Wham! were an English pop duo formed in Bushey in 1981 consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. They were one of the most successful pop acts during the 1980s, selling more than 30 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986. Associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US, the singles "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Careless Whisper", and "Everything She Wants" all topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Their 1984 Christmas track "Last Christmas" has become a staple of the holiday season since its release, with all proceeds from the single going to charity.
Influenced by funk and soul music and presenting themselves as disaffected youth, Wham!'s 1983 debut album, Fantastic, addressed the United Kingdom's unemployment problem and teen angst over adulthood. Their second studio album, Make It Big, in 1984 was a worldwide success, charting at number one in both the UK and the United States. In 1985, Wham! made a highly publicised ten-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. The event was seen as a major watershed moment in increasing friendly bilateral relations between China and the West.
In 1986, Wham! disbanded. Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more adult market rather than the duo's primarily teenage audience. Before going their separate ways, they released a farewell single, "The Edge of Heaven", and a greatest-hits album titled The Final, along with a farewell concert entitled the Final.
History 1975–1981: Formation In 1975, Michael and Ridgeley met at Bushey Meads School in Bushey near the town of Watford in Hertfordshire. The two at first performed in a short-lived ska band called the Executive, alongside former school friends David Mortimer (later known as David Austin), Andrew Leaver, Tony Bywaters, Jamie Gould and Paul Ridgeley. The band were spotted by talent scout Michael Burdett, who had been working for the publishing company Sparta Florida Music Group. Having heard rehearsal tapes, Sparta Florida passed on the band. Burdett booked the band into a recording studio near St Albans, Hertfordshire to record their first demo tape, which featured "Rude Boy"—the first Michael–Ridgeley composition—as well as a ska rendition of "Für Elise".
When the Executive split, Michael and Ridgeley eventually formed Wham!. Ridgeley explained that the name originated from a need for "something that captured the essence of what set us apart—our energy and our friendship—and then it came to us: Wham! Wham! was snappy, immediate, fun and boisterous too." British graphic design studio Stylorouge was credited with adding the exclamation mark to the name of the band.
1982–1983: Signing with Innervision and Fantastic
Ridgeley and Michael worked persistently to get a foot in the door with recording executives. Ridgeley would frequently run into Mark Dean from Innervision Records at the Three Crowns Public House in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, and hand him the group's demo tape. In February 1982, Dean met with Michael and Ridgeley and offered them a recording deal. "I'm going to offer Wham! a deal with my new label Innervision," Dean said. "It's not a huge thing, I'm taking a punt. I'd like you to have a crack at recording a single or two and we'll see what happens from there."
Initially the pair wrote songs such as "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)", "Club Tropicana" and "Careless Whisper" together, but partway through the recording of their debut album, Fantastic, the pair agreed that Michael was the stronger songwriter, and would take creative control. Still teenagers, they promoted themselves as hedonistic youngsters, proud to live a carefree life without work or commitment. This was reflected in their earliest singles which, part-parody, part-social comment, briefly earned Wham! a reputation as a dance protest group. The debut record to be released by the group was "Wham Rap!" in June 1982. The song charted at only No. 105. In September 1982, "Young Guns (Go for It)" was issued. Initially, it also stalled outside the UK Top 40, but the group got lucky when the BBC programme Top of the Pops scheduled them after another act unexpectedly pulled out of the show.
Wham!'s first manager was Bryan Morrison. The effect of Wham! on the public was felt from the moment they finished their debut performance of "Young Guns (Go for It)" on Top of the Pops. Michael and Ridgeley wore white espadrilles sockless, an open suede jacket and polo shirt, and rolled-up denim jeans. Ridgeley stood behind him, flanked by backing singers Dee C. Lee and Shirlie Holliman. Afterwards, the song shot into the Top 40 at No. 24 and peaked at No. 3 in December. The following year, Lee began her work with Paul Weller in the Style Council, and was replaced by Helen 'Pepsi' DeMacque. Holliman and DeMacque would later record as Pepsi & Shirlie. Wham! followed up "Young Guns (Go for It)" with a reissue of "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" and the singles "Bad Boys" and "Club Tropicana". By the end of 1983, Wham! were competing against pop rivals Culture Club and Duran Duran as one of Britain's biggest pop acts. Their debut album, Fantastic, spent two weeks at No. 1 in the UK album charts in 1983, but achieved only modest success in the US.
1983–1984: Legal disputes with Innervision, switch to Epic and Make It Big
Soon after this, Michael and Ridgeley became conscious of legal problems with their initial contract at Innervision. While the legal battle raged, Innervision released a medley of non-single album tracks from Fantastic, entitled "Club Fantastic Megamix". Wham! publicly denounced the release. After all the legal wrangling, Innervision settled out of court.
