Disco de Wham!: “Final: Best of the Best Gold”

This is one of those CDs that gets a good playing at my place. It has all the tracks that made this UK pop outfit huge through out the 1980's.

Formed in 1981, The original line up of Wham included George Michael, Andrew Ridgeley and backing vocals from Pepsi and Shirley.

Their first Australian hit was "the Wham Rap" which debuted in Christmas 1982. Their awesome chain of hits continued with Young guns, Bad boys, Wake me up, Careless Whisper, Freedom, Everything she wants, I'm your man, Where did your heart go and the edge of heaven.

Yepppp!!! I'm a die hard WHAM! fan. There has been some other wham compilations released since this one, None of them come close to the great selection of tracks on this one.

Only small picking bone with this album is the drawn out version of "last christmas". Would of preferred the original radio mix, hense the four star rating.

Wham! were one of the biggest bands of the 80's and of course were a stepping stone to superstardom for the immense talent of George Michael and this greatest hits compilation shows them at their very best with all their memorable songs included here which shows why they were so good.

As far as 80's pop music went nobody could write songs better than George and Andrew with such classics as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Everything She Wants and George's first solo single Careless Whisper which is on this CD with his second hit A Different Corner as well.

Wham! were poppy enough to appeal to younger people but had this irresistable charm that adults could enjoy their music as well and it was this diversity that made them a success. They could rap in a pop manner (Wham Rap!) or could sing just pure pop songs (Freedom) or even slower love songs (Last Christmas) and other great tracks including The Edge Of Heaven and Young Guns (Go For It!).

Every song bar one hit the UK Top 10 and this was Battlestations which was never released but is a good song regardless and a nice addition to the collection. My favourite song would be Freedom as it has a great singalong chorus and just i feel is their best although there isn't a bad song here.

Although this CD was originally in 1986 in still stands as the best compilation of Wham!'s wonderful career and should be bought by any Wham! or George Michael fan as should George's best of Ladies And Gentlemen.

Wham were, possibly, Britain's most commercially successful pop group of the eighties. The duo began recording funky dance manic but their biggest successes came when their music mellowed.

Wham's funky period yielded the UK top ten hits Young guns go for it, Wham rap, Bad boys and Club Tropicana. Their last really funky song, Wake me up before you go go, gave them their first UK number one. After that, most of their hits were ballads beginning with Careless whisper, which was credited as a George Michael solo although Andrew Ridgeley co-wrote the song. It made the top spot in the UK and was followed to the top spot by Freedom, credited to Wham.

Next came the double-sided UK hit combining Last Christmas with Everything she wants. Only a charity record (Do they know it's Christmas, on which George joined other celebrities as Band Aid) prevented this single being yet another UK number one for Wham, but Last Christmas remains my favorite Wham song. It is a superb love song although it has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas except that George chose to use Christmas as the date in which to set the song. It returned to the UK top ten a year later.

Three more UK number one hits followed - I'm your man, A different corner (credited as a George solo) and the double-sided coupling of Edge of heaven with Where did your heart go?

Although nominally a duo, Andrew Ridgeley was very much the junior partner and it came as no surprise when the duo split up and George pursued a solo career. Some of that music is not very different in style from the ballads that he recorded with Wham.

This compilation contains all the important tracks recorded while George and Andrew were together as Wham, including those credited as George solos.

This is a fabulous collection of Wham!, and just shows us that George Michael was best as a star with Andrew Ridgley. The three best songs on the album are "Club Tropicana", "Careless Whisper", and "Wham Rap". Interestingly enough, all these three songs were written by Andrew Ridgley and George Michael. When someone asks me do you like George Michael's music, I say "no". I like Wham!'s music. This was the best duo in the 1980's. As Culture Club is the number 1 group, they were number 2. Even though some hits are missing like "If You Were There", this is still a good compilation. It has three great songs, the best three I all ready mentioned. But it even holds some of the other classics. It has "Last Christmas" which is great. Even though "Last Christmas is credited to being a pudding mix, the song is very similair to the album it came from. "Everything She Wants" is credited to being a remix, and it is, but the song is still good. What is slightly different from the original album version, even though it does not say it on this album is "Freedom", but it still holds a punch. The smooth song "Where Did Your Heart Go" is also included on this CD. Great music, from a great duo.

I'm an 80's music fan and the group Wham! was definitely one of my favorites. I love every song that's on the "Final" album and it's worth to hold on to for years to come since the style of music is changing so rapidly. George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were a dynamic duo from the U.K.