Wham! star George Michael  serenaded the royal couple, Prince William and Kate Middleton, by recording a cover of Stevie Wonder’s gloopy 1972 hit You and I and releasing it as a free download.

The singer is asking anyone who listens to it to make a donation to Wills and Kate’s Charitable Gift Fund and claims that he has heard via a Buckingham Palace source – not one of those naughty footmen, we hope – that the couple are delighted by his gesture. For some unspecified reason, the ‘troubled’ Michael claims the song took him two days to record, which is considerably longer than Pavarotti took to record Nessun dorma.

Will this open the floodgates for such musical tributes? Neil Diamond, a favourite of Wills’ mother, has already said that he is ready to re-record his standard Sweet Caroline as Sweet Catherine – a name which wouldn’t quite fit the tune, but never mind. Reports that Wills’ favourite hiphopper Kanye West intends to dedicate his new album Watch the Throne to Wills’ grandmother remain unconfirmed.