With a new documentary about Last Christmas soon to be released, Miles Salter takes a look at a Christmas classic.
By Miles Salter
Is it a Christmas blessing or curse? Every year, Last Christmas by Wham! is played to death on the radio, in shops, in homes and cars – but it never dies. Like Christmas itself, it keeps coming back. Some people love it, others are less keen. But there’s no denying that it has become a staple of Christmas in the UK, as dependable as mulled wine, carols, turkey and hangovers. The song has had 2 billion streams on Spotify and 900 million views on YouTube. It seems to be as popular as hanging up a stocking.
Wham! had an incredible year in 1984. They were, along with Duran Duran and one or two other acts, everywhere, scoring hits with Wake Me Up Before You Go Go and Freedom. Both tracks went to number one and their album Make It Big was one of the biggest sellers of the year. It would go on to sell around ten million copies. George’s catchy songs, soulful voice and the pair’s good looks were irresistible to fans. In the summer of that year, he and Andrew were relaxing at George’s parents house, watching football on TV, when George went upstairs to play a keyboard. A short while later, he had the start of the song nailed.
George saw the new song as a ‘Christmas-themed version of Club Tropicana’, and had hoped that Last Christmas would make take their run of number one hits to a trilogy, but the song was beaten by the unstoppable Band Aid hit, Do They Know It’s Christmas, on which George also sang. Ridgeley never made it to the Band Aid session on Sunday, November 25th, 1984. He opted for a lie-in and a Sunday brunch instead. Michael turned up (in the recent Band Aid documentary he looked nervous), suggested a slightly different melody, and did a great job.
The video for Last Christmas was filmed in Saas-Fee in Switzerland on 21 November 1984, just four days before Band Aid recorded Do They Know It’s Christmas?. The video shoot showed a bunch of young adults having a fantastic time. The scene where the group have a party in the chalet involved so much red wine that Ridgeley never made it to the final scene – he was pickled. A new documentary about the song, to be shown this Saturday on BBC Two, tells the behind the scenes tale, booze and all.
The song, of course, was a huge hit, it just happened to come in second to Band Aid’s juggernaut. Like another brilliant Christmas song, Shane MacGowan’s wonderful A Fairytale of New York, Last Christmas has more than a touch of melancholy. It’s more a song of failed love than a celebration of the end of the year. The same mood featured on other songs George created like A Different Corner, Careless Whisper and songs from his solo masterpiece, Listen Without Prejudice Volume 1. But when you hear Last Christmas, it makes you feel happy, despite the rather mournful lyrics. For those of us who grew up in the 1980s, it’s impossibly nostalgic.
Michael would go on to have a stellar solo career, rivalling the other 80s giants – Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson. But without Andrew, he was less stable, more prone to anxiety. His ex-manager, Simon Napier-Bell, has said how difficult he could be.
‘I couldn’t have done it without you,’ George said to Ridgeley, when the duo played their farewell gigs at Wembley in 1986. Andrew provided stability to the more insecure George. In one photo of them, George is literally hiding behind his bandmate. George might have had the talent, but Andrew provided a carefree nonchalance that helped to keep George balanced.
George’s solo career resulted in just five albums in 17 years. Perhaps it was the perfectionist in him – he got through nine saxophone players on Careless Whisper before getting the result he wanted. But there were also personal matters – including a protracted court case with Sony and terrible grief at the death of his lover Anselmo Feleppa. George’s life took a downward turn. The tabloids ran gleeful stories of his life becoming, sometimes literally, a car crash. There were persistent rumours of drug use. When he died on (oh the irony) Christmas Day 2016, at the age of 53, the public were appalled. How could one of our most feted and recognisable pop stars be gone? A post-mortem ruled he died of natural causes, with a heart condition.
Napier-Bell thinks there would be some chagrin from George that his best-loved song was a Christmas hit. He told The Telegraph in 2023: “George, above all, really wanted to be remembered as a great songwriter,” Napier-Bell explained. “And I think at the bottom of his mind… it was rather annoying that the song he got so perfect was a Christmas song.”
He’s still missed. But the good he did lives on – Last Christmas generates around £300,000 a year in royalties. The money goes to the Band Aid Trust. Ridgeley leads a nice life in Cornwall with a number of girlfriends and a not inconsiderable fortune. He published a memoir, Wham! George and Me, in 2020 and regularly talks about his old friend, although sometimes is wary of saying anything too controversial, as he does not want to upset the estate of his former bandmate. It’s a cliché, but the music lives on. The documentary about the song airs on Saturday – I’ll be glued to George’s snow white teeth and that gorgeous, timeless melody. ‘One bitten, and twice shy…’
Wham! Last Christmas Unwrapped is on BBC Two on Saturday, 14 December 2024, at 20:35.
Miles Salter is a writer and musician based in York. He fronts the York-based band Miles and The Chain Gang.
