Now, I’m not saying George Michael rocks. And I’m not saying Andrew Ridgeley rocks. But together, as Wham!, they rock. A little Wham! trivia:
Did you know George Michael’s real name is Yorgos Panayiotou? I don’t think he would have had as successful solo career if he was billed as “And here’s Yorgos Panayiotou singing ‘I Want Your Sex.’”
Did you know that Andrew and George were born just one day apart?
Did you know that ‘Careless Whisper’ was billed as “Wham! featuring George Michael?”
Did you know that George Michael did all the song-writing and the singing and Andrew just danced around and then enjoyed their bevy of babes while George got frustrated because he didn’t care about women? Yeah, you probably got that.
Let’s talk music: The first song I ever heard by Wham! was probably your first too: “Wake Me up Before you Go Go.” It’s a classic circa 1983 and my sis played that tape over and over again. I think it also had ‘Careless Whisper’ which is a little slow for me but still good. I’m also a fan of their holiday hit, “Last Christmas I gave you my heart…” I remember when it first came out I imagined George literally giving his heart (the blood-pumping organ) out of his body to a woman and her giving it someone else the very next day. I imagined Andrew just standing there going, “Gross!” which was probably pretty accurate.
Okay, let’s get to the all-time best Wham! song: “Freedom” No, not the George Michael solo “Freedom.” This rocks so much more!
I don't want your freedom, I don't want to play around. I don't want nobody, baby, part time love just brings me down. I don't want your freedom. Girl, all I want right now is you.
I love it! I’m so jamming to it now and it’ll be in my head all day (until I make chicken and then I’ll inevitably start singing “Chicken vagina, the Chinese chicken” all over again).
While George Michael went on to have a successful solo career and finally came out of the closet, Andrew Ridgeley never made any hits and therefore will always go down in second banana history.
But that’s okay. I mean, none of us are even third bananas and we certainly never made any catchy songs that defined the early 80’s. That’s why Wham! totally rocks. Well, also because sometimes they would actually wear matching white jean shorts in their concerts (so George's idea).
So what are they doing now?
Well I guess George’s on the go-go and Andrew’s hanging on like a yo-yo.
5 comments:
So I loved Wham and George when he went solo. I loved him and I knew he loved me, until April 1998 when the whole thing came undone....for me.
Innocent me never had a clue that he was gay. Strange enough because I hung around plenty of gay guys...I guess my radar wasn't fully trained yet. But I was still shocked and sad. I still like to pretend he loves me. He'll come around.
Freedom rocks...both of them.
OH, I had the "Make it Big" tape. Freedom was my favorite song also.
How can you not start dancing when "Wake me up" comes on??
I'd like to have Wake me Up playing on my alarm clock every morning. But then I'm afraid I won't be able to get the image of GM in his white shorts out of my head.
Come on, Jessi, even the white shorts didn't clue you in?
Nope, just thought he was hot. Didn't care what he was wearing. It WAS the 80's.
Have there ever been more awesomely horrible song lyrics than: "I'm never going to dance again - guilty feet have got no rythym"?
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