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Speaker 1: Hi, this is Chris Weber's cousin.

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Speaker 2: That's Sloan and you're listening to the Shirley You Can't

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Be Serious Podcast.

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Speaker 3: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Shirley you Can't

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Be Serious Podcast. Guys, it's early April twenty twenty four.

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In early April twenty nineteen, my best buddy and I

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got together, sat on his back porch and decided what

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we were going to do for our new conceived idea

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for a podcast five years ago this month, boys and girls.

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And that means that if we were WHAM, we would

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be just about to break up.

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Speaker 1: That's right. They were kind of a bright shining star.

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Speaker 3: There was a plan. They brought the plan to Fruition

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and said we're done.

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Speaker 1: That's it.

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Speaker 3: But boys and girls, we have no intention of being done.

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I will stay with Jason until the end of time.

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Speaker 1: Oh d you you could drag me to Helen back

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just as long as we are together.

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Speaker 3: Just wake me up before you go down. All right,

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boys and girls, we are here to talk about Wham. Now.

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We have already covered George Michael in some detail. We

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actually covered him our very first season August of twenty twenty.

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We re released that last year, July of twenty twenty three,

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because it was the thirty fifth anniversary of Faith. So

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if you want to check out a little more history

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on George Michael, go back and check that episode out.

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I listened to it.

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Speaker 1: I listened to it today too.

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Speaker 3: We're like, oh, hey, I didn't remember that, and so

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this was very helpful. But it's a great episode. Go

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back and check it out. We compared Faith to in

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Excess's Kick Right, And today we are covering Wham's Make

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It Big to Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair.

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Speaker 1: I got my yellow fingerless gloves on. I got my

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Choose Live shirt on. I got my Nutter shorts on.

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Speaker 3: I love it when you wear your Nutter shirt.

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Speaker 1: I got the Boom Boom in my Heart's Let's do this.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So we are going to talk about the second

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re least from Wham to give a little bit of

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history before we get into it. These are a couple

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of guys who almost weren't anything. Yeah, but for and

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O Ridgely there would be no George.

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Speaker 1: Michael, that's an absolute fact.

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Speaker 3: But for George Michael, there would be no Wham and

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butt for Wham, there would be no, George Michael again.

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Speaker 1: Hey, I'll tell you what. If the teacher had not said,

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will somebody look after the new boy and Andrew ridgely

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being the only person who raised his hand in their

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sixth grade class.

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Speaker 3: Twelve year old boys, there would be no wham twelve

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year old kids and a little awkward oreos something Vilenobo's

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something something Greek. It's all Greek to me, it is

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all Greek. But yeah, he showed up new kid at

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school and the teacher said, who would like to volunteer

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to mentor youngos? And Andrew originally raised his hand. They

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became fast friends, and George was the shy guy, Andrew

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was the confident, good looking kid, and George looked up

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to him. And George was raised in a Greek family

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two generations earlier. His great grandfather was a shepherd. I

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mean that's shepherding the sheep in Greece is what his

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grandfather was doing. And so his dad worked hard to

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establish himself in England in the UK and established a

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restaurant and expected him to work in the restaurant. But George,

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he had a desire to do something more. And his

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dad said, why would anybody want to listen to you.

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You can't even sing.

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Speaker 1: That is the one thing I still cannot buy on this.

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I just can't believe it.

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Speaker 3: So when Andrew originally says I want to drop out

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of school and we need to form a band, George said, no,

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I don't think I can do it. And Andrew said, yes,

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you can. You can do this.

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Speaker 1: You're forming a band.

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Speaker 3: And he's like, my dad really doesn't think I can

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do this. And he goes, he's wrong, you can do this.

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Let's do it. And so that's exactly what they did

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to eighteen nineteen year old kids. Drop out of school,

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they get welfare, and they start writing songs. They had

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started with a group called the Executives, which had Andrew's

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brother in it, but they didn't amount to much. That

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left Andrew and George to form Wham.

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Speaker 1: I kind of heard the rest of the story on that.

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Yeah tell me So, I've read about half of Andrew

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Ridgeley's biography yesterday while I was waiting for my car

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that can be fixed. So Andrew was in a band

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with his brother and some kind of older guys and

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they needed a permanent drummer, and so Andrew's like, George

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has a set of drums. I've seen it.

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Speaker 3: He called him yog, Yeah, yog.

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Speaker 1: The funny story there is that when George was telling

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him how to pronounce his name, he's saying, it's kind

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of like yogurt yor eos, right, yogurt, and so he

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just started calling him yog from that. But Uh, so

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George had a set of drums. Andrew knew that because

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when he went over to George's house for the first time,

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he banged on his drums and George was like, don't

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do that.

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Speaker 3: Uh did you play my drums? Uh no, I don't

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know what you're.

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Speaker 1: Talking about drums. But they had very strict guidelines of

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when he could hit the drums in his house and

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when he could not. And Andrew just was banging away.

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But anyway, so they needed a drummer for this band,

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and so Andrew's like, well, my friend Yog, he's got

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a drum set, let's bring him in. They brought him in.

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They're like, nah, nope, not gonna cut it. And so

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that's when Andrew's like, screw you, guys, I'm out.

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Speaker 3: Serendipitous, very serendipitous.

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Speaker 1: Yes, he said that day, we are starting our own band.

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Speaker 3: Guess what guys, we're here to talk to you about

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a rap group.

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Speaker 1: Everybody took a look at me.

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Speaker 4: I'm going to I may not have a time, but

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I have.

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Speaker 5: A good time on Hey.

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Speaker 1: We talked about this in our Faith episode Wham Slash.

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George Michael has been successful singing rap, gospel, R and B, pop, rock.

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Speaker 3: Funk, dance, jazz, everything, no doubt about it. Everything.

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Speaker 1: It's incredible.

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Speaker 3: But he started as a rapper.

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Speaker 5: Well, and why can't you let them know?

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Speaker 3: So their original music, big song that they thought was

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going to make them they they called Wham Rap. It

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was released as a single. It didn't do especially well. Right,

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They had signed a contract, a record recording contract with

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Innervision at that point. So this is the way that

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we can become musicians. This is what we've got to

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do to make a record. So they signed with the Innervision,

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released Wham Rap. It didn't do very well, and then

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they had another song called Young Guns. Now this was

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kind of their make it or break it song. This

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was the you know, hey, if this doesn't go anywhere,

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we're going to have to cut you guys loose. And

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what happened was Young Guns started moving its way up

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the chart. It got up to forty two, yep, and

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it stalled yep. And it was really critical that they

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get into the top forty. Yeah, and there it is

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just hovering right outside the top forty and not moving

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for weeks. And George, I mean, he's depressed. He is

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sitting alone in their tiny little apartment thinking maybe I

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was wrong about everything, maybe I'm not a musician, maybe

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this isn't what is for me. And then serendipity, another

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huge serendipitous moment. Top of the Pops. Now, I mean,

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for those in America not familiar with the British music scene,

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this is like American bandstand, right, This is like Dick

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Clark calls you on the phone, right. And so Top

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of the Pops calls them they've got a nearly top

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forty hit. I don't know how they're on the list,

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but they're they're there in England and maybe they're an

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easy next door call. But whoever the scheduled group was

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for Top of the Pops dropped out and they said

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can you perform tomorrow?

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Speaker 1: First of all, that band, how do you not move

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Heaven and Earth to appear on Top of the Pops.

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Speaker 3: I don't know.

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Speaker 1: For whatever reason, they didn't, and they called these guys

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and they were like, yes.

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Speaker 3: We will be there, yep. And so it was George

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and Andrew and they had two female singers with them

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that they really they took inspiration from Human League and

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they were like, we just like the look of two

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guys and two girls. It just is a good look.

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They literally developed their dance routine in George's parents' back room.

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No choreographer was there, there was no setup. It was okay, guys,

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how about you do this and I do this, and

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we do this together, and that was it. Can you

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imagine being a nineteen year old kid about to go

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and debut on top of the.

