Wham were, possibly, Britain's most commercially successful pop group of the eighties. The duo began recording funky dance manic but their biggest successes came when their music mellowed.Wham's funky period yielded the UK top ten hits Young guns go for it, Wham rap, Bad boys and Club Tropicana. Their last really funky song, Wake me up before you go go, gave them their first UK number one. After that, most of their hits were ballads beginning with Careless whisper, which was credited as a George Michael solo although Andrew Ridgeley co-wrote the song. It made the top spot in the UK and was followed to the top spot by Freedom, credited to Wham.
Next came the double-sided UK hit combining Last Christmas with Everything she wants. Only a charity record (Do they know it's Christmas, on which George joined other celebrities as Band Aid) prevented this single being yet another UK number one for Wham, but Last Christmas remains my favorite Wham song. It is a superb love song although it has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas except that George chose to use Christmas as the date in which to set the song. It returned to the UK top ten a year later.
Three more UK number one hits followed - I'm your man, A different corner (credited as a George solo) and the double-sided coupling of Edge of heaven with Where did your heart go?
Although nominally a duo, Andrew Ridgeley was very much the junior partner and it came as no surprise when the duo split up and George pursued a solo career. Some of that music is not very different in style from the ballads that he recorded with Wham.
This compilation contains all the important tracks recorded while George and Andrew were together as Wham, including those credited as George solos.
