Trivia / Wham!

• Chart Displacement: "Last Christmas" never reached #1 in the United Kingdom until 2020, despite being a popular modern Christmas standard. It never reached #1 internationally, with it only peaking at #3 in the United States and #2 in the Netherlands.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • "Blue (Armed With Love)" appeared on the "Club Tropicana" 7" and 12" singles, but only appeared on CD on a rare "Club Tropicana" CD single from Japan.
  • The band also have many club mixes and instrumentals that are vinyl only, most of which will probably not appear on CD.
  • They are not well served on CD, with many of their extended mixes and B-Sides being vinyl exclusive. The VHS "Foreign Skies: Live In China" has never appeared on DVD or Blu-ray. Just to name a couple, the B-Side "Blue (Armed With Love)" is only on a rare and expensive Japanese "Club Tropicana" CD single, and the original 'unsocial mix' of Wham Rap is vinyl exclusive. In terms of George Michael solo, there is a rare Last Christmas rerecording with an extra verse that is only on his European 12" "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" and not on CD.
• Referenced by...: One of the Pillar Men from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency is named Wamuu, named after the Japanese Romanization of Wham!.
• Remade for the Export: Their first album Fantastic flopped in the US & Canada, with the follow up Make It Big being their breakthrough. Because of this, their intended parting shot The Final (their hits from the two previous albums plus new tracks) would not have made sense. As a result, Music from the Edge of Heaven was created. The new tracks "The Edge of Heaven", "Battlestations" and "Where Did Your Heart Go" were joined by the popular non-album tracks "I'm Your Man", "A Different Corner" and "Last Christmas", and topped off with the B-side "Blue (live in China)" and the remix "Wham! Rap '86". To sweeten the deal even more, "I'm Your Man" appeared in its 12" mix, and "A Different Corner" had an additional string intro (The Final had shorter mixes). The tracks were well sequenced, with a 'hot side' for the dance tracks and a 'cool side' for the ballads. The compilation was also released in Japan with a slightly different cover. Though it wasn't released in the UK at the time, it became a popular import, and finally, a Canon Immigrant with their Original Album Classics set.
• What Could Have Been: They were scheduled to perform after Elton John at Live Aid but couldn't due to John's set running over its allotted time. However, John did invite Michael to sing the lead vocal on his song "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" while he played the piano. Years later, in 1991, John and Michael reunited to perform the song live again, which was released as a single and went to number one in the UK.

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