Andrew Ridgeley Remembers When George Michael Wrote a “Wham! Christmas Offering,” and Another Instant Hit, “Last Christmas”

In 1983, George Michael set a goal for himself. He gave himself a songwriting exercise: he’d write a Christmas song. And he wanted a No. 1 hit. “He wanted a definitive Wham! Christmas offering,” Andrew Ridgeley told American Songwriter. “A Christmas number one was what George wanted. It was such an amazing, extraordinary songwriting feat because it was an exercise—and he did it.”

Ridgeley remembers the day Michael wrote their future hit while he was back in his childhood bedroom. “We were killing time around his mom and dad’s house,” remembered Ridgeley. “It was a Sunday afternoon, and the soccer was on TV, and George disappeared upstairs [where] he had a little Fostex four-track recording studio, which used a cassette tape to record four tracks onto. And [he] came back about an hour later and said, ‘Andy, Andy, you gotta come upstairs and listen to this.’”

Along with parts of the verse and chorus, Michael had already written the “bare-bones” keyboard track, and a basic drum track, recalled Ridgeley. “And it was an amazing moment, I knew it was a hit record,” he said. “We’d had a few by then, so we were able to recognize them when we heard them. “It has become part of the fabric of Christmas.”

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Ridgeley added, “It’s a very clever lyric and set to a melody that’s really charming, very pretty, very light. And the two kind of work brilliantly together.”

By 1984, Wham! already had big success on the charts with No. 1 hits “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Careless Whisper,” and their Christmas hit was icing on the cake later that year. Released on December 3, 1984, “Last Christmas” went to No. 1 internationally, topping the UK chart and peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2023, “Last Christmas” also became the Official Christmas Number 1 single in the UK, something Michael, who died on Christmas Day in 2016 at age 53,  would have been “beside himself after all of these years” about, Ridgeley told Official Charts in the UK.

Today, “Last Christmas” remains one of the most streamed songs in the UK and even inspired the 2019 film of the same name, starring Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) and nearly 600 covers with renditions by Carole King, Manic Street Preachers, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Gwen Stefani, Ariana Grande, and Aloe Blacc, among others.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Wham!’s holiday hit was the 2024 release of the Last Christmas 40th Anniversary EP, featuring George Michael’s performance of the song at Wembley Arena in London in 2006.

“Not many people have written an enduring, resonant, and evocative Christmas song as that,” said Ridgeley. “There are some. It’s a jewel in a multi-jeweled, bedecked crown, but it’s one of the bigger jewels.”

Photo: Gabor Scott/Redferns