Wham! - simplyeighties.com

Wham! and George Michael

Wham! was formed in 1981 by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.

Wham! had six UK No.1's between 1983 and 1986. These were; "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go", "Careless Whisper", "Freedom", "I'm Your Man", "A Different Corner" and "The Edge Of Heaven".

Their first single release was "Wham Rap!" in June 1982, but this failed to hit the top 40. Wham's first major success came from their next single "Young Guns (Go For It!") which reached No.3 in both the UK and Irish singles chart in September 1982.

Following on from this success, "Wham Rap!" was re-released and managed to reach No.8 in the UK, No.9 in Australia and No.13 in the Irish singles chart.

Wham! had two UK No.2 hits with "Bad Boys" in May 1983 and with "Last Christmas" in December 1984. Their other well-known hit was the camptastic "Club Tropicana", which reached No.4 in July 1983.

Wham's farewell album "The Final" was released in 1986, and reached No.2 in the UK album charts. The final single taken from the album was "The Edge Of Heaven" which was a UK No.1.

Overall, Wham! released three studio albums which were Fantastic (UK No.1, 1983), Make It Big (UK No.1, 1984) and The Final (UK No.2, 1986).

Music From The Edge Of Heaven (U.S. No.10, 1985), was a severely pared-down version of The Final with alternate tracks, and was released in the U.S.

If You Were There (The Best Of Wham) was released in 1997 and reached No.4 in the UK.

Of course, George Michael's musical career was from from over. His 1987 debut solo album, "Faith" was a massive success and has now sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

George Michael has now sold over 100 million records worldwide, and this includes 12 UK No.1 singles, 7 UK No.1 albums, 10 U.S. No.1 singles, and 1 US No.1 album.

The Official George Michael Website

The cover of Wham's Debut album "Fantastic", which was released in 1983 and was a UK No.1 in the album charts.