Wham - Classic or dud?

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Seeing as Duran Duran are being discussed we ought to take on the other major band of the time and relive some of the glorious Smash Hits debates of 1984.

So… was Wham Rap more politically radical than UB40s ‘1 in 10’ - the only record to capture the fun of being 18 and on the dole so you could go clubbing? Was ‘Bad Boys’ a beautiful sheened up ‘Leather Boys’ for the under nines? Did ‘Wake me up before you go-go?’ reveal Michael as bitter as Joan Crawford?

Or was Wham a ghastly error that George Michael has been struggling to put behind him ever since?

― Guy, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Wham Rap" and "Club Tropicana" have a bit of sass. The latter's video also portrayed an admirably leisurely lifestyle. Other'n that, time will not favour Wham. MAKE IT BIG? Make it a dud.

(I do kinda like the concept of Andrew Ridgely, though, as this goon with no talent who did nothing in the studio, had his microphone switched off live because he had no sense of pitch, just sorta posed his way through the videos and the cocktails and the suntan oil... he's leaning classic.)

― AP, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic: because one time Thatcher-groupie historian and lush Norman Stone, in an article demonstrating how useless and ignorant students now are, referred to them as "The Wham". The sub editor — which could have been me but in fact wasn't — clearly decided to let this error go by, as a comment on the coherence of Stone's entire and anyway barely grammatical 'argument'.

I think 'Rio' is more politically radical than '1 in 10'. Classic. No, dud. No, classic.

― mark s, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Andrew Ridgley,Paul Rutherford,Bez - I love pop stars who do fukall.

I hated them but would rather listen to 'Club Tropicana' than 'She's Lost Control'

I also prefer 'Listen Without Prejudice' to 'The Stone Roses'

― Job or no job. . ., Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Were "Careless Whisper" and "A Different Corner" Wham or Yog? They were brilliant: the biggest hurdle to overcome in liking pop as an adult are the youth club ballads but George made it easy. Other than that and "Freedom" Wham! never did much for me. The early singles are pretty dreadful I recall - I'd rather hear Roland Rat's "Rat Rappin" than "Wham Rap".

― Tom, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tom you are so wrong on this one.

Wham Rap is one of the very few decent white rap records; totally and absolutely free of any Ali G tendencies, gloriously funny and so good to dance to. "Give a wham, give a bam, but don’t give a damn" rivals awopbopaloobop for greatest pop lyric of the century. And they understood that being on the dole could be fun – no other political commentator understood that in 1982. Even now when I play records at parties – which I do in the least DJ-like way I can manage – I find ‘wham rap’ guarantees total jump up and down abandon… unquestionably the peak of George Michael’s recording career. The career peak of course was the shuttlecock incident.

― Guy, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Roland Rat as I recall was grey.

― Tom, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic. Classic classic classic. Club Tropicana and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go are great, silly pop songs, but even better are I'm Your Man and the plaintive mini-drama Freedom, both with incredibly assured faux-Motown production by the boy Panayiotou himself (check the trumpets/piano/kitchen sink finale to Freedom). I love their naked ambition, eg calling their US breakthrough album Make It Big, and my favourite Wham! track, Ray Of Sunshine ("Shuffle on your feet til the floor is hot/Gonna make a lot of money, gonna break your heart/Watch out, boy").

Everything George has done since pales horribly in comparison, even the largely excellent but rather dull LWP.

― Jack Seale, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They were shite of course, although I second Guy's eloquent hypothesis that 'Wham Rap' is their one redeeming moment. The rest sucks: that includes all the songs, Georgie's perm, Andrew's everything and that also include's George Michael's tossing solo- carreer esp. Careless Wanker which is even worse than Last Christmas (man, the royalties on that one must be amazing).

― Omar, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No revisionism here - dud as hell. George Michael is one of the vilest pop stars ever to invade my consciousness. The very epitome of suntanned, self-satisfied, teeth-clenched Eighties ghastliness. 'Careless Whisper' being a truly horrid, tuneless dirge devoid of any of the qualities I look for in music. One of the very worst records ever made.

His later attempts to be taken seriously make him all the more reprehensible in my eyes. Wham....uuuuurrrggghhhh!

― Venga, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"I'm never going to dance again / Guilty feet ain't got no rhythm" is the best lyric he ever wrote.

