George Michael - Faith Vinyl LP 1st Pressing Insert 1987 Wham Excellent Copy EX

	£		25
	$		33

Faith is the debut solo studio album by the English singer George Michael, released on 30 October 1987 by Columbia Records and Epic Records. The album has won several awards, including the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1989. It received a diamond certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Faith spawned six top-five singles that substantially helped it dominate the charts in 1987 and 1988. In 2003, the album was ranked number 480 on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The artwork for the album cover was by English photographer Russell Young.

By 1986, George Michael had spent five years as the lead singer of the popular duo Wham! and had grown tired of accusations that the group, which featured his best friend Andrew Ridgeley, was nothing more than a teenybopper group[2]despite the serious subject matter that was included on albums such as Fantastic and Make It Big. After the success of Make It Big Michael had grown weary of continuing the group, and expressed to Ridgeley the desire that they should split up. A decision was made that the group would dissolve following the end of a tenure at Wembley Stadium for what was titled Wham: The Final. Following the split, Michael began to work on songs that eventually would make his first solo album, which would be titled Faith.

The album peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. Its early, and successive, success on the chart was said to be partly sustained—with help from plenty of press appearances and promotions—by its strong single releases. After "I Want Your Sex" helped propel Faith to its debut atop the chart, the second single "Faith" aided the album's continuing sales dominance. "Faith" was 1988's best-selling single in the United States; with "Careless Whisper" having been the best-selling single in 1985, George Michael became the first musician to achieve two U.S. year-end number one singles since 1968, when the Beatles' "Hey Jude" topped the year-end singles chart after "I Want to Hold Your Hand" had done so in 1964. Michael also surpassed many music artists by having both the year's number one album and the number one single. That hadn't happened since 1970, when Simon & Garfunkel grabbed both positions with Bridge over Troubled Water and its title track.

During 1987 and 1988, Faith produced a string of hit singles for Michael, including six top-five Billboard Hot 100 hits, four of which ("Faith", "Father Figure", "One More Try", and "Monkey") reached number one, making him the only British male solo artist to have four number one hits from one album on the Billboard Hot 100. The album stayed for 51 non-consecutive weeks inside the Billboard 200 top 10, including 12 weeks at number one.[citation needed] It was also the first album by a white solo artist to hit number one on the US R&B charts.[citation needed] It also reached number one in the United Kingdom, where it stayed at the top spot for only one week. In all, it was the best-selling album of 1988 in the United States, and eventually reached Diamond certification by the RIAA. According to Nielsen SoundScan, current sales stand at 11 million copies, making it the 52nd-bestselling album in the United States. Overseas, the album has sold around 25 million copies worldwide [14].

In a 1988 interview with Rolling Stone, Michael was quoted as saying: "I was much happier with Faith being number one black album than I was when it became number one pop album."[15]

The album earned Michael numerous accolades. At the 31st Grammy Awards he was nominated for, and won, the Album of the Year. He racked up three wins at the 1989 American Music Awards: Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Album for Faith. The 2011 re-release of the album, received universal acclaim from music critics according to Metacritic.