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Speaker 1: Pops, maybe the opportunity of a lifetime.

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Speaker 3: And once again George is petrified, and Andrew says, let's

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go do this. He's confident, he's ready to go, And

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George goes out there and plays the part. He gets

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up and he dances and goes crazy and it is

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literally an overnight success for them.

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Speaker 1: They shoot up the charts.

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Speaker 3: Yes, and now it's oh, we're stuck in this contract

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with Innervision, right. They bring on a new manager who

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gets them out of that contract, signs with CBS Records

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and they come out with their first album called Fantastic.

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Speaker 1: By the way, the night before they played Top of

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the Pops, they stayed in this crappy little hotel room

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and there was a child's bed and they had to

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draw like who gets the child's George shot it.

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Speaker 3: Short pizza crust.

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Speaker 6: That's right.

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Speaker 1: So the night before he performs on Top of the

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Pops he sleeps in a miniature bed.

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Speaker 3: Yes, he's shaking his hips around like he's trying to

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relieve sort of lower back pain, I think. So they

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re release Slam Rap and it moves up to number

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eight now and they have a couple of other good

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hits off of Fantastic, and they're recognized because number one,

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they're white guys doing rap, and number two, they're doing

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it with a social conscience, Like their songs are about

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what it's like in England for the youth those days.

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At that point, sixteen to nineteen year olds had the

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biggest unemployment rate that they had ever had in UK history,

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and so that was part of what they sang about,

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among other things. And so they're being recognized for kind

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of doing this cutting edge style of music right and

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a social commentary and so what does George Michael do. Well,

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what we've learned through history, he always does. He says,

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I'm tired of being placed in this box. I would

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like to put myself in another box. And they come

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out with a song called Club Trapacanna.

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Speaker 5: Have you seen this video?

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Speaker 3: I have seen parts of it. Yes.

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Speaker 1: It looks like the greatest time that two twenty year

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olds could have.

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Speaker 3: I can't imagine. Like I saw some of the guy

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the celebrities that would stay there. I saw like Billy

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d Williams with Grace Jones, and I'm just like, if

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you had the means to go to this place, this

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is where you would go all the time.

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Speaker 1: So this was shot. This video was shot at Ibitha

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in Spain, which is like this resort town.

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Speaker 3: It's like Miami.

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Speaker 1: Really Yeah, sun drenched babes, drinks, pools, everything you think

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would be a great weekend. It looks awesome.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Then the press starts making fun of them, or

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if you're from England, starts taking the piss out of them, right,

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And so they're like, why are you guys making fun

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of us? We're nineteen year old kids, we're twenty year

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old kids. How can you do this to us, And

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so I got to say this at this point looking back,

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I mean, especially with Wake Me Up right, there is

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a taint on that song. As much as anybody loves

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that song, they might call it a guilty pleasure bug right.

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Speaker 1: It's an embarrassment to say you really like that song, bog.

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Speaker 3: But you know what I am here. I mean I

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literally had the same thought before we as we moved

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away from Tears for Fears and Songs from the Big Chair,

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and I'm thinking, Wow, this is a deep, awesome album

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and we're moving on to wayam, bubblegum and lollipops right,

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make your teeth hurt. I am here to advocate for

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the songwriting and the incredible talent that went behind this

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album that most considered to be sweet, bubblegum popcorn crap.

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Speaker 1: I'm spiking the football with you. This is a great

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album of the eighties. These are great songs. I don't

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care what you say. They are infectious, catchy, wonderful pop songs.

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Speaker 3: Yep. So I think that brings us to song number one,

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right out of the gate. Thank you whoever decided the

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song order of this album. This song came from a

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mistake on a note from Andrew Ridge Ridgeley to his mom,

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wake me up before you go go?

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Speaker 5: Wake me up?

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Speaker 4: Fine, fine, See this is a fantastic pop song.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so tell us the story about the mistaken note.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So during fantastic they still weren't making any money

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because of that terrible record deal you talked about. So

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they're still living at their parents' house. Andrew originally was there.

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He had to get up for some pr thing. He

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left a note for his mom taped to his door

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that said, wake me up up before you go. And

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then he realized, oh shoot, I made a mistake. I

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put up up in there twice, and so as a

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joke to his mom, he finished it saying go go.

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So the note said wake me up up before you

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go go. George saw the note, thought it was funny,

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took that, ran with it and created this wonderful number

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one pop smash in nineteen eighty four degree.

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Speaker 5: Sized out of My Way.

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Speaker 3: This sound sound, Jason, you make the sunshine brighter than

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Doris Day.

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Speaker 1: Doris Day we talked about in our five Minutes of

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fire yeap. So the interesting thing about this song, this

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song was never demoed. George Michael had this song in

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his head and communicated it to the musicians and they

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just pieced it together from his brain directly to the album.

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That's amazing.

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Speaker 3: It is fantastic. He has such an incredible voice and

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in such an incredible ability with music that he can

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convey the right notes so that anybody who knows what

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they're doing with an instrument should be able to do

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what he's doing.

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Speaker 1: It's an amazing ability that he has. The talent as

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a musician is incredible. Okay, At the beginning of the

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song they say the word jitterbug a couple of times. Yes,

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jitterbug is a dance craze from the nineteen thirties. Yes,

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do you know how to do the jitterbug?

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Speaker 3: I do not. I don't either.

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Speaker 1: But he wanted to make a very energetic pop record

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that was like from the fifties or sixties.

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Speaker 3: This is an upbeat pop song at the time that

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punk rock was in its heyday. I mean, if we

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think about the British music scene, punk rock was making

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a big splash and what they did in reaction to

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that was to go, hey, we're gonna do something that's

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a throwback to fifties style music. Mentioning dance styles from

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the thirties, right and Doris Day and Sunshine and lollipops.

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Speaker 1: I watched some reaction videos to people watching this for

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the first time, and they were smiling and laughing and

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toe tapping. It's an infectious It's just fun. This song

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was released in May of nineteen eighty four, hits number

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one November of nineteen eighty four. We say that one

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more time. Let me get ready for this number one hit.

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I'm gonna say that a few more times on this album. Okay, yes,

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real quick trivia question for you. What song blocked Purple

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Rain from becoming a number one hit.

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with wake Me Up before You Go Go.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, before you Go Go.

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Speaker 3: I know that. When we talked about that, I laughed

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and shook my head at that. I would like to

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apologize public apology. This song has lasting power. People are

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still listening to it today.

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Speaker 1: I played it for my daughter last night.

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Speaker 3: She do every word.

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Speaker 1: She's fifteen. Okay, here's the other thing. D If I

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told you, let's make a list of ten songs that

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are the most Eighties. I'm not saying the best the

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most eighties songs. If you put this song on there.

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I got no problem with it.

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Speaker 3: Nobody's gonna argue with it.

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Speaker 1: Put Careless Whisper on that list, I got no problem

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with it.

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Speaker 3: Nope.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the video for a second.

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Speaker 3: Okay.

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Speaker 1: This video was directed by our man Andy Moorehan cool.

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You've got black lights, you've got a crowd. You've got

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to choose live t shirts. You've got the goofy yellow

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fingerless gloves and the pink shirts and weird hats, and

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they've got they're dancing, they've got horns and they are

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having a blast.

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Speaker 3: If you watch this video and you're not happier at

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the end than you were at the beginning, you need

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to go see somebody.

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Speaker 1: That's right. That's right, those horns and his boy in

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that chorus, I defy you not to smile and tap

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your toe.

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Speaker 3: It's truly infectious. And shall I shall not scoff again?

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Speaker 1: You know, here's the other interesting thing. George Michael had

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since turned his back on this song. Of course, he

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called it naff and stupid. He would do that with

336
00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:21,359
lots of songs. He did that with Careless Whisper, he

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00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:23,880
did that with I Want Your Sex. It's like he

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as soon as they were out of his brain, he

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outgrew them.

