"Michael" is a song by Scottish indie rock band Franz Ferdinand. It was released as the fourth single from their eponymous debut studio album on 16 August 2004 through Domino Records. The song was notable for its homoerotic lyrics such as "stubble on my sticky lips" and "beautiful boys on a beautiful dancefloor". It was released in multiple formats, including a 7-inch vinyl, two 12-inch vinyls, and two CDs. The second CD that was released was pulled from stores a day after its release due to chart ineligibility as it had three tracks on it instead of two, which is the allowed number of tracks for the CD2 format. It was later re-released with only two tracks. The song experienced commercial success, peaking at number 17 on the UK Singles Chart, number 39 on the Irish Singles Chart, and number 15 on the Finnish and Scottish Singles Charts. The song has been featured in the soundtracks for the video games Gran Turismo 4, the PlayStation Portable version of World Rally Championship and Dancing Stage Max. Composition and lyrics Frontman Alex Kapranos stated in an interview to the UK magazine Boyz that the song was written about two friends of his: "It was one night when me and the band were out with friends from Glasgow, and we went to this warehouse dance party thing called Disco X. It was a very debauched night and these two friends got it together in a very sexy way." Reviewer Alexis Petridis praised the song's "intriguing combination of sly humour and bug-eyed lust, as if the song's central character started camping it up for a laugh and ended up in rather deeper water than he had anticipated...You simply don't get songs like Michael very often in current rock music." Secret message The song contains a secret message from 1:35 to 1:39 saying, "She's worried about you, call your mother", if played backwards. According to "franzferdinand.net," bassist Bob Hardy was getting a bit worried about calling his mother back home, so the band added the backwards lyrics in as an homage. Hardy has said that he has no knowledge of the lyrics being there and he thought it was just a positive message to put on the track. Release The song was released in the UK on 16 August 2004 as two CD singles and a 7-inch single. Due to a breach of UK chart