Recording Deal Quotes

I think when you sign a recording deal, you think, 'I'm going to put out a song and have a hit right away. I'll be a giant superstar. I can take over the world now.' But I put out a song, and it did OK. It wasn't like leaps and bounds.

I think we were probably playing live for about 12 months before we got a recording deal.

I grew up making music in my mum's basement, and I used to tell her I was going down there to work, and she'd say, 'That's not work. Go get a real job!' It took me signing a record deal to change her opinion!

I think, actually, I was the first person to ever sign a simultaneous video and recording deal with a record company.

I signed to Def Jam and within two months, I heard that Ja Rule was looking for someone to do a song with.

I ended up performing one time at BET. I performed my record, like, four times, and the crowd was going super crazy. And Busta just happened to be there; he pulled me to the side and asked, 'Are you signed to anybody?' So we went to the studio a few days later, spoke, and then became business partners.

Andrew [Ridgeley] and I had demoed a couple of our songs very cheaply, and we weren't expecting any kind of record deal. We just walked around with our demo tape, trying to find someone to give us the money to demo properly. Instead of that, we got a record contract. It was just an incredibly lucky break.

'Cleveland' went viral, but it didn't necessarily pop. I didn't have that support. I didn't have a deal when I made 'Cleveland' or anything like that.

Our demo tape we got signed on was composed of three songs, 'Wham Rap,' half of 'Club Tropicana' and a verse and the chorus of 'Careless Whisper' and we thought that was good enough.

Make no mistake about it: once a band has signed a letter of intent, they will either eventually sign a contract that suits the label or they will be destroyed.

I think some people think I'm, like, anti-label, and I'm not. I just wanted to sign a deal when the time was right. I'm anti being shot out of a rocket when you're not ready and the songs and image aren't there.

Yeah, early '71 is when I got my record contract. I had a record come out by August of '71. Things happened really fast.

I've spent a lot of time in tiny venues in the way that I got my record deal and got my name out there just performing live. I was literally performing my songs in all kinds of different ways with different guitarists, and I didn't have an album up online or anything. It's been a lot of work; it definitely hasn't been a sudden explosion into fame.