When Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley first heard George Michael give up his heart on “Last Christmas,” he knew the beloved yule tune was something special.
The magic moment happened when the holiday spirit hit his late bandmate in his childhood bedroom in London.
“We were killing time around his mom and dad’s house. It was a Sunday afternoon, and the soccer was on TV,” Ridgeley, 61, told The Post. “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!’”
What Ridgley heard “written on the spot” was the beginning of the “Last Christmas” journey to 40 years of festive feels.
“He’d written the bare-bones keyboard track, the basic drum track and a bit of the verse and the chorus,” he recalled. “And it was an amazing moment … I knew it was a hit record. We’d had a few by then, so we were able to recognize them when we heard them.”
Indeed, “Last Christmas” — released four decades ago on Dec. 3, 1984 — continued the hot streak that Wham! was on after iconic hits such as “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Careless Whisper.” And the holiday classic — currently at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, continues to bring joy to the world every season — is being celebrated with a new 40th anniversary EP and a Netflix documentary, “Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped.”
“It has become part of the fabric of Christmas,” said Ridgeley. “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.”
Michael set out with “an aspiration” to write a song that would be the 1984 Christmas No. 1 single in the UK.
“It was going to be the icing on the cake for 1984. That was the intended purpose,” said Ridgeley. “When we were growing up in the ’70s, the Christmas No. 1 was a really big deal.”
But, he added, “It was a challenge for George as a songwriter to write within prescribed parameters… And to write [a Christmas song] with such originality as well — the story of a love betrayed.”
When it came time to record the song at Advision Studios in London, Michael was a one-man band, playing a synthesizer, drum machine and sleigh bells in addition to singing all the vocals.
“It sounded the same as it sounded in his bedroom,” said Ridgeley. “There was no need for the band. He was left to his own devices.”
The Andrew Morahan-directed video — featuring Michael, Ridgeley and their fellow revelers at a ski resort cottage in Saas-Fee, Switzerland — was shot just weeks before the single was released.
“It was largely group of friends that we enjoyed time with back in England, and so it was natural to take them away to shoot a video that basically was a house party,” said Ridgeley. “You take a bunch of 21 year olds away and you give them free lodging, food and drink, you’re gonna have a bit of a party on your hands.”
But after “Last Christmas” was released as a double A-side single with the “Make It Big” hit “Everything She Wants,” it stalled at No. 2 in the UK, being held off from the top spot by Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” — an all-star charity single also featuring Michael.
Thirty-six Christmases later, though, the single finally hit No. 1 in the UK on New Year’s Day 2021. And it, at long last, became the Christmas No. 1 in 2023. “A mere 39 years later,” said Ridgeley with a laugh.
“Last Christmas” has gone on to inspire the 2019 film of the same name and countless covers by everyone from Taylor Swift to Ariana Grande. Ridgeley’s personal favorite? Gwen Stefani’s 2017 version.
“I like the arrangement, and the production is great,” he said. “It’s got a Phil Spector-type sound, beautiful string arrangement.”
Eight years after Michael’s death on Christmas 2016, the holiday chestnut recently reached a new peak at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
And for Ridgeley, “Last Christmas” hasn’t lost any of its sparkle four decades later.
“It’s a song that has an essential freshness and vitality,” he said. “So I haven’t tired of it.”
