FEATURE:
If You Were There
Wham!’s Make It Big at Forty
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IF you were alive in the 1980s…
you could not escape the sensation that was Wham! I guess there were more male two-pieces than there are now. You had Pet Shop Boys, Bros and many other options. It is a dynamic that we have today. Nothing really matched Wham! You had boybands and male solo artists, though this Pop/Soul/R&B male duo was fairly rare. The distinct and unique sound of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. Such a close friendship. The amazing charisma and songwriting of Michael led their charge. The way they complemented each other and had this chemistry. Even if George Michael was clearly always going to be a solo artist and was considered the most talented member, Wham! would be nothing without Andrew Ridgeley. I think their second studio album, Make It Big, is one of the most notable leaps in Pop history. Not to say their 1983 debut, Fantastic, didn’t live up to its title. Songs like Bad Boys, Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) and Young Guns (Go for It!) were mocked by some critics. The rapping and slightly edgy attempt wasn’t really pulled off. In years since, these songs have got more credit and respect. Even so, perhaps Wham! were trying to find their feet or were trying to project a sound or persona that was changed by 1984. The clear standout from Fantastic is the timeless Club Tropicana. Even if Last Christmas is the most-streamed Wham! song, exceptional cuts from Make It Big such as Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Freedom and Everything She Wants are right up there! I wanted to mark forty years of Make It Big. It’s anniversary is 25th October. Make It Big is an appropriate title. It reached number one in the U.S. and U.K. An album that saw Wham! break through. George Michael exerting more control as a producer really helped Wham!’s quality and sound. A much more complete and stunning album than their debut.
Make It Big album was a commercial success. Its four singles all reached the top three in the U.S. and the U.K. Make It Big was certified four-times platinum smash in the U.S. during the time of its release. In March 2024, Make It Big was reissued on vinyl for the first time in thirty years. Singles like Freedom and Careless Whisper are stunning. Deep cuts like If You Were There are so strong. I wonder whether any album has such contrasting opening and closing tracks. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go is the natural opener and is jubilant and full of sunshine. Careless Whisper is emotional, slower and heartbroken. Wham! subverting expectation when it came to their music. Few would have predicted a song like Careless Whisper would have appeared on an album! Perhaps people writing off the duo as a novelty. It is well worth investing in Make It Big on vinyl. So little has been written about this album. One of the biggest of the 1980s. A true classic from a duo who would not remain together too long after it. 1986’s Music from the Edge of Heaven/The Final was their last album. They shone briefly but brightly. Make It Big remains their finest work. One of the only genuine and substantial features about Make It Big was published in 2021 by Classic Pop. It makes for interesting reading:
“Wham!: Make It Big – Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
As manager Simon Napier-Bell battled to resolve the issue on their behalf, George and Andrew were dispatched to Studio Miraval in the South of France to begin work on material for their second album.
They had worked non-stop throughout a whirlwind two years, and this trip was intended to give them an opportunity to recharge their batteries for when their legal problems were resolved and they were free to continue making music.
“That break turned out to be a really positive thing,” George wrote in his autobiography, Bare. “I had been working very hard and I knew I needed to sit back and collect my thoughts, as a person and creatively, so that I could write the second album. I needed that breathing space. It would have killed most bands, but I never doubted that the material I came up with would be good enough for us to come back up.”
Once a settlement was reached in March 1984, work began in earnest on rebuilding Wham! What had started out as a relaxed atmosphere quickly changed into a tense environment as George felt the pressure to deliver a solid second album.
Wham!: Make It Big –Freedom
New label Epic, well aware of the fickleness of the music industry, made it clear that they were keen to progress as quickly as possible while the group was still riding an initial wave of popularity; they wanted a single almost immediately and an album before the end of the year, as they already had it planned as one of the year’s biggest festive sellers.
While the battle with Innervision had bonded George and Andrew in unison against their former label, cracks began to appear in their partnership as Andrew’s partying and drinking threatened to spiral out of control. The press proved relentless.
“I suppose they might be looking for some Rod Stewart rock‘n’roll kind of figure, but I do the things most people do on a Saturday night – I just get photographed doing it,” he protested to Smash Hits. “But the press seem to have an angle for everything: Randy Andy! Arrogant Andrew! Aggressive Andrew! Or the latest, Dribbling Andrew! I just can’t win. Maybe I should change my name to Trevor.”
While George beat himself up over meeting deadlines, Andrew was seemingly oblivious, essentially using the break as an extended holiday by inviting friends to visit and living the superstar lifestyle without, it seemed, putting in the work.
The final straw came when The Tube’s TV crew arrived. As they waited to interview George and Andrew, the latter was being bathed by his friends in order to wake him up as he’d got too drunk to do the job himself.
Wham!: Make It Big – Everything She Wants
Though he recovered and was able to be his cocky, charming self once the cameras were rolling, Andrew was warned to get his act together after the interview by George, who was beginning to feel taken advantage of.
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go was released as the first single from the album on 14th May 1984. The track was a sugar-coated throwback to the Fifties rock’n’roll adored by teenagers, right down to its “jitterbug” vocal line and finger-clicking harmony.
The boys were overjoyed when the song became their first No.1 single. Although it would be regarded as one of Wham!’s signature songs, George was disdainful of it later on, branding it “naff” and “stupid” and citing it as one of the main reasons Wham! were so derided by their peers and critics.
Careless Whisper, a moody ballad with an instantly recognisable sax hook, was an attempt to redress the balance. Released as George’s debut solo single, the song revealed him to be capable of producing material with a maturity which belied his 21 years. Like its predecessor, Careless Whisper topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
In August 1984, Freedom completed George’s hat trick of No.1 singles. The song, a bombastic Motown pastiche, ensured that when Make It Big followed weeks later, it was indeed the smash that Epic had hoped for.