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Speaker 3: It was a perfectionist type of reaction to much of

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what he did, because once it's down and it's permanently placed,

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a perfectionist will still pick apart whatever they've done, and

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00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,559
then they have to that is their reason for hating

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it later on. But his perfectionism is what made all

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of the beautiful music that came.

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Speaker 1: It's true, all right, Let's move on to the next

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number one single on the album. This song is called

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Everything She Wants.

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Speaker 3: So listening to the little opening part of this song

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beat and the synthesizer, I want you to think about

351
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when you had a cassio keyboard in the mid eighties, right, right,

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because everybody did, right and they all had those kind

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of pre programmed beats and pre programmed songs. Well, George

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00:18:31,799 --> 00:18:34,200
Michael had one too. Okay, I don't know if it's

355
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:36,559
a cassio, but he had a little synthesizer with a

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pre programmed beat, and he said that this is the

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one song that he had started with the backing track first.

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Normally he would write the melody first and then figure

359
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out the rhythm later. This is an AI song. This

360
00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:53,400
is a computer generated beat that he used and then

361
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developed the rest of the song afterwards. And what's great

362
00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:59,599
is you want to talk about some meaningful lyrics. This

363
00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:02,680
isn't hippy dippy love. Oh yeah, this is a guy

364
00:19:02,799 --> 00:19:05,799
who they warned him everything she wants is everything she sees.

365
00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:09,559
But still he falls in love, he gets married, and

366
00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:12,920
sure enough, everything she wants is everything she needs. And

367
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:15,920
that's all I'm spending all of my money. Oh and

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00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:40,400
now we're having a baby. How am I supposed to

369
00:19:40,440 --> 00:19:42,960
support a baby? Should I act like I'm happy?

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Speaker 1: This is heartbreaking?

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Speaker 5: Right?

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Speaker 1: Every time I would watch this video on MTV, I'm like,

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he doesn't even think he loves her, and he's having

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a baby, and his back is going to break if

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she asked him to do one more thing.

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Speaker 6: It's a.

377
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,359
Speaker 1: Bummer of a deal. And guys married, Oh I don't

378
00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:07,920
love this girl. Oh we're having a baby?

379
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:08,200
Speaker 3: Great?

380
00:20:08,279 --> 00:20:09,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, just what I needed.

381
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:11,720
Speaker 3: It's not an uncommon theme. Now, it's not certainly something

382
00:20:11,759 --> 00:20:14,960
that George ever actually went through, but it is it

383
00:20:15,039 --> 00:20:18,640
is certainly an interesting plot line to go with.

384
00:20:18,839 --> 00:20:21,640
Speaker 1: Especially from a twenty one, twenty two year old.

385
00:20:21,799 --> 00:20:23,680
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's think about that, George Michael was born in

386
00:20:23,759 --> 00:20:27,400
nineteen sixty three. That means when he was writing this song,

387
00:20:27,519 --> 00:20:29,319
he was at most twenty years old.

388
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Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. This song was written and produced

389
00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:34,960
by George Michael. He said when he finished this song,

390
00:20:35,039 --> 00:20:37,480
even though it was credited as Wham, he did everything.

391
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That's when he realized, think I can pull this off

392
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by myself.

393
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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is their sophomore album. They had fantastic, They

394
00:20:44,799 --> 00:20:46,960
had this, and then they have one more album that

395
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:50,759
they are already calling the final album number three. They

396
00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:53,279
already knew that it was over, that this was a

397
00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:56,880
temporary project. This was not something that was supposed to

398
00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,920
grow old. And originally said Wham would never be middle aged.

399
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Speaker 1: You know, and originally is incredibly gracious throughout this entire day.

400
00:21:03,920 --> 00:21:06,599
We'll talk about more his role and how that changed

401
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:08,599
over the years, you know. I mean, he was the leader.

402
00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,519
He was the leader that George aspired to. And then

403
00:21:11,799 --> 00:21:15,319
they switched positions and George kept going, yeah, like a rocket. Well,

404
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:15,960
here's the thing.

405
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:19,400
Speaker 3: Andrew Ridgely wanted to be a rock star and George

406
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:23,039
Michael wanted to be a musician, right both at check

407
00:21:23,279 --> 00:21:27,119
check right, absolutely, and so Ridgely was the guy who

408
00:21:27,160 --> 00:21:30,119
was making the tabloids of all of the sexcapades that

409
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:32,839
he would get involved in, which is exactly.

410
00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:32,759
Speaker 1: What he were.

411
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Speaker 3: Andy, that exactly that's what he wanted. He wanted that

412
00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,440
rock star lifestyle. I genuinely don't think he had the

413
00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:43,519
aspiration to do more with his music career. Like I

414
00:21:43,599 --> 00:21:45,920
felt sorry for him initially, I was thinking, you know,

415
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:49,319
poor guy. He mentors George Michael, he brings him up,

416
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:51,359
he makes him a memory, you know, talks him into

417
00:21:51,480 --> 00:21:54,079
forming this band, all this stuff, and then George Michael

418
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:56,480
just kind of leaves him behind. But I mean I

419
00:21:56,519 --> 00:21:58,400
had to look it up. Andrew Ridgeley's net worth is

420
00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:00,920
forty million dollars. He's not suffering.

421
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Speaker 4: Wow.

422
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:04,480
Speaker 3: And after this he did race cars. Yeah yeah, I

423
00:22:04,519 --> 00:22:07,960
mean he did whatever he wanted. He married the girl

424
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,400
from Banana Rama, the hottest girl in Banana whoever he wanted.

425
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If you will, that's it.

426
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Speaker 7: That's it.

427
00:22:14,440 --> 00:22:17,079
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know, you're right. And here's the other thing.

428
00:22:17,279 --> 00:22:21,480
Individually strikes me as being a much happier individual despite

429
00:22:21,519 --> 00:22:24,400
the end of his success, basically in nineteen eighty six, the.

430
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Speaker 3: End of his fame, that's really what it was, Just

431
00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,079
the end of his same, but that again, he wanted

432
00:22:29,079 --> 00:22:31,279
that fame for the time that he was young, and

433
00:22:31,319 --> 00:22:33,279
then he he knew he wanted to move on to

434
00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:36,839
other things. He wanted to have diverse interests, and it

435
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:39,480
goes to his self confidence in who he was. I'm

436
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:41,839
going to do what I want to do, and I

437
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:43,400
did this rock star thing, and now I'm going to

438
00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:44,920
do this race car thing, and now I'm going to

439
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:46,759
be this professional cyclist.

440
00:22:46,839 --> 00:22:51,079
Speaker 1: And he seems to me very well adjusted, very comfortable

441
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,640
in being worth forty million dollars. George always seemed to

442
00:22:55,319 --> 00:22:56,599
struggle with happiness.

443
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Speaker 3: I think absolutely absolutely.

444
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Speaker 1: So I will tell you this. Everything She Wants was

445
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,599
George Michael's favorite Wham song. This is one of the

446
00:23:04,599 --> 00:23:06,960
only songs that he would play during the Faith years.

447
00:23:07,279 --> 00:23:09,480
He shied away from most of his Wham stuff. And

448
00:23:09,519 --> 00:23:11,680
he was also known, you know, like you said, he

449
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:14,359
was a perfectionist, so he would hang around for the

450
00:23:14,519 --> 00:23:18,279
editing of the videos. In this case, he helped Andy

451
00:23:18,319 --> 00:23:20,880
Morehan edit this particular video.

452
00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:22,799
Speaker 3: Yeah, so tell me about this video.

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00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:25,720
Speaker 1: Okay, so it's black and white. Got some concert footage

454
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:28,319
of where you've got Georgia's mug right there, big, right

455
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there in screen.

456
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Speaker 3: That's whatever eighteen year old, eighteen year old girl wanted

457
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:33,119
to see at that point.

458
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's a whole lot less happy than Wake

459
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me Up before you go.

460
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Speaker 3: It is not a happy subject at all.

