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Dom Robinson reviews
The Best of George Michael
Sony Music
- Cat.no: 200962 9
- Cert: 15
- Running time: 119 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 1999
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 24
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Stereo
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English, French, Spanish and Italian
- Presented in Fullscreen
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Discography, Parkinson interview
Ladies and Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael is the video compilation to accompany the album of the same name that was released a year before. This title’s been a while coming, having been delayed numerous times over the past twelve months but has it been worth the wait?
The answer is a resounding yes. After calling time on Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley in the summer of 1986 after “The Edge of Heaven” made No.1, George and his designer stubble went solo, starting with a ballad in “A Different Corner”, although he previously hit the top slot with “Careless Whisper” two years before. Three superb albums later, “Faith”, “Listen Without Prejudice Vol.1” and “Older” and the musical man from Greece has established himself as one of the biggest selling artists in the UK and has recorded duets with the likes of Elton John, Queen and Aretha Franklin.
He’s also no stranger to controversy. In 1998 he was arrested in a public toilet on the other side of the ‘big pond’ for exposing himself to a police officer. His sexuality was confirmed later that year when he came out and confessed he was gay. As a consequence, he made light of the subject by recording the single “Outside”, with a dodgy video to match (the 15-cert on here covers this and the “I Want Your Sex” promos) and went in depth on the matter in an interview on BBC1’s Parkinson show.
His singles chart history to the end of 1999 is as follows :
The picture quality is perfect, bar the occasional minor artifact that is really nothing to worry about. The average bitrate is a fine 6.49Mb/s, frequently peaking over 9Mb/s for the music videos, plus 5.39Mb/s for the Parkinson programme. I’ve noted the ratio of the disc at the start of this review as fullscreen, but it tends to vary during the videos depending on the ratio used. None of them are anamorphic, but the promo video for “Older” is a curiosity and a widescreen TV’s anamorphic mode does improve upon it.
The sound comes in Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 and is perfect. Full-stop. No complaints whatsoever.
Extras. :
Chapters : There are 24 chapters, one for the opening Sony logo and one apiece for each song. The track listing is as follows :
1. Outside
2. Fastlove
3. Spinning The Wheel
4. Freedom 90
5. Killer / Papa Was A Rolling Stone
6. Too Funky
7. Faith
8. I Want Your Sex
9. Jesus To A Child
10. Waltz Away Dreaming (with Toby Bourke)
11. Father Figure
12. Older
13. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me
14. Kissing A Fool
15. I Knew You Were Waiting For Me (with Aretha Franklin)
16. Somebody To Love (with Queen)
17. Monkey
18. One More Try
19. Star People ’97
20. I Can’t Make You Love Me
21. A Different Corner
22. You Have Been Loved
23. Careless Whisper
Languages & Subtitles : As stated before, the sound is in Stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1, with lyrics in English, French, Spanish and Italian.
And there’s more… : The billing of a Complete Discography on the back cover is a misnomer as it just lists the track names for each of George’s post-Wham! albums, plus the 1998 Wham! and his own compilation albums. The highlight of the extras though is the Michael Parkinson interview shown on BBC1 in September 1998 following George’s outing in which he explains the reasons why he did what he did and sings a couple of live tracks which also appear as separate selections in case you want to watch them on their own: “A Different Corner” and “Outside”, both in acoustic form.
Menu :
The menu is static and functional, but exhibits the classy look of the album.
Overall, this beats both the compilation album and the accompanying video tape releases into a cocked hat by combining the benefits of both (i.e. skipping to whichever video you want as instantly as possible). If I had any wishes for extra material I’d include promos for his recent collaboration with Mary J. Blige plus any other singles he released for which he never actually made videos (if miracles were on the cards), not to mention the 1987 interview he made for Channel 4, George Michael and Jonathan Ross Have Words, in the light of the “I Want Your Sex” single which was banned from many radio stations during prime-time listening, which is the last time I recall seeing him interviewed on TV before Parkinson.
However, what we have here looks and sounds superb and if you’re a fan too, get down to your local DVD emporium and purchase a copy – just don’t make an exhibition of yourself when you’re out and about (!) FILM : ***** PICTURE QUALITY: ****½ SOUND QUALITY: ***** EXTRAS: **½ ——————————- OVERALL: ****
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
Check out the Sony Music DVD Web site.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.