Number Ones: #30

• WHAM! Everything She Wants [Remix] (Epic)
• Week Ending 5th January 1985
• 2 Weeks at #1

 

1985 begins, quite literally, where 1984 ended. Last Christmas was flipped over by the record label, promoting Everything She Wants to the main attraction and giving it a fresh sleeve plus a natty remix (consisting of some synth embellishment and a terrific new middle-eight section with extra lyrics).

This was arguably the record which really cemented George Michael’s reputation in the US, and its formula would sustain him over the course of Wham!’s final year of existence and then all the way through the Faith era of his solo career (both 1986’s Battlestations and 1987’s Hard Day mine a similar seam of young-adult relationship angst).

Often cited as many people’s favourite Wham! track, Everything She Wants smoothed the transition from those early “Young, Free & Single” Club 18-30 efforts, to the more emotionally complex work of his post-Wham! music. It’s testament to the strength of the song that in the mid-1990s it would be reworked not only in a fashionable Unplugged style, but also as a contemporary dance track to help promote a second Wham! compilation, and didn’t sound dated in either form.