Wham!’s Exuberant Dancing
They came, they sang and made the nation very, very happy. What’s not to like about Wham!’s purest of pop confections?
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There is not much joy around right now in miserable, post-lockdown Britain.
Following an exhausting strategy deployed to suppress a pandemic, the country is reclusive, fearful and depressed, its world-famous instinct to party apparently all but gone, overwhelmed by a lingering crisis that has robbed the UK of its confidence.
If ever there was a time when the happy side-steppy charms of Misters George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were needed, it is now, something hinted at tangentially by the recently renewed interest in all things Wham!
In 1984, when the band’s Last Christmas Yuletide hit was originally dominating the charts (well, nearly, sitting at number two in the Top Ten behind Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?) Wham! was at the peak of its success, not long before George Michael would begin his solo career in a more “serious” pouty fashion than previously seen during the group’s finger-snapping heyday.
In so doing, Michael was partly acknowledging the quickly established critical opinion of what he and fellow Whammer Ridley, together with backing singers and equally camera-friendly Dee C. Lee and Shirlie Holliman, had achieved with Wham!, making it one of the happiest acts and sunniest sounds on the British popular music charts.
From humble beginnings in Watford, where Michael and Ridgeley met whilst at school, Wham! came to dominate the pop charts over a frantic four years, serving up a string of hits after getting an unexpected shot at performing on Top of the Pops, which the pop-and pretty boy-loving British public had come to adore by the early 1980s.
In their place at the top of the charts, and in poster form on the walls of teenagers everywhere, Wham! was not alone in the Smash Hits-driven 1980s pop regality, blue-tacked above the beds of teenagers (mainly female), alongside such fellow pop luminaries as Duran Duran (inevitably), Culture Club, Spandau Ballet (incredibly), Nick Kershaw (really) and Bananarama. The mid-1980s were, in the world of pop, bright and optimistic years and Wham! was at the head of the era’s march to a shiny new tomorrow.
Or so it seemed, for a while.
Wham! Bam!
The arc of the Wham! rolled-up denim whirlwind during that brief, if transformational period, was, however, more complex than it may have appeared at the time. Spanning the nation’s fast political and economic evolution, from the failed collectivist, post-war consensus of the 1970s as it hurtled towards the booming individualist, free-market Britain of the mid-1980s, Wham! deftly reflected and influenced the national zeitgeist as it turned its face to the future.
Wham! was, essentially, a hit-making machine, powered by Michael’s skilled songwriting (after early creative collaborations between Ridgeley and Michael, it was Michael who would go on to write the big Wham! hits) and the duo’s ability to put across a visual feeling with confidence and elan. But within that winningly perfect pop formula was also a keen eye and ear for the mood of a nation and what the instincts of its teen market were, as Great Britain rapidly advanced under the influence of quickly changing fashions and music television.
From its early incarnation bathed in bouncy rebellion, epitomised in the hits (the ungraciously titled) Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) and Young Guns (Go for it!), to the culturally transitional Club Tropicana and the giddily hedonistic Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, as well as the guilt-tinged pleasures of Last Christmas, Wham! managed to chronicle the mood of a nation dancing towards apparently better, more sunny uplands.
Heard today in our weary and fractious land, Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do), with its chirpy, defiant insolence, urging its economically battered audience to dance away the troubles of early 1980s mass unemployment, is the sound not so much of a different age, but of a lost zeitgeist.
“Hey everybody take a look at me, I’ve got street credibility, I may not have a job, but I have a good time, with the boys that I meet down on the line” Michaels declares over a thumping baseline, as he and his fellow Whammers handclap their way across the dance floor. “I said, I — don’t — need — you. So you don’t approve, well who asked you to?” Wham Rap! continues. “I ain’t never gonna work, get down in the dirt, I choose, to cruise. Gonna live my life, sharp as a knife, I’ve found my groove and I just can’t lose.”
Well, quite.
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)
Wham! bam!
I am! a man!
Job or no job
You can’t tell me that I’m not
Do! You!
Enjoy what you do?
If not, just stop!
Don’t stay there and rot!
You got soul…
You got soul…
I said get, get, get on down
Said get, get, get, on down
Hey everybody take a look at me
I’ve got street credibility
I may not have a job
But I have a good time
With the boys that I meet down on the line
I said, I — don’t — need — you
So you don’t approve,
Well who asked you to?
Hey, jerk, you, work
This boy’s got better things to do
Hell,
I ain’t never gonna work, get down in the dirt
I choose, to cruise
Gonna live my life, sharp as a knife
I’ve found my groove and I just can’t lose
A.1. style from head to toe
Cool cat flash gonna let you know
I’m a soul boy — I’m a dole boy
Take pleasure in leisure, I believe in joy!
