The Best Of - Wham > Reviews > When Two Became One

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	All of the hits
Disadvantages:	No "Bad Boys"

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

WHO WERE WHAM?
------------------------------
Lasting a mere three and a half years between November 1982 and June 1986, they were a duo consisting of Andrew Ridgeley and someone called George Michael. Ably assisted by Pepsi and Shirley on backing vocals, David Austin (keyboards) and Deon Estus (bass) they scored ten top ten hits during their tenure as the kings of pop in the mid-80's. Pepsi and Shirley went onto have minor success in 1987 with Heartache, Deon Estus turned up on a soul compilation called Heart And Soul in 1988 and in the same year Andrew Ridgeley scored his only chart entry with Shake (it reached number 57). George Michael meanwhile is currently celebrating his 27th solo top forty hit with Flawless.

WHAT DID THEY SING?
----------------------------------
Surprisingly they only had 11 hits of which nine appear on this Best Of released in 1997. The two omissions are Bad Boys and an ill-advised megamix called Club Fantastic that was released at Christmas in 1983 after Club Tropicana in a bid to squeeze the last throbbing signs of life out of the Fantastic album. The hits were:

Young Guns (Go For It)
Wham! Rap
Bad Boys
Club Tropicana
Club Fantastic Megamix
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
Freedom
Last Christmas*
Everything She Wants*
I'm Your Man
The Edge Of Heaven

*double A-side. After Christmas, in January 1985, radio stations started playing Everything She Wants, hence doubling sales - how cheeky is that? They recorded just two albums, Fantastic from 1983 and 1984's Make It Big before George Michael began to concentrate on his solo career after his second number one (1986's A Different Corner). They started at the top (Young Guns (Go For It) number 3 in 1982) and finished there as well (Edge Of Heaven, number 1, 1986)

ARE THE SONGS ANY GOOD?
--------------------------------------------
Of course they are! This is the 80's we're talking about here. Sure, they were cheesy and none too taxing on the brain, but they were fun. And "fun" is an element sorely missing in today's music industry. Below is my track by track description with ratings:

1. If You Were There
The actual title of this album is "If You Were There: The Best Of Wham!" hence the inclusion of this album track from 1984's Make It Big. It starts of sounding a lot like The Style Council with a bit of jazzy guitar and a snazzy (for 1984!) beat. Then George whispers "come on baby" before the track descends in a good way into a Motown-by-numbers kind of thing. Not at all bad and a nice antidote to the over-exposed singles that follow.
Released: n/a
Highest Chart Position: n/a
Rating: 4/5

2. I'm Your Man
I'm Your Man was their penultimate release before they split up. It's a real thumper in the bass and banging drums sense and could only be a product the 80s. "Call me good, call me bad, call me anything you want to baby" George sings on the opening line. It's not a classic, but if you're out for a song with a good old singalong chorus after about 8 pints, this is the one. Sadly, what little credibility this song ever had was quashed two years ago when Shane Ritchie recorded a version.
Raleased: Nov 1985
Highest Chart Position: 1
Rating 3/5

3. Everything She Wants
As discussed, the product of clever marketing that is now all too apparent in today's scene. Originally the b-side to Last Christmas, this moody but surprisingly funky tune about a relationship at a crossroads was played to death after Christmas 1984 (and still is by the evil Heart FM here in the south east). "My God!", George shrieks in quite a camp way that should have been a dead giveaway for later episodes of his life, "I don't even think that I love you!" I'll always remember this song because I had chickenpox and had taped this off the radio, played it to death whilst off school and always wondered at the fantastically grown up lyric:

and now you tell me that you're having my baby
I'll tell you that I'm happy if you want me to
but one step further and my back will break
if my best isn't good enough then how can it be good enough for two?

Overall, a great track that's dated a bit because of its shimmery percussion and VERY eighties bass.
Released: Jan 1985
Highest Chart Position: 2
Mark: 4/5

4. Club Tropicana
Ah, the second record I ever bought. The b-side was fab too. Anyway, a weird intro of car wheels on a gravel road pulling up to the door of some forgotten club in the middle of, like, the Costa Rican jungle (because there's bird and insect noises abound) and as the car gets closer the music gets louder until the frenetically funky bassline and drums all kick in together and George sings of "smiling faces" and "strangers taking you by the hand". Sounds like my local working men's club at 10:50pm. Great throwaway brass riffs dominate the track. The video featured an uber-tanned George on a lilo in the middle of a pool, sipping some evil cocktail from a tinted glass WITH AN UMBRELLA. Serious solo artist, my a**e.
Released: July 1983
Highest Chart Position: 3
Rating: 4/5

5. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
This was their first number one and the first track to be released from the imminent Make It Big album. Everyone knows this track: the "jitterbug" intro with the fingerclicking, the swinging fifties style organ and the cheesy, twee chorus that rhymes "go-go" with "yo-yo". The b-side, like the flip to I'm Your Man was an instrumental, the tightwads! How do I know? I bought them both. Time has not been kind to this track and in the two New Years Eves since its release I've danced to it, complete with finger-clicking, almost every time.
Released: May 1984
Highest Chart Position: 1
Rating: 3/5

6. Like A Baby
Their second album, Make It Big, featured a measly eight tracks. Six are included here, this one too. The intro to this track goes on for ages before George comes in with whispered vocals and the whole thing wouldn't sound out of place on Sade album. Not bad, just average.
Released: n/a
Highest Chart Position: n/a
Rating 2/5

7. Freedom
Another number and another track from Make It Big. A long organ intro (almost identical to George's Faith three year later) starts the song. It soon kicks into a fabulous 60's pastiche and could have been sung by someone like The Shangri-Las back in the day. You don't hear this track much these and it's true that absence makes the heart grow fonder because I love it.
Released: September 1984
Highest Chart Position: 1
Rating: 4/5

8. Edge Of Heaven
Sniff. Their last ever single. Another superb singalong chorus that features no decipherable words except:

na na na na na na
yeah yeah yeah
na na na na na na
yeah yeah yeah yea-eh-yeah

Good eh? It's an uptempo track as most of Wham's ouput was and is noted for one amazing fact: it's their only song here to feature a guitar solo. How ironic that Andrew Ridgeley was finally given something to do on their last ever release.
Released: Jun 1986
Highest Chart Position: 1
Mark: 3/5

9. Wham Rap
It was three and a half years after the release of this single that I learnt all the words. It was summer 1986, I was the archetypal Kevin The Teenager and was on a "sightseeing" holiday in Switzerland. The local market had one English language cassette: the soundtrack to a dire John Travolta film called Perfect and this track was on it. So I sat in the car in the car park of the hotel and played this one track over and over again. It is for this reason that I absolutely love it. "Hey everybody take alook at me/I've got street credibility". In between George's apalling rap came a fantastic falsetto chorus urging the masses not to waste time watching television or lookng for a job but to "get-get-get-on down, a-get-get-get-on down". A song that's so bad, it's good.
Released: Feb 1983
Highest Chart Position: 8
Rating: 5/5

10. Young Guns (Go For It)
Their debut, and like Wham! Rap and the shamefully omitted Bad Boys, this features all manner of natty brass riffs and clever singing and is another Yoof Anthem. I remember their first appearance on Top Of The Pops with the tight leather jackets and the way they acted out the line:

well tell this jerk to take a hike
there's something 'bout this boy I don't like
we got plans to make we got things to buy
I'm not wasting time on some creepy guy
hey shut up Shirl that's a friend of mine
just watch your mouth babe you're out of line

when the single George started mocking the engaged Ridgeley and Shirley. Fantastically naff, but you can't take the great tune away from this track.
Released: November 1982
Highest Chart Position: 3
Rating: 4/5

11. Last Christmas
Apart from A Fairytale on New York by The Pogues and Lennon's Happy Xmas and possibly that Slade song, this is probably the only other half-credible Christmas song left. We all know it, the video was suitably naff with George pouting across a room of a log cabin at his ex everyone ends up throwing snowballs. One question: why was this song released to challenge Band Aid?
Released: December 1984
Highest Chart Position: 2
Rating: 3/5

12. Where Did Your Heart Go
This is a song that was bandied around the airwaves (but never released) in 1987 as an advert for a rival - and superior - Wham! compilation called The Final (see below). It's similiar in tempo and feel to Everything She Wants and features an almost jazzy vocal from George. A gentle crescendo the title accentuates chorus. A rare thing on this album: a serious song!
Released: n/a
Highest Chart Position: n/a
Rating: 4/5

13. Everything She Wants (1997 Mix)
14. I'm Your Man (1996 Mix)
The downside, of course, to trying to compile a workshy artist is the lack of truly great material available. With only 11 singles released and some bsides as instrumentals, you're always gong to struggle to find tracks to fill up a hungry 80 minute capacity CD. I can understand why the compilers have chosen to add remixes in but I would suggest you seek out The Final instead.

ALTERNATIVES?
------------------------
There's only one other Wham! singles compilation that I'm aware of. It's called The Final and here's it's tracklisting:

1. Wham Rap
2. Young Guns (Go For It)
3. Bad Boys
4. Club Tropicana
5. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
6. Careless Whisper
7. Freedom
8. Last Christmas
9. Everything She Wants
10. I'm Your Man
11. Different Corner
12. Battlestations
13. Where Did Your Heart Go
14. Edge Of Heaven

It features not only Bad Boys but also George's two solo number ones: Careless Whisper and A Different Corner.

OVERALL
--------------
Fantastic fun! But get The Final instead, it's got more singles on it!

Thanks for reading!