notable was the jazz flavour of the album's sound. The album marked a departure from the synthesised production of his previous projects, delivering a more organic sound with the inclusion of brass and strings. Michael was particularly inspired by the music of Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim, who died in 1994, and to whom the album was dedicated. Another big influence was the album's producer, Johnny Douglas, who has mixed several George Michael songs as B-sides. They first met when Douglas produced Lisa Moorish's version of "I'm Your Man" in 1995, to which Michael added backing vocals. They both began to work together soon after, and they co-wrote "Spinning the Wheel" together and also co-wrote and produced "Fastlove". Douglas also played keyboards on those tracks. Overall, the style of the album was melancholy, dark and sad. Michael complemented this departure making a dramatic change of his clothes, hair style and overall appearance. The long blonde hair, beard and jeans that Michael was known for during the late eighties were replaced with a buzz cut black hair and mostly leather clothes. Michael commented, on The Oprah Winfrey Show about that new appearance: "The way my image changed in Europe was that I looked very different, I had very short hair—I had really a kind of gay look in a way. I think I was trying to tell people I was okay with it [being gay], I just really didn't want to share it with journalists. The album I made in the middle nineties called Older was a tribute to Anselmo, really; there was a dedication to him on the album and fairly obvious male references. To my fans and the people that were really listening, I felt like I was trying to come out with them." Michael grew back a longer hair style during 1998, as was first shown on the video he recorded for "Outside", premiered near the end of that year. Reception Upon release, Older was met with critical acclaim from music critics. Commercial performance Older was a huge commercial success, especially in the European markets. In the UK the album was largely anticipated, and debuted at with an impressive 281,000 copies, becoming one of the biggest debuts ever in British history (it currently ranks as the 23rd fastest-selling album in the UK). It is also Virgin's fastest-selling album of all time. It became Michael's biggest-selling album in his