Wham! bam!
I am! a man!
Job or no job
You can’t tell me that I’m not
Do! You!
Enjoy what you do?
If not, just stop!
Don’t stay there and rot!
Party nights, and neon lights
We hit the floors, we hit the heights
Dancing shoes, and pretty girls
Boys in leather kiss girls in pearls!
Hot-damn! everybody, let’s play!
So they promised you a good job — no way!
One, two, three, rap!
C’mon everybody, don’t need this crap!
Wham! bam!
I am! a man!
Job or no job
You can’t tell me that I’m not
Do! You!
Enjoy what you do?
If not, just stop!
Don’t stay there and rot!
If you’re a pub man
Or a club man
Maybe a jet black guy with a hip hi-fi
A white cool cat with a trilby hat
Maybe leather and studs is where you’re at
Make the most of every day
Don’t let hard times stand in your way
Give a wham give a bam but don’t give a damn
Cos the benefit gang are gonna pay!
Now reach up high and touch your soul
The boys from wham! will help you reach that goal
It’s gonna break your mama’s heart, (so sad)
It’s gonna break your daddy’s heart, (too bad)
But you’ll throw the dice and take my advice
Because I know that you’re smart
Can you dig this thing? Yeah!
Are you gonna get down? Yeah!
Say wham! Wham!
Say bam! Bam!
Wham! bam!
I am! a man!
Job or no job
You can’t tell me that I’m not
Do! You!
Enjoy what you do?
If not, just stop!
Don’t stay there and rot!
Do you want to work? No
Are you gonna have fun? Yeah
Said one, two, three, rap, c’mon everybody
Don’t need this crap!
Enjoy what you do?
Everybody say wham! Wham!
Everybody say wham! bam! Wham! bam!
Enjoy what you do?
Wham Rap!, with its moody, bouncy optimism (the defining Wham! characteristic) also hints at a better tomorrow, partly delivered by the confidence it implores in its possibly (probably) struggling audience.
“Wham! bam! I am! a man! Job or no job, you can’t tell me that I’m not.”
Wham Rap!: The Happy Days Are Here Again of its generation.
Young Guns (Go for it), its gauche companion piece from the group’s debut Fantastic album, is another defiant call to dance floor arms, imploring young guys the world over to defy the demands and trappings of convention to continue a life of hedonistic freedom for as long as possible.
“Dear Mummy, Dear Daddy, now I’m nineteen as you see, I’m handsome, tall, and strong. So what the hell gives you the right to look at me, as if to say “Hell, what went wrong?” Michael spits out mid-way through the track. “Bad boys, stick together. Never sad boys, good guys, they made rules for fools, so get wise.”
It’s the kind of urgent, literal lyric Michael would regularly deploy to connect with the Wham! audience before later turning his back on such crowd-pleasing and critic-dismaying frippery, changing himself instead into a more “serious” and “miserable” solo artist.
Club Tropicana, the less urgent and smoother manifestation of the upbeat Wham! ethos in musical form eased up on the early career Wham! energy and replaced it with a more relaxed and nuanced soft disco shuffle, perfectly tuned for a nation coming to quite like this new world of consumer delights and instant gratification after labouring so hard during the working week.
Consumerism and leisure as immediate rewards for exploiting the markets and the opportunities offered by a more service-orientated economy were (perhaps) worth aspiring to if they allowed more of the working classes to sit by a Mediterranean pool and enjoy a margarita or two.
“Club Tropicana, drinks are free, fun and sunshine, there’s enough for everyone, all that’s missing is the sea, but don’t worry, you can suntan,” Michael laconically encourages his audience, a twinkle of irony in his voice. “Pack your bags, and leave tonight, don’t take your time, gotta move your feet, don’t you miss the flight!”
Well, possibly.
As with all of the Wham! single releases, Club Tropicana caught the populist wave and surfed it to upper chart success. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, the group’s giddy, silly and infectious Motown pastiche, was the final step up the pop ladder en route to the Michael-produced Last Christmas.
Other hits would follow — I’m Your Man, The Edge of Heaven/Where Did Your Heart Go? — the latter hinting at the morning after reflective seriousness that Michael was hankering for by the time of its release (foreshadowed two years previously by the drunken sway of Careless Whisper, Michael’s pre-Faith calling card).
But for a generation of optimistic and expectant Britons who got caught up in the Thatcher economic and cultural revolution despite themselves, Wham! will forever be the not-so-bad boys who danced their way around a swimming pool somewhere in the sun and encouraged everyone listening to do the same.
“Do! You! Enjoy what you do? If not, just stop! Don’t stay there and rot!”
Indeed.
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)
George Michael / Andrew Ridgeley
Warner/Chappell MLM Limited
1982