461
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:42,880
Speaker 1: I will tell you this. This song hit number one

462
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May twenty fifth, nineteen eighty five. Would you like to

463
00:23:45,119 --> 00:23:46,319
hear the top seven that week?

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00:23:46,559 --> 00:23:47,240
Speaker 3: You know I would?

465
00:23:47,319 --> 00:23:50,440
Speaker 1: Okay, because it's Lota with Shirley stuff. Okay, yeah, number

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seven that week, May twenty fifth, nineteen eighty five, Number seven,

467
00:23:53,680 --> 00:23:54,559
one night in Bangkok.

468
00:23:54,759 --> 00:23:57,359
Speaker 3: Go check out our Patreon page. Boys and girls, ladies

469
00:23:57,400 --> 00:23:59,240
and gentlemen. If you want to join our Patreon, you

470
00:23:59,279 --> 00:24:03,200
can go to Patreon on dot com. Backslash Surely podcast

471
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:06,599
and we cover one hit wonders exclusively for our Patreon

472
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:08,640
members a little as five bucks a month if you

473
00:24:08,799 --> 00:24:10,839
don't like what we've got, and you get access to

474
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:12,279
all of the episodes. If you don't like it, we'll

475
00:24:12,279 --> 00:24:14,279
give you your money back and happy to do so.

476
00:24:14,319 --> 00:24:16,319
Speaker 1: We've got some great episodes over there, including the one

477
00:24:16,319 --> 00:24:18,559
on one nine in Bangkok, YEP number six Crazy for

478
00:24:18,640 --> 00:24:19,359
You by Madonna.

479
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:21,319
Speaker 3: Madonna keeps coming up. I feel like we need to

480
00:24:21,319 --> 00:24:21,839
cover her you.

481
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 1: Need to cover at some point. Number five Smooth Operator

482
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,480
by Shad a shot a number four axel.

483
00:24:27,279 --> 00:24:29,880
Speaker 3: F Okay, yeah, we just covered that one in our

484
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:31,880
Beverly Hills Cops soundtrack. Yep.

485
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 1: Number three Everybody Wants to Rule the World covered that

486
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:38,359
last week, yeah right. Number two Don't You Forget About

487
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:39,559
Me from the Breakfast Club.

488
00:24:39,640 --> 00:24:42,599
Speaker 3: That was another Patreon episode. Great episode, yep.

489
00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:45,799
Speaker 1: And then number one Everything she Wants. Did you know

490
00:24:46,519 --> 00:24:49,519
see this stat blew me away? When this song hit

491
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,759
number one, it became the first album to have three

492
00:24:53,839 --> 00:24:56,680
number one singles since the Begis did it.

493
00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:58,039
Speaker 3: That's impressive.

494
00:24:58,079 --> 00:24:59,279
Speaker 1: Faith I think had four.

495
00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:01,680
Speaker 3: Number one album. Did the Beaches get it with?

496
00:25:01,799 --> 00:25:04,799
Speaker 1: I think they got it with Saturday Night Fever.

497
00:25:06,799 --> 00:25:09,000
Speaker 3: Go back and check out that episode as well as

498
00:25:09,039 --> 00:25:12,200
we covered that soundtrack versus the Dirty Dancing soundtrack after

499
00:25:12,240 --> 00:25:14,240
doing that movie Versus The Dirty Dancing.

500
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:15,519
Speaker 1: Movie some of my favorite episodes.

501
00:25:15,559 --> 00:25:16,119
Speaker 3: Oh they're great.

502
00:25:16,160 --> 00:25:17,599
Speaker 1: Okay, we've done with Everything she Wants.

503
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:19,960
Speaker 3: Time to move on to song number three. The song

504
00:25:20,039 --> 00:25:36,000
is called Heartbeat, and we talked about this album being

505
00:25:36,160 --> 00:25:39,839
influenced by the sixties. This beat is straight out of

506
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:43,599
Leader at the Pack by the shanger loss. Oh okay, Now,

507
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:45,880
I texted you when I heard this, because this is

508
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:47,680
my first time going through this album since I was

509
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:51,400
you know, twelve, Yeah, no, try it eight okay yeah.

510
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:55,160
But the melody a little riff at the beginning. It

511
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,839
sounds like My Hometown by Bruce Springsteen, which of course

512
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:00,480
just came out the year before were.

513
00:26:08,599 --> 00:26:11,759
Speaker 1: I can hear that. I think you're right, yeah, interesting.

514
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,279
Speaker 3: You got the sixty four shangri law you know three

515
00:26:14,279 --> 00:26:18,400
girl music group beat going with that melody. But it's

516
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:35,519
still a catchy little tune.

517
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:41,799
Speaker 1: I think this could have been a successful single. This

518
00:26:41,839 --> 00:26:44,519
is one that if they chose to release it with

519
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,559
the wham mania going on at the time, I have

520
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:49,680
no doubt this could have been a great single, great song,

521
00:26:49,799 --> 00:26:50,960
successful charting single.

522
00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:55,079
Speaker 3: So this song, He's sitting at the end of summer vacation,

523
00:26:55,599 --> 00:26:58,480
watching his friends go by here in the school bell rings,

524
00:26:58,519 --> 00:27:01,279
thinking about the happy little kisses he shared with some

525
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:06,400
girl until he sees another girl and he's then stuck like,

526
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:10,640
oh my gosh, I have this desire for her, but

527
00:27:10,759 --> 00:27:14,559
I have this obligation to my or to my current

528
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:18,079
girl friend, which, of course that topic comes up a

529
00:27:18,079 --> 00:27:20,640
little bit later on with Caroless Whisper, he says, how

530
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:24,079
could I help but admire her beauty? Standing on the

531
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:26,720
line between desire and duty, he.

532
00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:29,160
Speaker 1: Had a restless heart. Yeah, you're a long term guy

533
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:33,119
with anybody kind of known for cruising, just as Brookshields.

534
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:36,359
That's right, that's right. Okay, I got a great story

535
00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:38,279
for you. Okay, I'm gonna throw it in here. Okay.

536
00:27:38,319 --> 00:27:41,720
So this album was recorded at Studio Maraval in the

537
00:27:41,759 --> 00:27:45,559
south of France, like June and July of nineteen eighty four. Okay,

538
00:27:45,799 --> 00:27:49,960
life must be hard, right, I know, right, France summer

539
00:27:50,079 --> 00:27:53,559
feel terrible for them. That actually is one of the

540
00:27:53,559 --> 00:27:56,599
studios where Pink Floyd put the finishing touches.

541
00:27:56,359 --> 00:27:57,279
Speaker 3: On the wall. Yep.

542
00:27:57,319 --> 00:28:00,079
Speaker 1: Okay. They come into the recording studio one day and

543
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:01,880
there's a message for them. They got a phone call

544
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,119
from Sir Elton John. He wants to invite them to

545
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:06,720
a bit of lunch. Andrew originally is like, that's when

546
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,240
we knew we're big time, you know. He talked about

547
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:11,279
how when they would hang out in George's room when

548
00:28:11,279 --> 00:28:13,440
they were kids and talk about music and look at

549
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:15,079
albums and stuff. Good by Yellow Brick road. It was

550
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:17,680
one of their favorites, absolutely, and so they got to

551
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:19,359
hang out with Elton John and they were on his

552
00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:21,720
boat and having lunch. One are the funny things that

553
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:24,160
they did. Of course they're twenty or twenty one, whatever

554
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:28,039
they are. They cruised by a boat where Joan Collins

555
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:30,440
was supposed to be. That was her boat, and so

556
00:28:30,599 --> 00:28:33,640
George yelled at the boat, hey, Joan, show us your nickers.

557
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:38,680
So south of France for a couple of twenty year

558
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,599
olds who are on a pole and.

559
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:44,319
Speaker 3: With Elton John. Yeah, Elton John actually was one of

560
00:28:44,359 --> 00:28:48,519
the one of the first big recording artists that came

561
00:28:48,559 --> 00:28:52,759
forward and said, George Michael is an incredibly talented songwriter.

