Too Funky encyclopedia topics

History

Too Funky was George's final single for his recording contract with Sony Music before he started legal action to extricate himself from his contract. Too Funky had been initially earmarked for a follow-up to the album Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 but George shelved the idea, instead donating it, along with three other songs, to the project Red Hot + Dance, which raised money for AIDS awareness. George subsequently donated the Too Funky royalties to the same cause. The song didn't appear on any George Michael studio album, although later it was included on his solo collection Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael.

Song Meaning

The song was lyrically a basic, animalistic plea from George for sexual activity with an individual and musically it was the most upbeat record he had released since Faith almost five years previously.

It featured a clip from The Graduate. Anne Bancroft's line of "Would you like me to seduce you? Is that what you're trying to tell me?" was repeated during the final crescendo. The song then ended with a sample from the BBC sitcom Hancock's Half Hour, with the line "Will you stop playing with that radio of yours? I'm trying to get to sleep!".

Music Video

The video featured George (sporadically) as a director filming a number of supermodels, similarly to the video for his 1990 single Freedom! '90. The supermodels featured in this video include Linda Evangelista, Tyra Banks, Beverly Peele, Nadja Auermann, Emma Sjöberg, Rossy de Palma, and Estelle Hallyday.

Chart performance

Too Funky reached #4 in the UK singles chart in 1992 and became that year's most played record in Europe.

In the U.S. the single debuted at #84 on Billboard Hot 100, reaching #8, its peak position, by its fourth week, and had sold over 500,000, being certified Gold by the RIAA .

It is the Biggest gainer song ever in the top fifty on the ARIA Charts jumped form #50 to #8 {42 places) and reached pick position #3 in Australia .

"Too Funky" reached #3 on |Dutch Top 40

Crazyman Dance

It is also interesting to note that the B-side "Crazyman Dance" contains music originally used as part of the Diet Coke commercial released in early 1989.