It's a week before Christmas and it's about darn time that we started getting festive around here. To perk up the old holiday spirit pour yourself a tall glass of eggnog and sing along (not while your trying to drink you will choke) with the classic holiday carol: Wham!'s Last Christmas.
It's become a Christmas favorite over the decades and is presently sitting at number eleven on the Billboard Top 40 charts after peaking at number two last week. The song is so popular that my six year old granddaughter is rocking out to it in the car. Interestingly enough, the song wasn't quite as popular back in 1984 when it peaked at number forty on that very same chart.
After thirty-six years, numerous rereleases and a gazillion covers Last Christmas has become a timeless holiday hit fits right in with your Bing Crosby and Perry Como.
We are happy to present the video for Last Christmas which just got a spiffy 4K makeover just in time for the holidays:
History:
"Last Christmas" had its beginnings in 1984, while George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were visiting Michael's parents. It was written by Michael in his childhood bedroom. Michael played Ridgeley the introduction and chorus melody to "Last Christmas", which Ridgeley later called "a moment of wonder"
The video to "Last Christmas" shows Wham! members George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley accompanying girlfriends to see friends at an unspecified ski resort cottage: the cable-car that can be seen in two shots is from Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where the video was filmed. It becomes clear early on that the character of Ridgeley's girlfriend (played by model Kathy Hill) was previously in a relationship with Michael and that the song is aimed at her. She can be spotted throughout the video by the fact that she is usually wearing red, but everyone else is wearing more muted colors.
Here is your bonus video for Edge of Heaven:
It's cold outside so go to Club Tropicana:
Wham! were an English pop music duo consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, formed in Bushey in 1981. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling more than 30 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986. 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 pop smash hit, charting at number one in both the UK and the United States. Associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US, the singles from the album—"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", "Everything She Wants" and "Careless Whisper"—all topped the US Billboard Hot 100. In 1985, Wham! made a highly publicised 10-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.
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 (Austin) Mortimer, Andrew Leaver, Harry Tadayon and Paul Ridgeley. When this group split, Michael and Andrew 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.
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