George Michael/Wham!

The '80s didn't really get going until George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley — two photogenic young London lads called Wham! — kicked it into gear with a bubblegum pop/R&B explosion that injected a healthy dose of sex, fun, and funk into the charts. The carefree chorus and finger-snapping Motown beat of "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" lifted more feet than a nation of shoe salesmen, while the jazzy sax and silky croon of "Careless Whisper" hinted that Michael had ambitions beyond idolhood. That hint became a holler with his solo debut, Faith, whose title track matched passion and positive thinking with a Bo Diddley beat, kicking off a whole new career. Hear George turn up the funk in Next Steps.

Both in and out of Wham!, George Michael made super-funky dance-pop bursting with exactly the kind of sexy it would take two decades for Justin Timberlake to bring back. The early Wham! hit "Bad Boys" bumps a Chic-style groove against a syncopated vocal strut that suggests another famously funky Michael of the era. The dance floor got even hotter when George went solo, from the bass-bending, Gap Band-sampling "Star People '97" from his third studio album, Older (1996), to his massive 2004 dance hit, "Flawless (Go to the City)," putting him up alongside the likes of Prince and that other Michael as one of the most danceable pop kings around. George really spreads his wings in Deep Cuts.

You can gauge the length of George Michael's journey from candy-coated pin-up boy to full musical maturity by backing both ends up against each other. It's hard to believe that the teen idol spinning out giddy funk-pop ditties like "Wham Rap (Enjoy What You Do)" — probably the most groovesome song about willful unemployment ever recorded — evolved into the commanding artist whose restless muse would find him sharing sonic space with classic crooner Tony Bennett on "How Do You Keep the Music Playing?" The common thread? A big, bold voice, a sensual soul, and a willingness to follow the music wherever it might lead.

George Michael has been many things, depending on the mood and the moment: British funkateer, jazzy torch singer, pop icon, pure iconoclast. But whether he was cavorting with supermodels and playing one of the unruly "Bad Boys" with Wham!, or putting a positive social spin on lust while finding a fresh way to say "I Want Your Sex," he's always stalked the stage and the studio like a true musical titan, his voice soaring to the stratosphere and his sensual-but-sophisticated image getting a sizeable portion of the population hot under the collar. From the sultry, who's-your-daddy steam-bath of "Father Figure" to the party that starts when George and Andrew utter their immortal command, "Young Guns (Go For It!)," here's the whole scoop on the man who made Wham! one of the world's favourite four-letter words.