562
00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:55,000
And I mean he's saying that from the songs off

563
00:28:55,039 --> 00:28:57,720
of Make It Big. They're talking about faith, he's talking

564
00:28:57,759 --> 00:29:01,519
about make it Big and fantastic, and he says, this

565
00:29:01,559 --> 00:29:04,839
is a guy who's truly gifted, and I don't see

566
00:29:04,839 --> 00:29:07,960
that very often anymore. And just to kind of add

567
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,359
credit to what Elton's saying, he won the award that

568
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:14,440
year for Best New Songwriter. That was the thing that

569
00:29:14,519 --> 00:29:17,359
actually the award that actually made George Michael wheep on

570
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:20,839
stage because he was presented with the award by Elton John.

571
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,880
He's surrounded by all of his heroes, songwriting heroes, and

572
00:29:24,920 --> 00:29:27,640
he felt like with this album, they were in teen

573
00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:30,599
magazines right there with their shirts off and tan, and

574
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:33,599
they have the screaming girls and it's that rock star

575
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:37,119
side of things. And he understood that recognition and probably

576
00:29:37,119 --> 00:29:39,400
didn't even like it that much. But once he was

577
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:43,359
recognized for his songwriting abilities, that's what really made him

578
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:44,920
feel like he was worth something.

579
00:29:45,039 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: So, just to recap, Elton John says, they're awesome. George's

580
00:29:49,319 --> 00:29:53,799
dad says, you suck until later, and until later he

581
00:29:53,839 --> 00:29:56,400
does come around. He does, Let's give him credit. Where

582
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:57,799
it's Dune okay.

583
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 8: Next all on the album's called Like a Baby.

584
00:30:11,839 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 3: Okay. So this is the song where you have the

585
00:30:14,839 --> 00:30:17,960
action scene in the movie and everybody's chasing each other

586
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:20,079
and there's gunfire and then they have to get onto

587
00:30:20,119 --> 00:30:22,440
the elevator and all of a sudden, it's just waiting

588
00:30:22,599 --> 00:30:26,440
awkwardly for a minute and a half.

589
00:30:26,799 --> 00:30:28,279
Speaker 1: Yeah.

590
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:30,480
Speaker 3: I literally I was like, is this an instrumental? What

591
00:30:31,079 --> 00:30:33,559
am I? Is this music? What am I listening to here?

592
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:39,079
This is easy smooth jazz from a different genre of

593
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:40,519
music than I thought I was listening to.

594
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 1: This belongs on Cinemax after dark.

595
00:30:44,039 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 3: Maybe that's time.

596
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,680
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. It's soft, it's smooth, it's jazzy, but

597
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:49,839
it does nothing for me.

598
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:53,039
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, And then I mean it's a full minute

599
00:30:53,039 --> 00:30:54,920
and forty seconds into the song, and then all of

600
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,519
a sudden, George starts singing, oh, oh, guess it's not

601
00:30:57,559 --> 00:31:01,319
a musical right. And to be honest, as far as

602
00:31:01,359 --> 00:31:03,799
the songwriting goes for this album, this is bottom of

603
00:31:03,839 --> 00:31:06,319
my list. This is the low low points, kind of

604
00:31:06,359 --> 00:31:10,000
plain vanilla love song. Not terribly interesting stuff to me.

605
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:12,839
So we're in agreement this. If there is a skipper

606
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,960
on the album, this one's this is it. Okay, HiT's

607
00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:17,799
stop on your tape player, kick it out.

608
00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:20,839
Speaker 1: Flip it over first side two and we start off

609
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:39,920
with freedom.

610
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,720
Speaker 3: If you told me this was a remake of a

611
00:31:42,759 --> 00:31:45,319
Supreme song from the sixties, I would say, yeah, I

612
00:31:45,319 --> 00:31:45,839
can see that.

613
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:46,519
Speaker 1: I can see that.

614
00:31:46,599 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 3: It is completely by that playbook. This is Motown all

615
00:31:51,279 --> 00:31:54,720
over the place, except we got a white, blonde British guy.

616
00:31:54,599 --> 00:31:57,599
Speaker 1: Singing yeah, yeah, this is a great pop song.

617
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:00,039
Speaker 3: Oh it's excellent. This is one of the best on

618
00:32:00,079 --> 00:32:00,440
the album.

619
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:02,920
Speaker 1: The bridge is great, the chorus is great. It's sing

620
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:07,079
along another toe tapper. This is Wham encapsulated in three minutes.

621
00:32:26,079 --> 00:32:32,960
Speaker 3: So this song was released on October first, nineteen eighty

622
00:32:33,039 --> 00:32:33,880
four in the.

623
00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:37,160
Speaker 1: UK in the UK, released in August of eighty five

624
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:37,839
in the US.

625
00:32:38,359 --> 00:32:39,559
Speaker 3: Did it make it to number one?

626
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:42,799
Speaker 1: It made it to number three? What made it to

627
00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:43,400
number three?

628
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 3: I know you're gonna tell me the two that kept

629
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:46,640
it out of the one number one spot.

630
00:32:46,759 --> 00:32:49,319
Speaker 1: Let's do the top five, Okay, So this is September

631
00:32:49,319 --> 00:32:51,279
twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five, where it peaks out at

632
00:32:51,319 --> 00:32:54,519
number three. Number five Oshila by Ready for the World.

633
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:59,240
Speaker 3: That is one that I have suggested. Four our one

634
00:32:59,319 --> 00:33:01,119
hit Wonder episodisodes on Patreon.

635
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,559
Speaker 1: Yes, number four, Don't Forget My Number by Phil Collins.

636
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:06,880
Great Solins is always going to be out there. We

637
00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:08,519
are covering Phil Collins next summer.

638
00:33:08,599 --> 00:33:08,839
Speaker 3: Yeah.

639
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:11,839
Speaker 1: Number three Freedom number two cherished by Cooling the Gang.

640
00:33:12,079 --> 00:33:14,319
Speaker 3: Okay, that's not bad. I don't know that it's better

641
00:33:14,319 --> 00:33:15,599
than Freedom, right, it's not bad.

642
00:33:16,039 --> 00:33:18,319
Speaker 1: Number one Money for Nothing by Dire Straits.

643
00:33:18,319 --> 00:33:19,079
Speaker 3: Oh that was a winner.

644
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, And you're not knocking that one out.

645
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:25,279
Speaker 3: No, that's yeah, the beautiful combination of Mark Knopfler and

646
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:27,799
Sting and a killer guitar.

647
00:33:27,599 --> 00:33:29,960
Speaker 1: Riff and a fantastic music video.

648
00:33:30,079 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, all of checks all the boxes. Yep.

649
00:33:32,559 --> 00:33:35,599
Speaker 1: So Freedom was written when George was nineteen. After he

650
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:38,880
was done, he was thrilled. He said, I cannot believe

651
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:41,759
I just did that. That was the moment that he

652
00:33:41,799 --> 00:33:43,920
started to take himself seriously as a songwriter.

653
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:47,559
Speaker 3: I heard him talk about his songwriting and he said

654
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:51,039
that when he does a song, well, it doesn't feel

655
00:33:51,039 --> 00:33:54,000
like he's written the song. It feels like he has

656
00:33:54,079 --> 00:33:58,279
discovered it, like that the song already exists and he's

657
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,799
just found it. It's out there and he's just found it.

658
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:03,279
Speaker 1: I mean, how can you argue with a guy who

659
00:34:03,359 --> 00:34:05,519
every time they put out a single, it's in this

660
00:34:05,559 --> 00:34:08,639
album nothing outside of the top three. Read number ones

661
00:34:08,679 --> 00:34:09,360
and a number three.

662
00:34:09,559 --> 00:34:13,079
Speaker 3: Yeah. Four releases and a little bit of a story.

663
00:34:13,280 --> 00:34:15,840
Later on that year, after these, after this album has

664
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:18,920
been released, he says to himself, I'm gonna get fourth

665
00:34:19,159 --> 00:34:22,400
number one single in this year, right, and writes another

666
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,880
song and almost makes.

