When George Michael paid tribute to Linda McCartney and his late mum with beautiful Beatles cover

17 April 2024, 09:52

George was a life-long fan of The Beatles.

He loved the music of John Lennon and Paul McCartney so much in fact, he later wrote a song dedicated to each of them, and the impact their music had on him becoming an artist.

"I was big into Abbey Road and Revolver," George once revealed when asked about his influences on 1990 album Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1. "I made one record to show how much I loved Lennon, I made another record to show how much I loved McCartney."

Michael took his fascination of The Beatles to another level, when he acquired an iconic piece of musical history.

In October 2000, George spent £1.67 million on the late Lennon's Steinway piano from the iconic 'Imagine' video at an auction, outbidding Robbie Williams in the process.

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After purchasing the artefact, George told People magazine: "As a songwriter, it's such an amazing thing to own, and as far as paying the $2.1 million [£1.67 million], it’s worth every penny."

He was willing to put his money where his mouth was when it came to The Beatles, though he'd already proved his love of their music and Paul McCartney the year before.

Accepting the invitation to perform at the tribute concert for Paul's late wife Linda McCartney, George blew the audience away with an emotional cover of 'The Long And Winding Road'.

Whilst he was there to pay tribute to Linda, George also used the opportunity to sing for his late mum, who'd died battling the same disease.

Linda McCartney sadly succumbed to breast cancer on 17th April 1998, surrounded by her loving family and husband Paul.

To celebrate the American photographer's life and activism, her dear friend Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders arranged a tribute concert at London's historic Royal Albert Hall on 10th April, called 'Concert For Linda'.

With all proceeds going to a number of animal rights charities - Linda was renowned for her animal rights campaigning and vegetarianism - the concert's 5,000 tickets were snapped up almost immediately.

Given the lineup Chrissie Hynde assembled however, fans would've no doubt been overwhelmingly chuffed.

The likes of Tom Jones, Sinead O'Connor, Elvis Costello, Des'ree, Heather Small, The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Crowded House's Neil Finn, Marianne Faithfull, and The Pretenders themselves would all appear on the bill playing their own versions of classic songs from The Beatles and Linda's favourites.

But when George Michael came to the microphone, there was another dimension to his beautiful performance.

After introducing himself to the audience - not that he required any introduction - George softly said his "mother lost the same fight, the same battle that Linda lost."

In February 1997, George lost his mum Lesley Angold Panayiotou died of cancer. It was a loss that he'd never recover from.

It came three years after a deeply awful loss for George. His first lover Anselma Feleppa died of an AIDS-related illness in 1993.

"It was a terribly depressing time," George later recalled in 2008. "It took about three years to grieve, then after that I lost my mother. I felt almost like I was cursed."

Holed up in the studio as a means of overcoming the shroud of grief that enveloped George, he chose to perform for the first time since his mum's passing in tribute to both her and Linda.

Every note of 'The Long And Winding Road' felt impassioned, as though he was navigating the long and winding road to his mother's door once more.

George Michael - The Long and Winding Road (Concert for Linda 1999)

Holed up in the studio as a means of overcoming the shroud of grief that enveloped George, he chose to perform for the first time since his mum's passing in tribute to both her and Linda.

Every note of 'The Long And Winding Road' felt impassioned, as though he was navigating the long and winding road to his mother's door once more.

Mirroring the immeasurable loss that Paul McCartney was feeling after losing Linda, George's tribute was from a real place of pain himself.

"That period after she died, was the blackest period of my life really" George revealed in a later interview.

"The time in my personal life and it took me to write again after I lost her, is really the reason what I haven’t been around."

No doubt Paul, and everyone in the Royal Albert Hall, were grateful that he bravely made the decision to step onto the stage once more, in what turned out to be a loving tribute to two lost souls.

George's song 'Heal The Pain' would bring him and Paul together once again. After their duet for Live 8 in 2005, they entered the studio together to re-record George's song, which he wrote in homage to Paul.

"I didn't dream McCartney would ever sing it. And actually, when he sings it, it sounds like a Paul McCartney record."

Despite 'The Long And Winding Road' having been covered by countless artists such as Tony Bennett, George Benson, Cher, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Barry Manilow, Olivia Newton-John, Kenny Rogers, and Diana Ross, George's version makes it sound like one of his own.