I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)



"I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" is a Grammy Award-winning number-one song performed by Aretha Franklin and George Michael as a duet in 1987. It was written by Simon Climie and Dennis Morgan. It also stands as Franklin's biggest hit at the Adult Contemporary chart, spending several weeks at number two.

Music video
The official music video for the song was directed by Andy Morahan. It begins with George Michael and two bodyguards entering a dark room. There is a large viewing screen on the wall showing Aretha Franklin preparing for George Michael. Over the course of the video, the two are brought together, and shown performing the song both in front of the screen and on it. At the end of the video, Aretha winks at the camera.

Chart performance
The song was a one-off project that helped Michael achieve his ambition to sing with one of his favorite artists, and it reached number-one in both the UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot 100. The song was Franklin's first and only UK number-one hit, and only her fourth top ten achievement in the country since "I Say a Little Prayer", nearly two decades earlier. This was also the last of Franklin's seventeen top 10 hits in the Billboard Hot 100.

For Michael, it became his third consecutive number-one in the UK since going solo, following 1984's "Careless Whisper" (though the single was actually from the Wham! album Make It Big) and 1986's "A Different Corner". In the US, it was Michael's fourth number-one hit, counting his Wham! days.

The single was the first Michael had recorded (as a lead artist) that he had not written himself. The co-writer, Simon Climie, was unknown at the time, although he later had success as a performer with Climie Fisher in 1988. On the US Billboard Hot 100, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" debuted at number 59, the week of February 21, 1987, reaching number-one in its ninth week, April 18, 1987, and remaining there for two consecutive weeks.

Personnel

 * Aretha Franklin – vocals
 * George Michael – vocals
 * Corrado Rustici – Charvel GTM6 MIDI guitar synthesizer
 * Randy Jackson – Spector bass guitar
 * Walter Afanasieff – synthesizer, Moog synth bass, programming
 * Narada Michael Walden – drums
 * Preston Glass – percussion programming
 * Gregory "Gigi" Gonaway – tambourine, Simmons percussion
 * Claytoven Richardson, Jeanie Tracy, Jennifer Hall, Jim Gilstrap, Kevin Dorsey, Kitty Beethoven, Myrna Matthews – backing vocals

Track listing
7"
 * 1) "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" – 3:52
 * 2) "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (Instrumental) – 4:00

US 12" maxi-single
 * 1) "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (Edited remix) – 5:29
 * 2) "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (Percappela) – 5:14
 * 3) "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (Album version) – 4:01
 * 4) "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (Extended remix) – 7:30
 * 5) *Remixed by Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero

Cover versions

 * The Shadows did an instrumental version in 1987 on the album Simply Shadows.
 * A live version of the song was featured on the Bucks Fizz album Live at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon in 1991.
 * A cover of "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" was recorded in 2001 by Hear'Say as the B-side to their single "Everybody".
 * Michael McDonald covered it in 2008 on his album Soul Speak.
 * A cover version of the chorus of "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" featured in "Welcome Back", a 3-minute-long British TV commercial for telecommunications company T-Mobile which first aired on October 29, 2010.
 * The song was performed as a duet by Joshua Ledet and Jessica Sanchez on the eleventh season of American Idol during top 8 week and the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2012 during Ledet's set.
 * The song was also performed as a duet by CJ Harris and Malaya Watson on the thirteenth season of American Idol during top 8 redux week.
 * Crystal Lewis and Michael English covered the song for English's 2012 project, Some People Change.