667
00:34:24,679 --> 00:34:32,199
Speaker 1: It number two. Despite being one of the greatest Christmas

668
00:34:32,199 --> 00:34:33,280
songs of all time.

669
00:34:33,599 --> 00:34:38,039
Speaker 3: Well, it did ultimately become number one in twenty twenty

670
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:43,639
four years, almost exactly four years after he passes away.

671
00:34:45,079 --> 00:34:57,000
Speaker 1: Christmas that's the other Wham song that she knows.

672
00:34:57,159 --> 00:34:59,800
Speaker 3: Last Christmas. By the way, ladies and gentlemen's who were talking.

673
00:34:59,599 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 1: About right, that's right, which he said, they were watching

674
00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,119
the football game soccer to you and me. Yeah, and

675
00:35:06,119 --> 00:35:08,840
Andrews said that George just disappeared for.

676
00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:11,719
Speaker 3: Like an hour, said he suddenly sat up, bolt upright

677
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:14,079
is the words he used, bolts up out of the chair.

678
00:35:14,559 --> 00:35:15,000
I gotta go.

679
00:35:15,039 --> 00:35:16,840
Speaker 1: It comes back an hour later, says Andy, you gotta

680
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:17,400
come listen to this.

681
00:35:17,519 --> 00:35:19,760
Speaker 3: He's got a little four track recorder that you put

682
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:23,760
the regular old Maxwell cassette tape into and it's la

683
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:27,679
Last Christmas. Incredible, incredible. By the way, before we get

684
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:29,880
off of Last Christmas, the song that kept it out

685
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:31,400
of the number one spot, do they.

686
00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 1: Know it's Christmas by band Aid.

687
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 3: Or whatever, which George Michael sang on.

688
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,639
Speaker 1: And but you know, it drove him freaking insane that

689
00:35:38,679 --> 00:35:39,880
it never got to number one.

690
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:41,800
Speaker 3: He said he had two little voices in his head.

691
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:44,320
One was very happy that this charitable work that he

692
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:47,280
had done was doing so well, and the other one

693
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:54,400
was saying, I don't know if this was a true,

694
00:35:54,599 --> 00:35:58,199
truly charitable concept or if they hoped that maybe the

695
00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:00,480
fact that they added the charity to it might push

696
00:36:00,519 --> 00:36:02,360
it into the number one spot. But all of the

697
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:04,760
proceeds from last Christmas were donated to tribute.

698
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:08,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, you really wanted that fourth number one. Luckily Faith

699
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:10,559
came along a couple of years later and he took

700
00:36:10,559 --> 00:36:13,960
care of that. By the way, speaking of Faith, there

701
00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:16,320
is an organ at the very beginning of the song

702
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,599
of Faith, which we talked about in our Faith episode.

703
00:36:18,679 --> 00:36:32,559
That organ is playing the chorus from Freedom.

704
00:36:32,679 --> 00:36:34,519
Speaker 3: Go check out that episode. It's fantastic.

705
00:36:35,159 --> 00:36:37,159
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the music video for a second. Okay,

706
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:41,280
we did talk about this at length during our Faith episode,

707
00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:44,559
but it was shot in China, which at the time

708
00:36:44,639 --> 00:36:46,440
that was the first time a Western act had ever

709
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:48,880
been invited to China to perform, and so there's some

710
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:51,320
really great shots there at the Great Wall. And I

711
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:54,360
remember at the time we talked about how the organizers

712
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,519
for this event they went to the Chinese officials and

713
00:36:56,559 --> 00:36:59,639
they said, okay, here's your choices, Queen, and they showed

714
00:36:59,639 --> 00:37:02,880
some like unflattering pictures of Freddie Mercury or you know,

715
00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:05,760
these two wholesome young men right here, and the Chinese

716
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:08,800
guys are like, we'll take this. People right here, Whan

717
00:37:09,039 --> 00:37:12,000
and so music video. They're all over China, they're doing things.

718
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:13,880
They're at the Great Wall of China. There's a there's

719
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:16,199
a great shot of them playing a boombox to like

720
00:37:16,639 --> 00:37:18,679
a bunch of older people and they're playing wake me

721
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:19,239
Up before you.

722
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,039
Speaker 3: Go go so with this song. Not in China, but

723
00:37:22,079 --> 00:37:25,199
in Japan. They did an advertisement. I don't even know

724
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:27,599
what the advertisement was for, but it was It was

725
00:37:27,639 --> 00:37:30,679
great because I saw a video and it's George Michael

726
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:33,440
and Andrew Ridgeley and this has to be very close

727
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:35,960
to right before George passed away. I mean they're both

728
00:37:36,039 --> 00:37:39,480
obviously in their in their fifties Gray and yeaheah, and

729
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,400
they talk about how number when they start off the

730
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:47,079
video doing a bad moonwalk like Simon Labon did, and

731
00:37:47,199 --> 00:37:50,280
then they changed the words to freedom and it goes

732
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:50,880
like this.

733
00:37:57,639 --> 00:38:11,159
Speaker 2: No, mom, it's that you're slightly porkyky.

734
00:38:13,679 --> 00:38:16,719
Speaker 1: That's good. I love it. Number three hits for those

735
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:18,880
keeping score at home, that's two number ones and a

736
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:20,400
number three with one more.

737
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:22,639
Speaker 3: To coo yeah, and and a mention of a number

738
00:38:22,639 --> 00:38:24,800
two in there by the Way, not off this album,

739
00:38:24,840 --> 00:38:25,280
but same.

740
00:38:25,679 --> 00:38:28,599
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right, Okay, moving on to the next song.

741
00:38:28,679 --> 00:38:29,199
Speaker 3: Let's do it.

742
00:38:29,239 --> 00:38:36,320
Speaker 1: The next song is called if you Were There?

743
00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:50,400
Speaker 6: Okay, what do you think?

744
00:38:50,679 --> 00:38:51,320
Speaker 7: Uh?

745
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:55,079
Speaker 3: Kind of sounds like the beginning of an eighties sitcom.

746
00:38:54,519 --> 00:38:55,599
Speaker 1: When called if you Were There?

747
00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:56,639
Speaker 3: Yeah?

748
00:38:56,679 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 1: This is a cover. Yeah, this is a cover from

749
00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:02,480
the nineteen seventy th song by the Eisley Brothers. Okay,

750
00:39:02,599 --> 00:39:04,440
that's why it sounds slightly discoy.

751
00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:08,000
Speaker 3: I guess it sounds very eighties to me, which I

752
00:39:08,039 --> 00:39:09,920
don't think that most of the songs, I mean, other

753
00:39:09,960 --> 00:39:12,679
than they defined the eighties at the time that this

754
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:15,440
album came out, Freedom, Wake Me Up, Before You Go Go,

755
00:39:15,719 --> 00:39:19,159
Everything She Wants, all of those songs they set the standard.

756
00:39:19,239 --> 00:39:22,400
This one, to me imitates the standard, and I don't

757
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:24,840
I mean, it's it's okay. It sounds like a filler

758
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:25,320
song to me.

759
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:28,079
Speaker 1: I told you that of the songs on this album,

760
00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:31,800
they either transcend time and space or they're just kind

761
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:33,920
of Yeah, this is one of those songs.

762
00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:38,360
Speaker 3: I'm just like, eh, yeah, I'm moving on pretty movie.

763
00:39:38,559 --> 00:40:02,079
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, next up, song called credit Card Baby.

764
00:40:03,519 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 3: Great, we're back to the motown. I'm happy you know

765
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:09,440
this is This isn't the Spreams. This is the Four Tops, right,

766
00:40:09,599 --> 00:40:11,719
this is sugar Pie, Honey Bunch, whatever you like. I

767
00:40:11,800 --> 00:40:15,519
can't help myself. This is and I Again they deliver

768
00:40:15,800 --> 00:40:18,119
when they throw back to that sixty style.

