Wham! end long wait for Christmas number one
The song was recognised as the UK’s best-selling single to have never reached number one, until January 2021.
George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley produced a slate of timeless hits including Club Tropicana, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Last Christmas during their time in the spotlight as pop duo Wham!.
The pair landed the top UK chart spots for their first and second albums and also found success with a number of hits including Last Christmas in December 1984.
For several decades the song was known as the UK’s best-selling single to have never reached number one, until January 2021 when it finally landed the top spot.
On Friday, the song was awarded the prestigious Christmas number one title, having missed out for 39 years.
Having met at Bushey Meads School in Hertfordshire, the pair released their debut album Fantastic in 1983 which peaked at number one, before their second album Make It Big a year later also reached the top spot.
The duo had number one single success between 1984 and 1986, with tracks including I’m Your Man, Freedom and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, after their festive track Last Christmas was beaten to the top spot by Band Aid’s charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas?. The Wham! song lasted five weeks at number two.
After chart-topping single The Edge Of Heaven was released in 1986, the duo decided to bow out at the top, commemorating their partnership with one final performance.
The band staged a farewell gig at London’s Wembley Stadium on June 28 1986, where they said goodbye to their fans and each other.
They were joined on stage by guests including Sir Elton John and Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon.
Michael fully established his solo career in 1987, jumping straight to number one with his first solo studio album, Faith.
This was followed by Listen Without Prejudice Volume 1 in 1990, Older in 1996, Songs From The Last Century in 1999 and Patience in 2004.
All of his albums reached the top spot in the charts, with the exception of Songs From The Last Century, which claimed the number two position.
His first solo single, Careless Whisper, made number one across the globe after its release in 1984.
Other hit solo singles include Faith, Freedom! ’90 and Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.
Michael, whose real name was Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, achieved seven number one singles in the UK as well as collaborating with the likes of Aretha Franklin and Sir Elton.
In later years, the singer made headlines when he was found in possession of drugs and in 2010 he pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis and driving under the influence of drugs after crashing his Range Rover into a north London shop.
The singer died aged 53 on Christmas Day in 2016 and a post-mortem examination found he had died from heart disease and a build-up of fat in his liver.
A 90-minute film about Wham! was released on Netflix earlier this year exploring how the band formed and why it ended.
