George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” hit #1

Careless Whisper George Michael

Writer(s): George Michael/Andrew Ridgeley (see lyrics here) Released: July 24, 1984 First Charted: August 4, 1984 Peak: 13 US, 14 CB, 12 GR, 12 RR, 15 AC, 8 RB, 13 UK, 12 CN, 14 AU, 6 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 1.52 UK, 6.0 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 419.0 video, 655.31 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: As half of the pop duo Wham!, George Michael quickly overshadowed Andrew Ridgeley and began planning his post-Wham! career almost as soon as the duo struck big. To that end, “Careless Whisper” was billed in the UK as a solo single by George Michael, but the U.S. credited it to Wham! featuring George Michael. BBC The song was also on Wham!’s Make It Big album. Wham! chalked up two other #1’s on the U.S. pop charts before Michael amassed seven chart-toppers on his own. This song also hit #1 in the UK, on Cashbox, and the Billboard adult contemporary chart on its way toward selling 6 million copies worldwide. Ironically, it was one of the few songs penned by Michael and Ridgeley AMG and the latter’s “only number one as a composer.” LW They “wrote the song when they were just 17, despite George’s own admission that he ’knew nothing about romance and certainly nothing about love.’” BBC It was a fictitious story Michael thought up while boarding a bus to his job as an usher at a cinema. SF Michael told reporter Daryl Morden, “‘It’s very naïve when you listen to it, but it still stands up, even if it does sound a little immature in some ways…We made up for that, I think, by making sure the production and arrangement didn’t sound simplistic.’” FB He has also said, “‘It disappoints me that you can write a lyric very flippantly and it can mean so much to so many people.’” KL It definitely did that as it “touched fans and passive listeners alike to become one of, if not the only, love songs of 1985” AMG and “one of the most enduring ballads of all time.” BBC “A simple song with just four chords, the track’s charm lies in its mournful saxophone intro, together with George’s anguished vocals as he pleads for forgiveness from the lover he’s cheated on.” BBC “Now a last-dance staple everywhere from school discos to weddings, the irony inherent in thousands of lovestruck couples smooching to a song about infidelity appears to be lost on most people.” BBC Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Wham! AMG All Music Guide BBC BBC Radio 2 (2004). “Sold on Song Top 100” FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 602. KL Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits: The Stories Behind Every Number One Single Since 1952. London, Great Britain: Omnibus Press. Page 297. LW Alan Lewens (2001). Popular Song – Soundtrack of the Century. Billboard Books: New York, NY. Page 156. Related Links: Last updated 11/22/2022.

Wham! “Last Christmas” released

Last Christmas Wham!

Writer(s): George Michael (see lyrics here) Released: December 3, 1984 First Charted: December 15, 1984 Peak: 4 US, 2 AC, 40 A40, 1 MR, 13 UK, 3 CN, 3 AU, 9 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 3.0 UK, 9.52 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 890.0 video, 1158.09 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley formed Wham! in 1981 in England. Their debut album, Fantastic, was released in 1983 and topped the UK charts, thanks to four top-ten hits. In the United States, Wham! didn’t really take off until their sophomore album, 1984’s Make It Big. That album gave the duo #1 hits in the UK and United States with “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and Michael’s solo turn on “Careless Whisper.” In the UK, the third single from Make It Big was “Everything She Wants.” It was released in December 1984 and would top the Billboard Hot 100. The single was technically a double A-side paired with “Last Christmas” and peaked at #2 in the UK behind the Band Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas” which featured Wham! and other UK acts. “Last Christmas” was a non-album seasonal song which became a perennial favorite charting in nineteen different years in the UK from 1984 to 2022. It eventually reached #1– thirty six years later on January 7, 2021. That set the record for the longest time in the UK between a single’s release and reaching #1. WK It became the second most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK after “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl. The song wasn’t released commercially as a single on its own in the United States until 2014. It got its official debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2017 and has regularly recharted at Christmastime since, finally reaching its #4 peak in January 2023. The song originated in 1983 when Michael and Ridgely were visiting Michael’s parents. Ridgely said, “We'd had a bite to eat and were sitting together relaxing with the television on in the background when, almost unnoticed, George disappeared upstairs for an hour or so. When he came back down, such was his excitement, it was as if he had discovered gold which, in a sense, he had.” SF It was recorded in August 1984 with Michael performing, producing, and playing all the instruments. The song isn’t really about Christmas; it simply uses the phrase “last Christmas” to refer to a failed relationship. Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Wham! SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 7/23/2023.

Wham! hit #1 in UK with Make It Big

First posted 5/30/2008; updated 11/29/2020.

Make It Big Wham!

Released: November 5, 1984 Peak: 13 US, 12 UK, 1 CN, 12 AU Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 1.2 UK, 13.8 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (5/26/84, 13 US, 12 CB, 12 RR, 4 AC, 12 UK, 14 CN, 17 AU, sales: 2.84 million) Everything She Wants (12/15/84, 1 US, 4 AC, 12 RB, sales: ½ million) Heartbeat Like a Baby Freedom (10/13/84, 3 US, 1 UK, 4 AC) If You Were There Credit Card Baby Careless Whisper (8/4/84, 13 US, 14 CB, 12 RR, 15 AC, 8 RB, 13 UK, 12 CN, 14 AU, sales: 6 million) Total Running Time: 38:02 The Players: George Michael (vocals, keyboards) Andrew Ridgeley (guitar, backing vocals)

Rating: 3.952 out of 5.00 (average of 11 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “The title was a promise to themselves, Wham!’s assurance that they would make it big after struggling out of the gates the first time out. They succeeded on a grander scale than they ever could have imagined, conquering the world and elsewhere with this effervescent set of giddy new wave pop-soul, thereby making George Michael a superstar and consigning Andrew Ridgeley to the confines of Trivial Pursuit.” AMG “It was so big and the singles were so strong that it’s easy to overlook its patchwork qualities. It’s no longer than eight tracks, short even for the pre-CD era, and while the four singles are strong, the rest is filler, including an Isley Brothers cover. Thankfully, it’s the kind of filler that’s so tied to its time that it’s fascinating in its stilted post-disco dance-pop rhythms and Thatcher/Reagan materialism – an era that encouraged songs called Credit Card Baby.” AMG “If this dichotomy between the A-sides and B-sides is far too great to make this essential, the way Faith later would be, those A-sides range from good to terrific. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go is absolute silliness whose very stupidity is its strength, and if Everything She Wants is merely agreeable bubblegum, Freedom is astounding, a sparkling Motown rip-off rippling with spirit and a timeless melody later ripped off by Noel Gallagher.” AMG “Then, there’s the concluding Careless Whisper, a soulful slow one where Michael regrets a one-night stand over a richly seductive background and a yearning saxophone. It was an instant classic, and it was the first indication of George Michael’s strengths as a pop craftsman – which means it points the way to Faith, not the halfhearted Edge of Heaven.” AMG The album reached #1 in the UK in November 1984. Three months later, it topped the charts in the United States as well.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Wham! DMDB encyclopedia entry for George Michael AMG All Music Guide review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine