The Singles
1982 Young Guns (Go For It) #8
1983 Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) (reissue) #2
1983 Bad Boys #2
1983 Club Tropicana #4
1983 Club Fantastic Megamix #15
1984 Wake Me Up Before You Go Go #1
1984 Careless Whisper #1
1984 Freedom #1
1984 Everything She Wants / Last Christmas #2
1985 I'm Your Man #1
1986 The Edge Of Heaven #1
Following on from this
success, "Wham Rap!" was re-released in 1983 and this time managed to reach No.8 in the
UK, No.9 in Australia and No.13 in the Irish singles chart.
Dee C. Lee left the band to work with The Style Council, with Pepsi DeMacque taking her place.
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 far 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
Careless Whisper (1984 Japanese 3-track 12 inch single)
The video clip features George Michael and Andrew Ridgley's final performance as Wham! on the British music show Top Of The Pops.
By the time The Edge Of Heaven was released Wham had already announced they were going to split-up, and George Michael was keen to develop a more sophisticated, adult sound.
The song was the 80s band's fourth and final number one and was lifted from The Final album. In America the song reached #10, making it their last Top 40 hit in the Billboard Hot 100.
Released in the late summer of 1984, Freedom was a #1 in the UK, Ireland and Norway during 1984 and was taken from the second album, Make It Big which was released a couple of months later during October 1984. It was the band's second out of four number one hit singles in the UK and their seventh Top 20 hit of the 80s.
WHAM Freedom (1984 UK 7 inch vinyl single)
WHAM! Freedom (1984 UK 12" inch vinyl single featuring the Long Version & Instrumental picture sleeve)
Make It Big!
Released on 23rd October 1984, the second album release from Wham! certainly lived up to its title, and went on to become the band's most successful studio album achieving 6x Platinum in both the U.S. and Canada and 4x Platinum in the UK.
Track listing:
1. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (reached #1 in the UK and US)
2. Everything She Wants (released as a double-A side with Last Christmas)
3. Heartbeat
4. Like A Baby
5. Freedom (the final #1 single for the band in the UK)
6. If You Were There
7. Credit Card Baby
8. Careless Whisper (later released as a solo single by George Michael)
The cover of Wham's Debut album "Fantastic", which was released in 1983 and was a UK No.1 in the album charts.
George on the cover of the American version of Smash Hits, Star Hits, in March 1988.
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