Older returns in a super deluxe collector’s box set

Mastered from the original tapes, with the Upper EP on vinyl for the first time and a new essay on the record he called his greatest moment, the set is built for the long haul.

Sony Music and George Michael Entertainment have prepared a super deluxe box set edition of Older, the 1996 album George Michael called his greatest moment. It is offered through the official store and retailers as a collector’s edition of a record that once dominated the British charts and defined a decisive stretch of his solo career.

The set presents Older mastered from the original tapes on double 180g vinyl, and places the Upper EP on vinyl for the first time. Older and Upper also appear on CD, joined by three further CDs of material. A 48-page book, The Story of Older, carries a new essay by Dan Davies and rare photographs; three 12x12-inch art prints complete the contents. Everything is housed in a rigid double slipcase.

Chart run and the singles that carried it

When Older was first released in 1996, it reached number one in the UK and stayed there for three weeks. It spent 35 weeks inside the top ten, earned six-times platinum status in the UK and went platinum in 22 other countries. Six singles from the album reached the UK top three, among them Jesus to a Child and Fastlove. That run fixed the record as one of the major commercial and critical statements of mid-nineties British pop, long before the present reissue framed it for collectors.

Where Older sits in the work

George Michael was an English singer-songwriter, record producer and philanthropist, widely regarded as a pop culture icon and one of the best-selling musicians of all time, with sales estimated at between 100 million and 125 million records worldwide. He was known as a creative force in songwriting, vocal performance and visual presentation. He scored 13 number-one songs on the UK Singles Chart and 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, won two Grammy Awards and three Brit Awards, and was named by the Radio Academy the most played artist on British radio between 1984 and 2004. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.

The path to Older ran through the early Wham! albums Fantastic (1983) and Make It Big (1984), then the solo breakthrough of Faith (1987) and the shift marked by Listen Without Prejudice (1990). By 1996 the writing, the production and the presentation had moved again: Older was the album he himself singled out as his greatest moment, and the new box set treats that claim as the reason for a full archival presentation rather than a simple repress.

The reissue does not rewrite the original running order or the hit singles that carried the record; it restores the masters, adds the Upper EP in a new physical format, and surrounds the music with the book, the essay and the prints. For listeners who already know the albums, the tours and the cover versions, the point is the craft of the 1996 work made newly available in depth. Availability is through the official store and retailers; no further formats or companion releases have been set out beyond the contents of this deluxe edition.