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Memorable moments
from a storied history90 Years of THR
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 120 NOVEMBER 6, 2019
COURTESY OF LEGACY RECORDINGS/SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENTAndrew Ridgeley (left) and George Michael of Wham! released “Last Christmas” on Dec. 3, 1984. Right: Michael’s obituary ran December 25, 2016, on THR.com.In one eight-month period during
the mid-1980s, the British duo
of George Michael and Andrew
Ridgeley, also known as the pop
supergroup Wham!, made his-
tory twice: In April 1985 they
were the first major Western pop
act to visit Communist China
(15,000 fans paid about $1.75
each to watch them perform
at the People’s Gymnasium in
Beijing), and in December 1984,
they recorded their generation’s
most enduring holiday song,
“Last Christmas.” While not
quite as popular in the U.S.,
“Christmas” was the 21st cen-
tury’s most played holiday song
in the U.K. and Ireland (until it
was overtaken in 2015 by The
Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York”).
It has been covered by dozens of
artists including Taylor Swift,
Ariana Grande and Gwen Stefani,
and the music video generated
65 million views on YouTube in
2018 alone. On Nov. 8, it joins the
rarefied world of films such as
White Christmas — movies with
titles taken from popular holiday
songs — when Universal releases
Last Christmas. “The song has the
perfect juxtaposition of mel-
ancholy and hopefulness,” says
the film’s composer, Theodore
Shapiro. “And George Michael’s
vocal performance brings out
both of those emotions in equal
measure. I think it’s that tension
between those emotions that
makes the song so enduring.”
It all started one afternoon in1984, at Michael’s parents’ home.
“As we watched football on the
telly,” Ridgeley writes in his new
memoir, Wham! George Michael &
Me, Michael “was suddenly struck
by inspiration” and dashed off to
sketch out “a chorus and verse on
his keyboard upstairs.” (Michael
loved Christmas and hosted anannual Christmas Eve party
for his closest friends.) In what
would prove to be an immensely
generous gesture, Wham!
donated all of the song’s royalties
to Ethiopian famine relief. And in
an ironic turn for a holiday song-
maker, Michael died at 53 in 2016
on Christmas Day. — BILL HIGGINSWham! Recorded the Classic ‘Last Christmas’ in ’84
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