In lieu of Christmas next week, we discovered and decided to share with you how George Michael or his former band Wham! wrote the song synonymous with the season, Last Christmas. We ought to mention that this was a special discovery for us.
In the mid-1980s, the British duo, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley of Wham! made history 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 that generation’s most enduring holiday song, “Last Christmas.”
It all started one afternoon in 1984, at George Michael’s parents’ home while they watched “football on the telly,” Ridgeley writes in his new memoir, Wham! George Michael & Me, where he says 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 an annual Christmas Eve party for his closest friends.)
In a generous gesture, Wham! donated all of the song’s royalties to Ethiopian famine relief.
And in an ironic turn for a holiday songmaker, Michael died at 53 in 2016 on Christmas Day.
(This story first appeared in the Nov. 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine)