Wham Songs Ranked
Wham! were an English pop music duo consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, formed in Bushey in 1981. They became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of the 1980s, selling more than 30 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986. Influenced by funk and soul music and presenting themselves as disaffected youth, Wham!’s 1983 debut album Fantastic addressed the United Kingdom’s unemployment problem and teen angst over adulthood. Their second studio album Make It Big in 1984 was a worldwide pop smash hit, charting number one in both the UK and the United States. Associated with the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US, the singles from the album—” Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, “Everything She Wants” and “Careless Whisper”—all topped the US Billboard Hot 100. In 1985, Wham! made a highly publicized 10-day visit to China, the first by a Western pop group. The event was seen as a major watershed moment in increasing friendly bilateral relations between China and the West. Here are all of Wham’s songs ranked.
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20. Like a Baby (Make It Big, 1984)
:So good, before that we have the passable “Like a Baby” a little soothing, but it’s the only less notable moment of the album, which offers us a little respite in the middle of so many hits.”
19. A Ray of Sunshine (Fantastic, 1983)
“The lyrics are poppy and lightweight, and so is the mix – but come on, there’s too much talent here to dismiss it as a less-than-average album. As always, George sings his ass off, and the blue eyed funky arrangements are very well done throughout, if only because nobody allowed Andrew Ridgeley near a guitar.”
18. Blue (Music from the Edge of Heaven, 1986)
“George and Andy have made it easy for you. They sing and perform a song about some inland Club Med-style sort of resort (“all that’s missing is the sea”), as apparently imagined by somebody whose exposure to same was solely from Coppertone commercials.”
17. Heartbeat (Make It Big, 1984)
“I will dedicate this song to my peace-world on my mind. One of their most underrated songs. So romantic!”
See more: Wham Albums Ranked
16. A Different Corner (The Final, 1986)
“The one track that has really caught up with me is “a different corner” – what a great vocal performance that is. To this day, I still listen to this song constantly because it is awesome.”
15. Love Machine (Fantastic, 1983)
“Love Machine” is not much cop at all – the vocals are not quite where they want to be yet, in terms of ageing/maturity. “Wham Rap!” is kinda cool actually.”
14. Battlestations (The Final, 1986)
“The trumpets are great and so peaceful, very great song. Their music has a certain mood that I don’t find often in other bands. I highly recommend it.”
13. If You Were There (If You Were There, 1997)
“On first listen, this is just a catchy dance song. But when you listen to the music and synths, you start to hear the underlying misery in the song- it manages to have a fast beat and catchy guitar and bass riffs- but still an incredibly melancholic mood”
12. Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) (Fantastic, 1983)
“Wham arrived with this nifty white-boy rap urging kids everywhere to stop working and just have fun. As an aesthetic for the 80s, it was a complete failure, but they did go on to have another hit or two I seem to remember.”
11. The Boys (Fantastic, 1983)
“Yep it’s fantastic, and a remarkable debut really for such youngsters. George’s talent for a pop melody is evident straight away. I don’t care what they say, I still regularly give Fantastic a spin and it always cheers me up.”
10. Where Did Your Heart Go (The Final, 1986)
“LL the decent songs from the two proper albums, the George Michael solo singles from the time, a few b-sides and a cover version (“Where Did Your Heart Go?” by the Don & Dave Was) which amazingly was released as a single. ‘Amazing’ because it’s not very good. Their standards were beginning to slip.”
9. Young Guns (Go for It!) (Fantastic, 1983)
“Michael’s biographer Rob Jovanovic said the song is about “death by matrimony,” which is in fact the last line of the chorus. It was written from experience, and described old school friends marrying and setting down roots while Michael and Ridgeley were still having fun. This was rather presumptuous as the two were not yet twenty years old when it was released, in any case, Michael spent much of the next few years struggling with his sexuality, and in April 1998, when he was thirty-five years old, he “outed” himself publicly as homosexual in an incident he “celebrated” in the song “Outside.”
8. Bad Boys (Fantastic, 1983)
“One of the best songs by wham! just pure genius lyrics adapted to reality. Sounds like a detective 80’s season, introduction. But good song in general.”
7. The Edge of Heaven (The Final, 1986)
“My favourite Wham! /George Michael song after Careless Whisper. It’s fun, greatly instrumental and the lyrics are surprisingly more serious than other Wham! songs but still contain that bubblegum feeling and never dives into pretention. This was the definitive moment where George was really for a solo career!”
See more: George Michael Albums Ranked
6. Club Tropicana (Fantastic, 1983)
“My personal favorite Wham song. The album this comes from, Fantastic, is their best work, this being the best in the album.”
5. I’m Your Man (The Final, 1986)
“Meanwhile, the music may be a bit more insistent than we’ve heard from these fellows to date, but the pop remains, and the hooks are just as strong as always. It’s about as un-awkward a transition from Disney-pop to horndog as you’ll liable to find, as first kisses give way to first back-seat-fumbles”
4. Freedom (Freedom, 1984)
“In an interview with the Christmas 2009 issue of The Big Issue, Michael said of this song, that when he wrote it he knew he had arrived: “When I was 19, I wrote ‘Freedom’ – the original version – and I thought, ‘I can’t believe I’ve just done that!’ I was absolutely thrilled. Because until then I had no real understanding of my abilities, but with ‘Freedom,’ I started to take myself seriously as a writer.”
3. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (Make It Big, 1984)
“Yeah it’s a pretty decent song, I mean not that great as the british young fan-base told. But is ok, probably one of the first international Wham! hits ever had!”
2. Everything She Wants (Make It Big, 1984)
“This is Just the best and greatest Wham! song of its entire career. Good lyrics, awesome sung, great listening and of course, rare but too good meaning.”
1. Last Christmas (Sanremo ’85, 1985)
“Awesome song, should be the best no matter what interposes on his path! Very peaceful song, it is one of the top best holiday songs ever made.