769
00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,119
Speaker 1: This is the happy version of everything she wants. He

770
00:40:21,159 --> 00:40:24,199
doesn't trust women, clearly because all they want him for

771
00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,360
is his money. Yes, okay, I'm gonna play you a

772
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:30,400
song that I think this sounds exactly alike.

773
00:40:30,559 --> 00:40:40,840
Speaker 7: Okay, that's doing it all for my baby.

774
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:42,639
Speaker 3: Huey Lewis knew it as soon as I heard it.

775
00:40:42,679 --> 00:40:45,719
But again, I mean they are both imitating the style

776
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:49,280
of the Four Tops from nineteen sixty five or whatever. Yeah, yeah,

777
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,920
but do whatever you want to call it is it's great.

778
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:53,519
I love it.

779
00:40:53,679 --> 00:40:55,440
Speaker 1: Okay, I got this story behind this song.

780
00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:56,599
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, I'm excited.

781
00:40:56,760 --> 00:40:58,719
Speaker 1: So here you go. Who is this song about? Right?

782
00:40:59,159 --> 00:40:59,960
Who is the critic?

783
00:41:00,079 --> 00:41:00,760
Speaker 3: Herd baby?

784
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:04,840
Speaker 1: So basically, George had three girlfriends in his entire life,

785
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:06,920
like serious girlfriends, right, Okay, he had a bunch of

786
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:09,239
women he was with whatever a bunch of guys too,

787
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:13,679
but three serious girlfriends. Okay, one is Brookshields. Okay, one

788
00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,880
is Kathy Young. She's the girl that he wrote explore

789
00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,960
monogamy on her back for the right Yeah, I watch

790
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:25,320
your sex video, right, Japanese girl right, smoking yeah, smoking on.

791
00:41:26,079 --> 00:41:28,920
And this other girl named Pat Fernandez. Most people think

792
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:30,400
this song is about Pat Fernandez.

793
00:41:30,559 --> 00:41:33,960
Speaker 3: Okay, she looks like the middle sister on the.

794
00:41:33,960 --> 00:41:37,079
Speaker 1: Cause that's exactly what I was gonna say. Yeah, it misplayed,

795
00:41:37,119 --> 00:41:39,599
so yeah, yep, this from a guy who could bed

796
00:41:40,039 --> 00:41:42,400
literally anyone in the world in nineteen eighty.

797
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 3: But like I said, I don't know why you're limiting

798
00:41:44,519 --> 00:41:45,000
it to women.

799
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:53,039
Speaker 1: Once again, you're a correct sir. Yeah, Okay, fun song,

800
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:54,199
not great?

801
00:41:54,360 --> 00:41:55,039
Speaker 3: Oh I like it?

802
00:41:55,079 --> 00:41:55,480
Speaker 1: You like it?

803
00:41:55,559 --> 00:41:57,280
Speaker 3: Yeah? This is one of this is a This is

804
00:41:57,320 --> 00:41:59,519
a top half of the album for me. Okay, sure

805
00:41:59,559 --> 00:42:00,000
for sure.

806
00:42:00,119 --> 00:42:02,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's fair enough. Let's get to the big hitter.

807
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:05,039
Speaker 3: Okay, last song on the album before it get started.

808
00:42:05,039 --> 00:42:07,519
On the song, do you know who Joshua Reddick is? No,

809
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:10,960
he's a baseball player, okay, played. I think he started

810
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:14,880
with the Boston Redtox. Would kind of go in and

811
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:19,000
out of the majors and minors, never really kind of

812
00:42:19,039 --> 00:42:24,119
found himself until twenty thirteen. He's by this time with

813
00:42:24,199 --> 00:42:27,679
the Oakland A's, he's not doing real hot, and then

814
00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:32,159
one game August of twenty thirteen, he hits three home

815
00:42:32,239 --> 00:42:36,840
runs in one game, and suddenly his career takes off,

816
00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:41,119
like he becomes unstoppable, and by February of the next year,

817
00:42:41,239 --> 00:42:45,000
twenty fourteen, he's signed a multi million dollar contract to

818
00:42:45,039 --> 00:42:49,000
two million in something with the Oakland A's and three

819
00:42:49,039 --> 00:42:53,599
months later they say, Hey, you are batting like a phenom.

820
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:57,199
What would you like your coming up to bat? Intro?

821
00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:02,719
Kick some butt song to right, and he picks song

822
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:06,480
number eight off of Make It Big song we like

823
00:43:06,519 --> 00:43:32,639
to call careless whisper. Can you imagine walking up to

824
00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:35,480
the plate with the solo player.

825
00:43:37,199 --> 00:43:40,079
Speaker 1: Hey, if you believe it's because of a song, are

826
00:43:40,079 --> 00:43:42,440
you're breathing out your eyelids? Doesn't matter?

827
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:45,800
Speaker 3: Well, all I can say is the guy's career skyrocketed

828
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:48,320
after that, Like it was. It was a four million dollar,

829
00:43:48,519 --> 00:43:51,199
then a six million dollar next year, and then like

830
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:54,679
a fifty million dollars for the next four years. I mean,

831
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:58,320
he he really took off and I would say that

832
00:43:58,360 --> 00:44:01,960
it's in no small part due to the magic of

833
00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:02,480
this song.

834
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:05,880
Speaker 1: This is a eighties masterpiece.

835
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:09,320
Speaker 3: So I gave a big, long story when we covered

836
00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:12,360
Faith back in our very first season. I gave a big,

837
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:15,440
long story about the story behind the song that I

838
00:44:15,480 --> 00:44:18,440
had actually heard George Michael talk about in an interview,

839
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:21,880
and he had he had a girl that he fell

840
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:24,280
in love with at the skating rink when he would

841
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,280
chaperone his older sister at the skating rink. There's a

842
00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:32,000
green Jane, Yes, that he fell in love with and

843
00:44:32,039 --> 00:44:34,519
he'd then you know, they go on their separate ways.

844
00:44:34,559 --> 00:44:37,679
Nothing ever happens with that romance. But then he starts

845
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:42,519
dating a girl named Helen, and then happens. Stance be

846
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:46,400
what it is. He comes across Jane again and suddenly

847
00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:50,559
Jane is infatuated with him, and now it's this awkward

848
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:54,559
situation where he's with Helen, but he's got all of

849
00:44:54,559 --> 00:44:59,440
those old feelings about Jane. Now researching this album again

850
00:44:59,639 --> 00:45:02,480
for this episode, what I understand is that's a bunch

851
00:45:02,559 --> 00:45:05,920
of horses, which is tragic because it's a great story.

852
00:45:06,119 --> 00:45:07,159
Speaker 1: It is a great story.

853
00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:09,320
Speaker 3: But here is the true part of the story. Here

854
00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:12,000
is the part of the story that has remained consistent throughout.

855
00:45:12,039 --> 00:45:15,280
At seventeen years old, the young yet to be named

856
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:18,920
George Michael, George Michael gets on a bus public transit,

857
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:21,639
walks onto the bus, and as he is handing his

858
00:45:21,679 --> 00:45:25,239
ticket or money to the bus driver, this melody goes

859
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:34,480
into his head and that night he goes and finds

860
00:45:34,519 --> 00:45:38,559
a friend who plays the saxophone, records him playing the saxophone,

861
00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:41,280
and it all develops this song.

862
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:43,760
Speaker 1: The original demo for this was created in nineteen eighty

863
00:45:43,760 --> 00:46:11,440
one in the originally's home, but it never it doesn't

864
00:46:11,639 --> 00:46:15,119
really ever fit any album until Make a Big comes along.

865
00:46:15,159 --> 00:46:18,239
Speaker 3: When George and Andrew first got together as a band,

866
00:46:18,519 --> 00:46:22,400
they had a demo tape which was essentially this completed song,

867
00:46:22,519 --> 00:46:25,400
a half song and like the first two chords of

868
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:27,480
another song that they were thinking about right, And they

869
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:30,440
would go from record company to record company saying listen

870
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:33,639
to our demo, listen to our demo, and every time

871
00:46:33,679 --> 00:46:36,400
they were thrown out. But guess what, every single one

872
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:40,719
of those record companies heard careless whisper and said, no thanks,

873
00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:42,159
come back when you can write a hit.