― Tom, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

being a sad sarah records lover i have loved the hit parade forever and well they always sounded familiar and finally my friend kate and i figured it out--they were wham rip-offs and so kate went out and got all of the wham records for 3 bucks and we both love them greatly. andrew ridgely's solo record is a dud though and so is everything post 'listen without prejudice'. i can remember my older brother listening to 'faith' while cleaning his car in the driveway.

― keith, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmm... Wham! are mostly camp fun (especially 'Bad Boys'), but 'Everything She Wants' is a bona fide 80s pop classic...

― stevie t, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Everything She Wants' = 'What A Fool Believes' minus the magnificence of Michael McDonald's voice.

Another thing about Michael (George) - his bare-faced audacity in proclaiming himself brave for being forced out of the closet makes me puke. He spent the best part of two decades tacitly denying his homosexuality for fear it would alienate his female fanbase, wrote song after song explicitly about hetero relationships and filled his videos with sexy, female models - "Hey, look, my sexuality is NOT in doubt, ok?" Loathsome creep.

― Venga, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go is one of the best pop songs every committed to record. Just look at that fantastic lyrical conceit : Wake Me Up Before You Go / Wake Me Up Before You Dance. So she's going dancing but he is in bed. Who is in the right? Or is it, as suggested in 3Gr during Religious Studies, they've had a bit of early evening, pre-disco shag.

And go-go rhyming with Solo. Pure genius.

― Pete, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I guess the old idiom is true, you can't like both Wham! and Duran Duran, given the overwhelmingly positive reaction DD got on their thread and the mixed one Wham! is getting.

I never liked Wham! one bit, to be honest. Wake Me UP Before You Go Go is just mindlessly stupid to me, and makes me want to vomit. I don't know what it is about it...it just sounds like it should be a jingle in an ad, not a proper pop song on the radio. George Michael is annoying, and while the IDEA of Andrew Ridgely is great, it just didn't pan out into actual greatness. So, yeah, a few listenable songs (if you include the solo catalog too), but overall absolute dud. Those SHORTS!

― Ally, Monday, 23 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I envision the existence of this, the Duran Duran thread and the Abba monstrosity as a colossal jape being played on us by Tom and company to see just how lemming-like we are with our approval. It's been said many many times before, but I think you will all recognize how it applies in this situation despite the misplaced genre name: CORPORATE ROCK STILL SUCKS. Dud.

― Dave M., Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ned, if you're reading, another tagline!

Freaky Trigger: Corporate Rock Still Rocks

― Tom, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The sheer strength of the hatred here has confirmed what was true at the time – Duran were the rockist band and Wham were the ones liked by the pop-kids.

I always liked both but if I had to choose I’d go for Wham – they had the lightness of touch, the silliness, the trashiness of great pop. Wham were gorgeously optimistic, and this I suspect is for many people their biggest crime

― Guy, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think a more accurate schema would be:

Duran / Human League - for junior art rockers Wham / Spandau - for junior soul boys

― Tom, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Except that the Human League understood disco - or Martin Rushent did, which made them a big 'soul boy' favourite. The dividing thing was haircuts - soulboys had the wedge and wore burgundy, rockers had grown out spiky (a la Taylor) and wore moroccan scarves. Soul boy in this context meant working class and disco going.

― Guy, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Thinking about it I think you're right but it's still too unsubtle, because of course Duran were silly too and loveable for it, but silly in a kind of grand way. I think the difference is in a kind of sensitivity Wham had which made them more down-to-earth than Duran - they knew when to goof around and have fun and when to look into your eyes and let you know they meant it, which is all you could ask for in a boy/girlfriend really. Whereas Duran were wrapped up in themselves (and in curtains) more, hence "Save A Prayer" is a worse ballad than the George ones.

― Tom, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wait, hang on, how does this message board "prove" that Duran were for rockers and Wham were for pop kids?

Anyhow, I don't dislike Wham because they are "gorgeously optimistic", I dislike them because: A) I don't think any of their songs qualify as "gorgeous" B) I found them dull

I don't see how they were any more optimistic than Duran Duran, or any other pop band of their era.

― Ally, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The main reason I hated Wham! is because the smiles and fake-orange tans made both of them look like Malibu Ken and Malibu Todd -- whose hideousness made my Barbies lesbian by default.

