Faith

Michael wrote, arranged and produced it as the second single from the album, released in October 1987, a few weeks before the album itself. It is said to have begun with publisher Dick Leahy's suggestion that he write a rock and roll pastiche. Work started in May 1987 at Puk Recording Studios in Gjerlev, Denmark, with a two-bar LinnDrum loop from Michael and a Bo Diddley-style rhythm part played by Hugh Burns on a metal-bodied acoustic guitar. Deon Estus played bass and Chris Cameron played the opening church organ, which echoes Wham!'s Freedom. Michael wanted the vocal dry and in-your-face, like Prince's records of the time, and engineer Chris Porter recreated the sound with an AMS digital delay.

Michael said it was never meant to be a single, just a short track on the album. When he decided to release it, a new bridge and a 1950s-inspired guitar solo by Burns were added at Sarm West Studio 2 on 1 September 1987. Porter said the solo was built bar by bar over four hours.

Chart and video

It spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 from 12 December 1987 and was, according to Billboard, the top single of 1988 in the US. It reached number one in Australia and Canada and number two in the UK. Andy Morahan directed the video, which shows Michael in a black leather jacket, Ray-Ban Aviators, Levi's and cowboy boots, playing a guitar beside a Wurlitzer jukebox. It opens with I Want Your Sex playing until the jukebox switches to Faith. Three years later the video for Freedom! '90 set fire to the jacket and blew up the jukebox and guitar.

Michael performed it on The Oprah Winfrey Show on 26 May 2004, alongside Amazing and Father Figure.