After the settlement, Innervision's distributor, CBS Records, took over Wham!'s contract, placing them on the Columbia label in the US and on Epic worldwide. "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", the first single released under the new deal, propelled Wham! into the top ten of several countries around the world. It became their first US and UK No. 1 single, and was accompanied by a music video featuring the duo with DeMacque and Holliman, all wearing Katharine Hamnett-designed T-shirts with the slogans "CHOOSE LIFE" and "GO GO".
During the summer of 1984, Wham! settled in France to record their second studio album, Make It Big. In July, the single "Careless Whisper" was released. Although it would appear on Make It Big, the song was marketed as Michael's debut solo single in most territories except in the US, where it was credited to "Wham! featuring George Michael". A ballad, "Careless Whisper" reached No. 1, selling over 1.3 million copies in the UK. The next single, "Freedom", became the group's second UK No. 1 hit. Released at the end of October in the US and in early November in the UK, Make It Big climbed to No. 1 on the album charts in countries worldwide. In support of the album, Wham! set off on an arena tour, the Big Tour, at the end of 1984.
The double A-side single "Last Christmas" / "Everything She Wants" became the highest-selling single ever to peak at No. 2 in the UK charts. It stayed at No. 2 for five weeks and, as of February 2020, was the 10th best-selling single of all time in the United Kingdom, selling over 1.9 million copies. Wham! donated all their royalties from the single to the Ethiopian famine appeal to coincide with the fund-raising intentions of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?", the song which kept them out of the top spot. Nevertheless, Band Aid's success meant that Michael had achieved No. 1 status in the UK within three separate entities in 1984—as a solo artist, as one half of a duo, and as part of a charity ensemble. At the end of 1985, the US Billboard charts listed "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" as the No. 3 song and "Careless Whisper" as the No. 1 song of the year.
1985: Visit to China and Live Aid
In April 1985, Wham! undertook a groundbreaking 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group, as part of their Big Tour. The China excursion was a publicity scheme devised by Simon Napier-Bell (one of their two managers; Jazz Summers being the other). It began with a concert at the Workers' Gymnasium in Beijing in front of 12,000 people. They also played a concert in front of 5,000 in Canton. The two concerts were played without compensation. Wham!'s visit to China attracted huge media attention across the world. Napier-Bell later admitted that he used cunning tactics to sabotage the efforts of rock band Queen to be the first to play in China: he made two brochures for the Chinese authorities; one featuring Wham! fans as pleasant middle-class youngsters and one portraying Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in typically flamboyant poses. The Chinese opted for Wham!.
British director Lindsay Anderson was engaged to accompany Wham! to China and make a documentary film about the visit. Anderson called his one-hour and 18 minute film If You Were There. In the final stages of editing, Anderson was dismissed by Wham!'s management, the editing team quit, and the film was re-edited, renamed and released as Wham! in China: Foreign Skies. According to a 2006 interview with The Independent, Andy Stephens, manager for Michael, said that the film [Anderson's version] was simply not good enough to be shown in public: "It's a dreadful film ... It's 20 years old and it's rubbish. Why on earth should we allow it to be shown?" However, after viewing it in 2008, critic and journalist John Harris described it as "a rich, poetic, panoramic portrait of China's strangeness to the eyes of outsiders".
Sporting a beard, Michael appeared with Ridgeley onstage at Live Aid on 13 July 1985, although they did not perform as Wham!. Michael sang "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" with Elton John, while Ridgeley joined Kiki Dee in the row of backing singers. In August, Wham! embarked on the Whamamerica! tour, which consisted of nine shows across the United States and Canada. In November, Wham! released the single "I'm Your Man", which reached No. 1 on the UK singles chart, and became the group's third UK No. 1 hit.
Around this time, Ridgeley took up the hobby of rally driving. "Last Christmas" was re-issued for the festive season and again made the UK Top 10, peaking at No. 6, while Michael took up offers he was starting to receive to add his voice to other artists' songs. He performed backing vocals for David Cassidy ("The Last Kiss"), and also for Elton John on his successful singles "Nikita" (UK No. 3) and "Wrap Her Up" (UK No. 12), on which he sang co-lead vocals.
1986: The Final, farewell concert and break-up
By the end of 1985, Michael had grown weary of his public image, and was keen to create music targeted at a more adult market rather than the duo's primarily teenage audience. According to Michael in Wham!'s final interview conducted by No. 1 magazine in June 1986, he and Ridgeley have decided to split the group at the height of its success "about a year and a half back". Said Michael, "Part of the whole plan was to do something that no one ever does—which is to go out when you really are on top." Intense media scrutiny on Michael also played a role in the break-up.
Michael officially announced the break-up of Wham! during an episode of the chat show Aspel & Company on 1 March 1986. He said that the group would record and release a farewell single, and would perform a farewell concert entitled the Final. Regarding the break-up, Michael stated: "I think it should be the most amicable split in pop history."