― Nicole, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ally, if we use your definition of rock & pop, i.e. that it's not about music but about attitude, then duran duran are obviously rock and wham is pop. if you want to trace it back to influences, wham! is elton john & motown; duran duran is david bowie, in a conflation of ziggy & young americans, with synthesizers.

i like duran duran -- if they're on the radio or, even better, one of their videos is on, i won't turn it off. but i don't own anything by them. they were so ingrained into my childhood that i feel like i can summon their songs at will.

wham! is by no means a classic but they were pretty damn good when they were on. i own make it big and the edge of heaven and derive pleasure from both. i don't like "careless whisper" though: that's what being old sounds like. "everything she wants" and "freedom" are total classics, though.

― fred solinger, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, but if we also use my definition, ie pop is popular music, then they're both pretty much the definition of pop in the 80s this side of like Madonna. Not only that, using the wide attitudinal definition of rock, then the influences you just claimed for Wham are rock as well. You can't just extract one bit of what I said, take it out of context, and then use it against me, because I wrote the argument. Therefore, I know it inside and out, and therefore I know that my argument props what I'm saying - that neither band are any different from each other in terms of rock/pop definition. They're just different styles of it.

― Ally, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

well, i'd claim that duran duran's influences are more rock, but that doesn't matter because wham! only took musical cues from their influences, not attitude and style like duran duran; ridgely and michael, in those days, were practically translucent -- i mean how can anyone be considered stylish or rock n' roll with that fucking unibrow of george's?

― fred solinger, Tuesday, 24 April 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

George Michael is certainly the best male British singer and songwriter, no doubt about that.

Wham! was certainly one the very first sucessful boy band. They had the image right and they had the music right too.

Boyz those were the days!

― Ixion, Friday, 8 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It is OK to like both Wham! and Duran Duran, yes?

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 8 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ten months pass...

Guy B. was right about Wham! Rap, incidentally.

― Tom, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

eight months pass...

I like "Everything She Wants" and "The Edge Of Heaven, they are Pop classics!

― Alioe Keymer, Saturday, 28 December 2002 20:27 (twenty-two years ago)

"careless whispers" is the first song I remember hearing on the radio. I still love it.

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Saturday, 28 December 2002 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't like Wham!. They didn't do the right thing in my opinion.

― Helltime Producto (Pavlik), Sunday, 29 December 2002 01:38 (twenty-two years ago)

i just want to say that you drop Wham's "Battlestations" in a set today and it would be crunk.

― Nik (Nik), Sunday, 29 December 2002 02:12 (twenty-two years ago)

the fags band you could like when you were 8 without being called a fag for liking culture club. Sigh, those eight year old hard ons will never be the same again

― Queen G (Queeng), Sunday, 29 December 2002 11:09 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

they did have an exclamation point in their name, didn't they?

"I'm Your Man" and "The Edge Of Heaven" I think are both spectacular.

― billstevejim, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 03:32 (twenty years ago)

Wham! bam!
I am! a man!
Job or no job,
You can’t tell me that I’m not.
Do! you!
Enjoy what you do?
If not, just stop!
Don’t stay there and rot!

You got soul....
You got soul....
I said get, get, get on down,
Said get, get, get, on down.
Hey everybody take a look at me,
I’ve got street credibility,
I may not have a job,
But I have a good time,
With the boys that I meet down on the line
I said, I - don’t - need - you
So you don’t approve,
Well who asked you to?
Hey - jerk - you - work
This boy’s got better things to do
Hell,
I ain’t never gonna work, get down in the dirt,
I choose, to cruise.
Gonna live my life, sharp as a knife,
I’ve found my groove and I just can’t lose.
A.1. style from head to toe,
Cool cat flash gonna let you know,
I’m a soul boy - I’m a dole boy,
Take pleasure in leisure, I believe in joy!

Chorus

Party nights, and neon lights,
We hit the floors, we hit the heights.
Dancing shoes, and pretty girls.
Boys in leather kiss girls in pearls!
Hot-damn! everybody, let’s play!
So they promised you a good job - no way!

One, two, three, rap!
C’mon everybody, don’t need this crap!

