I already own a copy of the 1982 Wham! single 'Wham rap', but this one seemed different because of the 'Special US remix' badge on the sleeve. And indeed, when you compare the intro of the other single with this one, you'll notice that it sounds different.
Most people know Wham's 'Last Christmas' - and about half of them love the song, the other half loathes it. It's a holiday staple every year, and more than a hundred covers of it exist.
Whenever it's Christmas, you will hear Wham!'s hit 'Last Christmas'. It may be one of the most popular Christmas anthems ever. On its first release in 1984, it sold well over a million copies, reaching number 2 in the UK singles chart. (It was held off the top spot by Band Aid's 'Do they know it's Christmas'.)
'Where did your heart go' was originally released as part of the double single 'The edge of heaven', released to signal the end of the duo Wham! in June 1986. Always in need of 'milking it', the record company decided to release the track separately as a single in October 1986. The setup didn't work as most people already had the track - only the most avid fans still bought the single despite the absence of anything new on it. The single peaked at number 50 in the USA and number 54 in Australia.
One of the Eighties' ultimate pop tracks was Wham!'s 'Wake me up before you go-go'. George Michael was inspired to write the song when his Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley left a scribbled note to his parents reading 'Wake me up before you go', but accidentally wrote the word 'up' twice - so he decided to repeat the word 'go' as well.
'Bad boys' was a 1983 hit single for Wham!, taken from their debut album 'Fantastic'. The lyric of the song was written by George Michael from a teenager's perspective, but also including the concerns of parents, ultimately asking 'Why do you have to be so cruel?'.
'Wham Rap!' was originally Wham!'s debut single. It failed to make any impact. After the duo had achieved their breakthrough with 'Young guns (go for it)', the single was re-released. This time around, it reached number 8 in the UK singles chart and number 9 in the Dutch Top 40.
Wham! enjoyed their first UK number 1 hit with 'Wake me up before you gogo' in the summer of 1984. When the next single 'Freedom' was released, no-one could have suspected that it would become another charttopper for the duo. Not only that, but it also became the number 10 best selling single in the UK that year.
'Death by matrimony' is a phrase in the lyric of this song, which is a good summary of what the song is about. George Michael wrote 'Young guns (Go for it)' about a teenage lad's worry that his best friend was getting too committed to a girl when he should be enjoying his youth and the single life. One of the most talked about lines in the song is the spoken line 'Caution pays'. Since the line is played at a lower speed than originally recorded, people mistakenly thought that the line is 'Abortion pays', which, ironically, would have fit in with the overall theme of the song.
'Club Fantastic megamix' is a unique Wham! single, because it's the only one that didn't become a top 10 hit in the UK. It still peaked at number 15, so that wasn't too bad, but all the other singles they released during their career made it into the top 10, which is quite a feat!
Wham! had made a name for themselves with socially conscious singles like 'Wham rap' and 'Young guns'. When they released 'Club Tropicana' it seemed like a deliberate move away from that. But in reality, the song was a satire of the boom for cheap package holidays for young, single people.
'I'm your man' was released in November 1985 after Wham!'s world tour, followed by a period of rest. The last people had seen of Wham! was during Live Aid in the Summer. Thus, the single was long-awaited. It was a number 1 in the UK and peaked at number 4 in the Netherlands.
'The edge of heaven' was Wham's last single. It was released in the spring of 1986, after George Michael and Andrew Ridgely announced their breakup. The single preceded a historic farewell concert at Wembley Stadium in London on June 28, 1986.
The song that embodied the Christmas spirit in the Eighties was Band Aid's 'Do they know it's Christmas?'. The project initiated by Midge Ure and Bob Geldof started when the two met up and worked out this song Bob had written in a rather rudimentary way. They phoned up the musician friends they knew and before you knew it you had a media spectacle of unprecedented size.
For many people, 'Last Christmas' by Wham is the ultimate Christmas song. I didn't like it much when it came out, and these days I prefer the cover version by All About Eve (an edit of which you can hear on this page).