As well as the three singles, the album featured the languid Like A Baby, an Isley Brothers cover in If You Were There, and two more pure pop confections influenced by Sixties soul music and Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, Credit Card Baby and Heartbeat.
“It’s more of a black LP than the last one was,” George told Record Mirror. “It’s a black/pop LP as opposed to a black/disco LP. It’s been derived from so many areas… I’ve just written what I liked and got rid of my influences all in one go.”
Wham!: Make It Big – Careless Whisper
Completing the album was Everything She Wants, a throbbing synth-based dance track which towered over everything Wham! had released previously. Later released as a double A-side with Last Christmas, it remains the biggest-selling single not to reach the top spot in Britain. In the US, it gave Wham! their third No.1.
Wham!: Make It Big – The Reaction
Make It Big was a huge success, heading album charts around the world. Though ecstatic, George was furious that the critics couldn’t (or wouldn’t) see past Wham!’s image and listen (without prejudice) to his music at face value. Though he feigned bravado, the criticisms affected him deeply.
Going on to sell in excess of 10 million copies, Make It Big was the pinnacle of Wham!’s success, propelling them to a level of fame in which the music became almost irrelevant. Like The Beatles before them, Wham! had reached a level where they weren’t listened to – they were screamed at.
One of the biggest bands in the world, they had made it bigger than they had dreamt possible”.
I am going to end with a couple of positive reviews for one of the strongest Pop albums ever. Where we truly got the full potential and promise of Wham! This is what AllMusic noted when they put into words the merit and sheer brilliance of Wham!’s phenomenal second studio album:
“The title was a promise to themselves, Wham!'s assurance that they would make it big after struggling out of the gates the first time out. They succeeded on a grander scale than they ever could have imagined, conquering the world and elsewhere with this effervescent set of giddy new wave pop-soul, thereby making George Michael a superstar and consigning Andrew Ridgeley to the confines of Trivial Pursuit. It was so big and the singles were so strong that it's easy to overlook its patchwork qualities. It's no longer than eight tracks, short even for the pre-CD era, and while the four singles are strong, the rest is filler, including an Isley Brothers cover. Thankfully, it's the kind of filler that's so tied to its time that it's fascinating in its stilted post-disco dance-pop rhythms and Thatcher/Reagan materialism -- an era that encouraged songs called "Credit Card Baby." If this dichotomy between the A-sides and B-sides is far too great to make this essential, the way Faith later would be, those A-sides range from good to terrific. "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" is absolute silliness whose very stupidity is its strength, and if "Everything She Wants" is merely agreeable bubblegum, "Freedom" is astounding, a sparkling Motown rip-off rippling with spirit and a timeless melody later ripped off by Noel Gallagher. Then, there's the concluding "Careless Whisper," a soulful slow one where Michael regrets a one-night stand over a richly seductive background and a yearning saxophone. It was an instant classic, and it was the first indication of George Michael's strengths as a pop craftsman -- which means it points the way to Faith, not the halfhearted Edge of Heaven”.
Prior to wrapping up, I want to bring in a review from Rolling Stone. Writing in 1985, they started a bit dismissively of Wham! Especially Andrew Ridgeley and his ‘point’. I hope the narrative has changed around his incredible work and essential role! This album was certainly not a George Michael solo outing. Wham! at their strongest and most interesting on Make It Big:
“Make It Big is an almost flawless pop record, a record that does exactly what it wants to and has a great deal of fun doing it. Sure, it's slight stuff and too thinly orchestrated at times, but George Michael can write and sing rings around fellow teen dream Simon Le Bon. He may be less soulful than Boy George (remember, we're talking British white boys only) but he's got a much wider range, from rumbly bass to keening falsetto, which he uses to first-rate effect on "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go."
As a songwriter and performer, Michael has learned his lessons well. Gripe all you want about the cops from Holland-Dozier-Holland's "It's the Same Old Song," but "Freedom" is truly irresistible: snappily written, perfectly arranged, superbly sung. His moodier side gets an airing on "Careless Whisper." While his voice may be technically accomplished, it also has a prissy side that sinks the song.
So much for the hits (each was Number One in the U.K.); otherwise, Make It Big is mighty short on material. What should be zingy three-minute pop songs are dragged out to four or five minutes to fill up vinyl. Though that's a minor failure in the pleasantly daffy "Credit Card Baby" or the Spectorish "Heartbeat," there's really no excuse for the minute forty seconds of instrumental lounge music with which "Like a Baby" bumbles to a start. Still, George Michael is a glossy-faced talent who can't be written off. Everyone has a guilty pleasure. Why not let Wham! be yours?”.
On 25th October, the globe-straddling and mighty Make It Big turns forty. It was a title worthy of the duo’s incredible talent. An album that also saw them go global. A chart-topper and massive-selling success, I think more people should explore it. From unabashed Pop joy through to sensitive and moving tracks, this is a finely balanced and broad album with impeccable songwriting and vocals. A big step on from their 1983 debut, Fantastic, Make It Big took them to new heights. I would recommend people check out last year’s amazing documentary, WHAM!. It gives you insight and build-up to Make It Big and how they were this huge act being mobbed wherever they went. You can maybe see why they did not last too long and George Michael went solo. It was such an intense and crazy ride! Even so, Wham! left us with such brilliant music. Make It Big, forty years later, is an album…
IMPOSSIBLE to deny.