly commission on books, CDs, and DVDs.)

And it arrived. And I nearly fainted.

It's so fantastic. It's amazing.

It makes no sense for a woman to record "Roxanne" (well, a straight woman, anyway; I guess it might make sense for a lesbian to sing) but I think I'm going to have to anyway.

Likewise, it makes no sense for a woman to record "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" but the arrangement is so amazing and his vocals are so stunning that I think I'm going to have to record that one, too.

He's truly an amazing vocalist. And this isn't an album of standards. It's a quirky compilation, actually. But so, so worth your time if you appreciate his voice.