Didja know that Make It Big was actually their second album? Their first album was titled Fantastic.

George Michael's real name is Georgios Panayiotou.

George and Andrew Ridgely met and formed Wham! while attending college together.

While George remained popular after the break-up of Wham!, Andrew only went on to release one solo album. It was called Son Of Albert and was released in 1990.

What d'ya know about Wham! ?

In order to move from Innervision Records (an independent label) to a recording contract with Sony label Epic, Wham! was forced to walk away from most of the royalties from their debut album, Fantastic.

Wham!'s end came in 1985, reputedly when the group's manager, Simon Napier-Bell, decided to sell a share of his management to a South African entertainment conglomerate. Supposedly, as part of a stand against South African politics, George Michael immediately announced Wham!'s breakup. They gave their farewell performance before a sold-out audience of 72,000 fans at London's Wembley Stadium.

Since becoming a classic "Where Are They Now" subject, Andrew Ridgely's post-Wham activities have included racing cars, and I think he opened a bar as well.

US Charts:

#60 Bad boys 1983
#1 Wake me up before you go-go 1984
#1 Careless whisper 1985
#1 Everything she wants 1985
#3 Freedom 1985
#3 I'm your man 1986
#10 The edge of heaven 1986
#58 Last Christmas 1998
George Michael:
#7 A different corner 1986
#1 I knew you were waiting (for me) (w/Aretha Franklin) 1987
#2 I want your sex 1987
#1 Faith 1987
#1 Father figure 1988
#1 One more try 1988
#1 Monkey 1988
#5 Kissing a fool 1988
#5 Heaven help me (with Deon Estus) 1989
#1 Praying for time 1990
#8 Freedom '90 1990
#27 Waiting for the day 1991
#46 Mother's pride 1991
#1 Don't let the sun go down on me (w/Elton John) 1992
#10 Too funky 1992
#30 Somebody to love (w/Queen) 1993
#69 Killer/Papa was a rolling stone 1993
#7 Jesus to a child 1996
#8 Fastlove 1996
(my book only goes to 1999)
Andrew Ridgeley:
#77 Shake 1990

Bubbling under the US charts:
George Michael:
#101 Star people 1997

UK charts:
#3 Young guns (go for it) 1983
#8 Wham rap 1983
#2 Bad boys 1983
#4 Club Tropicana 1983
#15 Club fantastic megamix 1983
#1 Wake me up before you go-go 1984
#1 Freedom 1984
#2 Last Christmas/Everything she wants 1984
#1 I'm your man 1985
#6 Last Christmas (re-issue) 1985
#1 The edge of heaven/Where did your heart go 1986
#45 Last Christmas (2nd re-issue)
George Michael:
#1 Careless whisper 1984
#1 A different corner 1986
#1 I knew you were waiting for me (w/Aretha Franklin) 1987
#3 I want your sex 1987
#2 Faith 1987
#11 Father figure 1987
#8 One more try 1988
#13 Monkey 1988
#18 Kissing a fool 1988
#6 Praying for time 1990
#23 Waiting for that day 1990
#28 Freedom '90 1990
#31 Heal the pain 1991
#45 Cowboys and angels 1991
#1 Don't let the sun go down on me (w/Elton John ) 1991
#4 Too funky 1992
#1 Five live (EP) 1993
#74 Five live (EP) (re-entry) 1993
#1 Jesus to a child 1996
#68 Jesus to a child (re-entry) 1996
#1 Fastlove 1996
#65 Jesus to a child (2nd re-entry) 1996
#2 Spinning the wheel 1996
#3 Older/I can't make you love me 1997
#70 Older/I can't make you love me (re-entry) 1997
#2 Star people '97 1997
#10 Waltz away dreaming 1997
#59 Star people '97 (re-entry) 1997
#2 You have been loved/the strangest thing '97 1997
#2 Outside 1998
#61 Outside (re-entry) 1999
#4 As 1999
(my book only goes to 1999)
Andrew Ridgeley:
#58 Shake 1990

R&B charts:
#8 Careless whisper 1985
#12 Everything she wants 1985
#55 I'm your man 1986
George Michael:
#5 I knew you were waiting (for me) (w/Aretha Franklin) 1987
#43 I want your sex 1987
#21 Hard day 1987
#6 Father figure 1988
#1 One more try 1988
#8 Monkey 1988
#33 Kissing a fool 1988
#3 Heaven help me (w/Deon Estus) 1989
#88 Killer/Papa was a rolling stone 1993
#22 Jesus to a child 1996
#44 Fastlove 1996
#57 As (w/Mary J Blige) 1999
(my book only goes to 1999)

Adult Contemporary charts:
#4 Wake me up before you go-go 1984
#1 Careless whisper 1984
#4 Everything she wants 1985
#4 Freedom 1985
#13 I'm your man 1985
#22 The edge of heaven 1986
#33 Where did your heart go 1986
George Michael:
#6 A different corner 1986
#2 I knew you were waiting (for me) (w/Aretha Franklin) 1987
#5 Faith 1987
#3 Father figure 1988
#1 One more try 1988
#1 Kissing a fool 1988
#3 Heaven help me (w/Deon Estus) 1989
#4 Praying for time 1990
#27 Freedom '90 1990
#22 Waiting for that day 1991
#41 Mother's pride 1991
#1 Don't let the sun go down on me (w/Elton John) 1991
#42 Somebody to love (w/Queen) 1993
(the book I have only goes to 1993)

Impressive chart listings, DJ! :thumb:

Andrew Ridgeley broke his nose twice; once in a childhood fight and once by diving into the shallow end of a swimming pool. He had his honker tweeked by a London plastic surgeon in 1983, accompanied by much publicity. An English tabloid actually picked up the expense for the exclusive photos and rights to the story.

Andrew Ridgeley also raced Renault 5's and Ford Escorts in the UK back in the 80's. He was a pretty lousy racing driver though, and had hung up his helmet and gloves by the end of the decade.

Originally posted by 80sTrivia
Impressive chart listings, DJ! :thumb:


That's for sure!


Did ya know that George came up with the idea for his song "Wake me up before you go go", when he arrived to pick up Andrew at his house one day and saw a note on the fridge from Andrew to his mother with those exact words on it.

Originally posted by Recker





Did ya know that George came up with the idea for his song "Wake me up before you go go", when he arrived to pick up Andrew at his house one day and saw a note on the fridge from Andrew to his mother with those exact words on it.

Interesting. I always wondered why the extra "go" was tagged onto the end of the title!!! :lol:

the Fantastic! album in 1983 was such a big success, that The Club Fantastic Megamix was released collecting all the songs from the album into one song. It hit the UK top 20

The duo are from a village in Hertfordshire called Bushey which is just on the outskirts of Watford (home to Elton John's beloved Football team). The backing singers they used went on to form 'Pepsi & Shirlie', who's '15 minutes' lasted from Jan '87 until Dec '87 giving them two top 10 hits, and two top 50 misses plus an album that at least scored them a 69 position in the UK. :sealed:
Shirlie Holliman went on to marry ex Spandau Ballet Bass player turned 'Bad Boy' Eastenders actor, Martin Kemp.

Not much about Wham! in that lot but trivia none-the-less. :mwaha:

Andrew Ridgeley is married to Keren Woodward of Bananarama

Andrew co-wrote 'Careless Whisper' with George, but come single release time in 1984, it became George's first solo hit

an unknown singer named Deon Estus played bass on 5 of the 8 tracks on the 'Music From the Edge of Heaven' album

When Deon got a recording contract, George Michael sang duet on Deon's only hit 'Heaven Help Me' which appeared in the U.S. top 40 in 1989