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I Want Your Sex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "I Want Your Sex" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by George Michael | ||
| from the album Faith | ||
| Released | June 1987 | |
| Recorded | 1987 | |
| Genre | Pop | |
| Length | 2:56 | |
| Label | Columbia | |
| Chart positions | ||
|
||
| George Michael singles chronology | ||
| A Different Corner (1986) |
I Want Your Sex (1987) |
Hard Day (1987) |
| Alternate covers | ||
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| Dutch 7-Inch single cover | ||
"I Want Your Sex" was a single released from both the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II and George Michael's Faith album, and first charted in July 1987.
The song was banned on many daytime radio stations in both countries, due to its suggestive lyrics. The music video station MTV would only show the video featuring celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung in basque and suspenders[1], in the late night hours due to the music video's implied nudity. The grounds that the song had been banned upon were completely the opposite of Michael's intention, as the theme of the video had blatantly been shown; instead of promiscuous sex, he showed the audience that the act was a beautiful thing if the sex was monogamous (The nine minute album version is even labelled as the "Monogamy Mix" in the liner notes.) One of the racier scenes attacked involved Michael "writing" the words "explore monogamy" on his partner's back in lipstick.
Many radio stations played a toned-down version of the song, I Want Your Love, which was mainly the word "love" replacing "sex".
Also because of the song's controversial content, on American Top 40, host Casey Kasem refused to announce the name of the song; only its artist. Also, due to the song's suggestiveness, the show's structure was altered slightly, so stations could opt out of the song. The only time the title of the song was announced on AT40 was when it left the charts several weeks later.
Despite censorship and airplay issues, the single was popular enough to reach #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, the week of August 8, 1987. Moreover, the single remained in the Top 10 for six weeks and the Top 40 for a total of fourteen weeks, becoming one of the most popular dance-pop singles of the Summer of 1987.
The song charted up to #3 in Britain. In Britain, the song's reprise maintained an audience for many years thanks to BBC Radio 1 breakfast show host Simon Mayo using a looped version as backing music for his daily feature On This Day In History.
In 2002, several years after the major controversy that followed the release of the song, the music video was featured at #3 on MTV2's countdown of The Most Controversial Videos Ever to Air on MTV.