Flop fears dog George’s new single

George Michael’s controversial track Shoot The Dog is struggling to pick up radio play only days before its release and looks like becoming one of his most embarrassing flops.

The singer has come under a hail of criticism for the song and video which poke fun at US foreign policy and portray Tony Blair as George Bush’s pet.

The song, which is released on Monday, has managed to scrape to just number 47 in the radio airplay chart when it should have been expected to be riding high.

Most recent figures from Music Control UK, which logs airplay, shows it has sneaked into the top 50 but is way behind other unreleased tracks such as Doves’ single Pounding (number 32) and Colourblind by Pop Idol entrant Darius Danesh (22).

Airplay is often crucial to whipping up interest in a track but many stations have not added the song to their playlists which guarantee a certain number of plays each week.

The week before the release of his last track Freeek!, the singer was at number 19 in the airplay chart - and had picked up three times as much during that week as Shoot The Dog managed in a week.

Yet even with all that airtime Freeek! - released in March - reached a chart peak of just number seven.

Strong feelings about George’s new song led to him being branded a ‘‘past-his-prime pop pervert’’ by the New York Post.

:: George Michael is nursing his beloved pet after the pooch suffered a stroke.

His labrador Hippy became ill last week, he told BBC Radio 2 presenter Steve Wright during an interview this afternoon.

‘‘My poor little doggie had a stroke last week. She’s lovely but she’s getting old. So I’ve been looking after her for the last week. She’s going to be okay, but I just have to take care of her,’’ he said.