Wham! Album: “Make It Big”

Because I can occasionally recall memories as far back as 20 years ago (I am now 24), acts like Wham! are ones that I remember almost like they were yesterday, and with George Michael's recent "retirement" from music, maybe it is inevitable that looking back at his "entire" career is warranted. While George has often been considered a musical personality unto himself, he in fact started as one part of a duo with childhood friend Andrew Ridgeley, even though George remained quite obviously the mind & body behind the project.

Their 1983 debut album FANTASTIC was reasonably pleasurable pop music that did not set the charts on fire as their next album would, perhaps deservingly since FANTASTIC only scratched the surface of what George was able to do. By the time 1984's MAKE IT BIG came along, it was quite apparent that Wham! had at last established themselves, even as it became more increasingly apparent that it was all but a solo vehicle for George himself.

Whereas FANTASTIC failed to even spawn a top 40 hit, MAKE IT BIG literally steamrolled it by creating 3 #1 hits and a top 5, going multi-platinum where FANTASTIC even failed to go gold. The insanely infectious "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" at last introduced George Michael to the big leagues of stardom, topping the charts for 3 weeks, and while it may in fact be a song that makes Backstreet Boys music sound utterly GT (gifted & talented), its unabashedly lightheaded nature (the line about shining brighter than Doris Day certainly applies to the song itself) is oddly inviting. Not to mention the idea of George asking his lover to forgo a night of dancing for some midnight loving at home certainly put it a notch or two above normal, often inoffensive teen-idol fodder.

If there was any doubt about who was really the brains behind Wham!, the second #1 hit being credited to "Wham! featuring George Michael" made it more than crystal clear. "Careless Whisper" once again showed George as much smarter than your average teen idol by creating a truly soulful lost-love ballad miles ahead of simplistic "you broke my heart & now I'm blue" fare. This was clearly a song for adults, and 20 years on from its success, the song could still be a surefire hit if covered today, which it has been several times over. Even Bananarama (Keren Woodward would eventually become Mrs. Andrew Ridgeley) gave it a whirl on their most recent album EXOTICA.

The final #1 came with an uptempo song revisiting the old soul convention of "I work so hard to give you my money, but you still treat me like a dog". "Everything She Wants" was George's take on that standard, and once again demonstrates him taking the high road with regards to his material rather than cozying himself on typical "love-hate" relationships that teen idols rehash over & over again. Most importantly, George asks for an equal amount of giving from the other party rather than one-dimensionally saying "Love me for me, or I'm outta here". This was the 1980s, after all, when even women were engaging in the "spend, spend, spend" mentality of the era.

After 3 #1's, one would think the streak continued, but not quite. The 4th single "Freedom" petered out at #3, but that is certainly no bearing on its overall worth. It remains quite as strong as its more famous counterparts with a punchy horn arrangement that would have had Motown clamoring for it in its 1960s heyday. Even with AIDS becoming a cold hard fact of life in the 1980s, the one-night stand seemed to still hold court in relationships, but George again goes for higher goals by asking his girl to commit to him, and that he no longer needs to play the field breaking hearts all over the world. With Wham! being the first group to ever tour China, the video for "Freedom" featured scenes from that trip, and remains one of my most memorable videos of them.

With half of MAKE IT BIG having been released & hit (a common occurrence for 1980s albums in the wake of THRILLER), that likely meant the other half could not measure up. Well, not really. "Heartbeat" does border dangerously close on your typical lovey-dovey teen-idol pop, but the oh-so-80s synthesizer arrangement makes it a bit more tolerable even if just as a period piece. "Like A Baby", on the other hand, demonstrates the facility with ballads George would develop on 1987's FAITH by laying the foundation for sultrier, more grown-folks fare similar to "Father Figure" & "Kissing A Fool". To show where George's heart was in regards to his musical inspirations, his cover of the Isley Brothers' "If You Were There" shows that maybe George always had a more refined, developed musical taste. Finally, "Credit Card Baby" again plays to the "let's make [and blow] lots of money" attitude of the 1980s by telling a girl she can have her man's finances at her disposal, but do not masquerade that attitude in faux-romantic devotion. This could likely be the prequel to "Everything She Wants" & the result of this "spend first, love later" scenario.

Some would say the 1980s was not really the finest decade for popular music with more one-hit wonders than you shake a platinum record at, and with more undeserving acts having hits instead of the truly talented & timeless ones. By embracing something as often-disposable as teen-idol pop (at least in the beginning), Wham! could have become an ordinary footnote that would have a few people who matured during the decade smiling in rememberance. But even if George Michael did become well-plastered on girls' bedroom walls all over the world, at least he got there by making music that would transcend its origins & still manage to hold up long after its time in the sun was finished. MAKE IT BIG is, in fact, one of the 1980s most finely-crafted & memorable pop albums, demonstrating that we had a real icon in the making with George Michael, especially since it appeared he was the one who really wanted to put in the elbow grease to MAKE IT BIG & stay that way.