Wham!

We start the week with another English musical duo: George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley met as teens in secondary school, originally formed a short-lived ska band called The Executive and then formed Wham!, in which they promoted themselves as hedonistic youngsters. Michael took on the majority of roles and responsibilities within the band - composer, producer, singer, and occasional instrumentalist.

Their first single, in 1982, Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) was not playlisted by the BBC and therefore did not chart. Their 2nd single however, Young Guns (Go For It), greatly benefited by the duo's sexy appearance on Top Of The Pops, shot to #3 in the UK (#1 in Sweden, #3 in Ireland, #4 in Australia & New Zealand and a hit in most major European markets).

On the coattails of Young Guns' success, their first single Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) was promoted again and made #8 in the UK and Top 20 in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand.

Their next single was the biggest hit of the first phase of their career: Bad Boys made #2 in the UK in 1983, as well as Top 12 in Germany, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden.

They had a 4th hit from their debut album, Fantastic, with Club Tropicana (UK & Ireland #4). The album itself, was a UK #1 and triple platinum and although it peaked rather low in the US (#83), it eventually went gold.

The song that made them international superstars came next: in 1984 Ridgeley left a note for his parents, saying "wake me up before you go" but with "go" accidentally written twice. This inspired Michael in writing, in his own words: "I just wanted to make a really energetic pop record that had all the best elements of Fifties and Sixties records, combined with our attitude and our approach, which is obviously more uptempo and a lot younger than some of those records. It's one of those tracks that gets rid of a lot of your own personal influences; it reminds me of so many different records that I couldn't actually nail them down." Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go went to #1 in the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, #2 in Germany , Switzerland and New Zealand, #3 in Finland, #6 in Austria, #9 in South Africa, #17 in France and #23 in Italy. The Wham! craze had officially begun.

This was the lead single from their 2nd album with the prophetic title Make It Big. The album had great reviews (4 1/2 out of 5 stars from Allmusic and 4 out of 5 from Rolling Stone), terrific sales (6x Platinum in the US and Canada, 4x Platinum in the UK, Platinum in Finland, New Zealand and Hong Kong, 2x Gold in France, Gold in Germany and a whooping eight hundred thousand plus sales in Japan.

The second single off the album was completely different. A lush ballad, featuring a snazzy saxophone riff, Careless Whisper made #1 in nearly 25 countries, selling about six million copies worldwide. Even though George was still a member of Wham!, this was a solo effort, credited as such in some countries while in others it was credited as Wham! featuring George Michael.

George Michael, born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Γεώργιος Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου) in North London to a Greek-Cypriot restaurant owner and an English dancer in 1963, came out as bisexual at 19, but only to his bandmate Andrew Ridgeley, a few close friends and his sister. (He realized that he was gay a few years later). Perhaps the fact that he wasn't out to his parents would help shed a different light to the lyrics of Careless Whisper:

Time can never mend

The careless whispers of a good friend

To the heart and mind

Ignorance is kind

There's no comfort in the truth

Pain is all you'll find

Wham's next single was Freedom, also a huge hit everywhere. The video consists of footage of their huge tour of China (music starts after 1 minute or so). Fun fact: the Chinese were considering inviting either Queen or Wham!. They were leaning towards Queen, but Wham!'s manager persuaded them otherwise, using the argument that Queen were gay ("just look at their name!"). If the Chinese only knew...

Then came their next single, in December 1984: it was a double A-Side. On the one side was Everything She Wants, perhaps the most mature of Wham!'s songs, written from the angle of a man rapidly approaching desperation at the material demands of his partner, not being able to even enjoy the fact that he will be a father soon, because of the extra financial pressure. This was the side that was mostly played in the US, reaching #1.

The other side was a seasonal song, called Last Christmas. It was huge in the UK, but could only peak at #2, because it was released during the same week that charity single Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid was released. Everybody felt obliged to buy the charity single, even those who didn't really like it, making it the biggest selling single of all time in the UK until 1997, when it was overtaken by another charity single, Elton John's Candle In The Wind 1997. Fun fact: George Michael was part of the ad hoc collection of Pop Stars that formed Band Aid, making him one of very few artists to simultaneously be at #1 and at #2 of the UK chart with different acts.

In subsequent years, the song managed to reach the middle echelons of the UK singles chart on a regular basis and as of October 2015 has sold 1.77 million copies and is the biggest selling single in UK chart history not to reach number one. In Japan the song became the best-selling single that did not reach the Top 10, selling more than 600,000 copies and peaking on the chart at #12 in 1992. In Germany, the song is the most successful Christmas single of all time.

In 1985, they had another huge hit with I'm Your Man. #1 in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand, #3 in the US, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium, #4 in Norway and #7 in Germany and Switzerland.

Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more sophisticated adult market rather than the duo's primarily teenage audience and therefore, Michael and Ridgeley officially announced the breakup of Wham! in the spring of 1986. Before going their separate ways, a farewell single - The Edge Of Heaven - and a greatest hits record would be forthcoming, along with a farewell concert entitled The Final. Announcing the breakup, Michael said: "I think it should be the most amicable split in pop history." Here's The Edge Of Heaven, another big hit (#1 in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, #2 in Australia and Norway, #3 in Italy, #4 in Germany and Switzerland and #10 in the US.

Tomorrow we'll deal with George Michael's solo career. See you then!