1988 · Behind the Songs
The quietest single from Faith closes out the album’s remarkable chart run.
“Kissing a Fool” (1988) is the seventh and final single from Faith (1987), and the odd one out among them. Michael wrote it in early 1985 while travelling to Japan for Wham!’s 1984 tour, as he told International Musician and Recording World in December 1987, but it could not be used by the duo, whose image left no room for it; the solo album he was planning became its home more than two years later. The track was recorded in 1987 at Sarm West Studio 2 in Notting Hill, London, with Michael producing himself and film composer John Altman arranging a brass section that included Jamie Talbot on alto saxophone and Mark Chandler, Steve Sidwell and Paul Spong on trumpets, alongside Chris Cameron on piano, Hugh Burns on guitar and Ian Thomas on drums.
The song’s chart journey underlines how far it stood from the rest of Faith. It reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart in the United States, but only number 18 in the United Kingdom, making it the least successful single from the album. Critics have since treated it as one of his most vulnerable recordings and one of his best ballads; BBC Radio 2 listeners voted it number 15 in their top 40 George Michael songs in 2021, and Michael Bublé covered it on his self-titled album, taking his version to number 29 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.