Chorus

If you’re a pub man
Or a club man
Maybe a jet black guy with a hip hi-fi
A white cool cat with a trilby hat
Maybe leather and studs is where you’re at
Make the most of every day
Don’t let hard times stand in your way
Give a wham give a bam but don’t give a damn
Cos the benefit gang are gonna pay!

Now reach up high and touch your soul,
The boys from wham! will help you reach that goal.
It’s gonna break your mama’s heart, (so sad)
It’s gonna break your daddy’s heart, (too bad)
But you’ll throw the dice and take my advice,
Because I know that you’re smart.
Can you dig this thing? - yeah!
Are you gonna get down? - yeah!
Say wham! - wham!
Say bam! - bam!

Chorus

Do you want to work? - no
Are you gonna have fun? - yeah
Said one, two, three, rap, c’mon everybody,
Don’t need this crap!
Enjoy what you do?
Everybody say wham! - wham!
Everybody say wham! bam! - wham! bam!
Enjoy what you do?

― vin, Wednesday, 3 November 2004 06:44 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

Whaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmm

― billstevejim, Friday, 11 February 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

Fuddy duddy in the dumpster. It's the dudathon! DUDMEISTER!
DUDARAMA!

Okay, so "Everything She Wants" was pretty good at the time, but come on. WE CAN LIVE WITHOUT WHAM! I KNOW WE CAN!

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Friday, 11 February 2005 15:37 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

REUNION!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 16:48 (eighteen years ago)

It'll give George something to do between arrests.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 17:29 (eighteen years ago)

everything she wants.
a very serious contender *indeed* for the best single of the 1980's.

― pisces (piscesx), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 17:37 (eighteen years ago)

everything she wants.
a very serious contender *indeed* for the best single of the 1980's

YES. Whenever someone scoffs at Wham!, I play this track to shut them up.

― Will (will), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 17:43 (eighteen years ago)

It wasn't even the best single released in December 1984.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 07:12 (eighteen years ago)

Top 40 Hits of Late December 1984

1 Band Aid Do They Know It's Christmas?
2 Wham! Last Christmas / Everything She Wants
3 Paul McCartney & The Frog Chorus We All Stand Together
4 Madonna Like A Virgin
5 Toy Dolls Nellie The Elephant
6 Frankie Goes To Hollywood The Power Of Love
7 Ray Parker Jr Ghostbusters
8 Paul Young Everything Must Change
9 Tears For Fears Shout
10 Gary Glitter Another Rock And Roll Christmas
11 Foreigner I Want To Know What Love Is
12 Nik Kershaw The Riddle
13 Kool & The Gang Fresh
14 Black Lace Do The Conga
15 Murray Head One Night In Bangkok
16 Eurythmics Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
17 Thompson Twins Lay Your Hands On Me
18 Shakin' Stevens Teardrops
19 Jim Diamond I Should Have Known Better
20 Alvin Stardust I Won't Run Away
21 Spandau Ballet Round And Round
22 Stevie Wonder I Just Called To Say I Love You
23 Chaka Khan I Feel For You
24 Alison Moyet Invisible
25 Council Collective Soul Deep (Part 1)
26 Bronski Beat It Ain't Necessarily So
27 Wizzard I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
28 Human League Louise
29 Slade All Join Hands
30 Duran Duran The Wild Boys
31 Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five Step Off (Part 1)
32 Alvin Stardust So Near To Christmas
33 Kane Gang Respect Yourself
34 Chicago Hard Habit To Break
35 Smiley Culture Police Officer
36 Wham! Freedom
37 Dazz Band Let It All Blow
38 Queen Thank God It's Christmas
39 Limahl Never Ending Story
40 Temptations Treat Her Like A Lady

I've used bold type for the songs that I accept are as good as, or better then Everything She Wants.

I still say Battlestations is better.

― Tannenbaum Schmidt (Nik), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 07:39 (eighteen years ago)

Like I said, it wasn't even the best single released in December 1984. That was "Strike" by the Enemy Within and wasn't a hit.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 07:41 (eighteen years ago)

Wham! are classic for releasing "Last Christmas" alone. Easily the best ever Christmas single.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 12:38 (eighteen years ago)

"Last Christmas" isn't even the best Christmas single in that list.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 11 October 2006 12:57 (eighteen years ago)

seven years pass...

TPL on the first Wham! album: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/wham-fantastic.html

― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Wednesday, 15 January 2014 15:27 (eleven years ago)

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