874
00:46:42,440 --> 00:46:44,719
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's so incredible, right, it's the biggest

875
00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:47,760
selling single of nineteen eighty five, and they had no clue.

876
00:46:47,800 --> 00:46:50,920
But you can actually see the evolution of the song.

877
00:46:51,239 --> 00:46:53,920
Speaker 3: But then they don't put it on Fantastic.

878
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:56,400
Speaker 1: Andrew originally said just didn't feel right for the tone

879
00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:56,840
of the album.

880
00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:58,840
Speaker 3: But it does feel right for the tone of this album.

881
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:00,800
Speaker 1: So their manager says, hey, I got a great idea.

882
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:04,119
Why didn't you go to the studio Muscle Shoals in

883
00:47:04,239 --> 00:47:07,280
Alabama where Aretha Franklin recorded Respect.

884
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:11,920
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're working with Jerry Wexler, who did Aretha Franklin's Respect,

885
00:47:11,960 --> 00:47:14,079
Who did Ray Charles songs?

886
00:47:14,079 --> 00:47:15,760
Speaker 1: I mean he was He's a legend.

887
00:47:15,840 --> 00:47:19,519
Speaker 3: He's a legend. George flies from the UK down to

888
00:47:19,679 --> 00:47:22,400
Alabama to play with the Swampers. Yeah.

889
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,639
Speaker 1: He said that when he was recording the song, Jerry

890
00:47:24,679 --> 00:47:26,360
Wexser would be like, all right, George, whenever you're ready.

891
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:28,719
By the way, that's the microphone that Rea Franklin used

892
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:32,960
to sing respect into. So it was all this pressure. Yeah,

893
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:35,280
and he said that everybody there was the best of

894
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:38,199
the best, but after listening to it didn't feel like

895
00:47:38,239 --> 00:47:39,639
it had any kind of soul.

896
00:47:39,960 --> 00:48:09,400
Speaker 3: Let's listen to that version here. He's right, it's land.

897
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:11,000
Speaker 1: It doesn't have the magic.

898
00:48:11,119 --> 00:48:13,320
Speaker 3: Yeah. So when he got back to the UK with

899
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:16,440
the tape, Andrew's like excited. You know, I would be

900
00:48:16,519 --> 00:48:19,360
excited if my buddy had just flown across the country,

901
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:22,440
across the world to work with the best musicians in

902
00:48:22,480 --> 00:48:25,000
the business, the best producer in the business, in this

903
00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:27,800
iconic studio. And he says, how is it? How did

904
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:30,639
it go? What does it sound like? And George just says,

905
00:48:31,119 --> 00:48:33,119
tell me what you think and just puts the.

906
00:48:33,079 --> 00:48:50,480
Speaker 5: Tape in again, guilty to pretend, and they.

907
00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:53,400
Speaker 3: Both listened to it, and Andrew says, I feel like

908
00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:57,000
they took all of the edge off. Yeah, and George said,

909
00:48:57,000 --> 00:48:59,840
I feel exactly the same way. Now at this point,

910
00:49:00,199 --> 00:49:03,840
as this young and yet to be super famous guy,

911
00:49:04,039 --> 00:49:07,199
do you go with Jerry Wexler and the Swampers or

912
00:49:07,199 --> 00:49:09,400
do you put your foot down and say let's rerecord

913
00:49:09,440 --> 00:49:10,079
it my way?

914
00:49:10,199 --> 00:49:13,840
Speaker 1: He had the gumption to say, this is not right,

915
00:49:14,039 --> 00:49:16,480
this is not what I want. Thank you, Jerry Wexler.

916
00:49:16,639 --> 00:49:17,519
I'll do it myself.

917
00:49:17,679 --> 00:49:17,960
Speaker 3: Yeah.

918
00:49:18,000 --> 00:49:20,880
Speaker 1: So he goes back into the studio and he brings

919
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:26,599
in ten different saxophone players and fires ten saxophone players.

920
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:30,159
Speaker 3: Yeah. We talked in our Faith episode about how, in

921
00:49:30,199 --> 00:49:34,079
any normal situation, you take a session musician who knows

922
00:49:34,079 --> 00:49:35,880
what he's doing, and this is a thing where he

923
00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:39,880
arrives at eleven and is done by one o'clock. Right. No,

924
00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:42,679
he brings that guy in and he plays all afternoon

925
00:49:42,719 --> 00:49:44,679
and George says, that's not it, that's not it. Fire

926
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:46,440
that guy, bringing the next guy, and then they do

927
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:49,920
it nine more times, and then finally, finally, and this

928
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:54,840
is again serendipity. Yep, they bring in Steve Gregory. Steve Gregory,

929
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:58,800
phenomenal saxophonist, knows his craft. But you have this reef

930
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:02,519
little moment where luck shines and George, who's the one

931
00:50:02,519 --> 00:50:05,360
who's nixed every single sax solo they've done so far,

932
00:50:05,480 --> 00:50:09,039
leaves the studio and Steve says, it's a little tough

933
00:50:09,079 --> 00:50:12,079
to get all these notes in this short span here.

934
00:50:12,119 --> 00:50:15,960
What if I lower the key that this is in

935
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:20,519
and play it slower and then you speed it up

936
00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:24,159
to match the right pitch and the right tempo. That's

937
00:50:24,199 --> 00:50:26,719
exactly what they do. They do it before George gets

938
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:28,960
back and they have it recorded, and when he walks

939
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:30,440
in the door, and they play it for him and

940
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:33,719
he says, that's it. That's the sound that I will play,

941
00:50:46,840 --> 00:50:50,239
and it's this. It's the blast. It's the blast that

942
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:52,519
you get in some of those notes that's missing from

943
00:50:52,559 --> 00:50:58,239
that muscle Shoals version. That makes this sax solo in

944
00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:01,480
the top echelon of sax solos as far as songs.

945
00:51:01,519 --> 00:51:03,559
I mean, Baker Street level.

946
00:51:03,559 --> 00:51:04,280
Speaker 1: It's magical.

947
00:51:04,400 --> 00:51:05,039
Speaker 3: It's magical.

948
00:51:05,159 --> 00:51:08,159
Speaker 1: The other part that we kind of bypassed. Andrew gets

949
00:51:08,159 --> 00:51:09,079
writer credit on.

950
00:51:09,039 --> 00:51:11,119
Speaker 3: This they work together on when they were seventeen.

951
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:14,079
Speaker 1: Well, a lot of people have said this was George's

952
00:51:14,119 --> 00:51:17,920
sort of last gift to Andrew, splitting the proceeds, splitting

953
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:20,440
the writing of the song so that he could get

954
00:51:20,480 --> 00:51:24,239
a big payday. Andrew is adamant. Listen, I wrote some

955
00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:26,559
of the chords in this song, brought it to yog

956
00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:29,320
and he said, those chords go perfectly with this sex

957
00:51:29,320 --> 00:51:31,000
solo I got in my head. So it really was

958
00:51:31,039 --> 00:51:34,159
written by the two of them. In fact, there's a

959
00:51:34,199 --> 00:51:37,199
part in the song at the end where it goes

960
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:51,360
next level. It's the part when he says, tonight the

961
00:51:51,480 --> 00:51:54,480
music seems so loud. I wish that we could lose

962
00:51:54,559 --> 00:51:58,440
this crowd, and he's really belting it out with passion,

963
00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:01,760
you know, the please stay bagging part of it. Next level.

964
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:05,039
Speaker 3: He brings the emotion to those lyrics, probably better than

965
00:52:05,079 --> 00:52:06,519
any other song that he's done.

966
00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:09,000
Speaker 1: In Let's talk about the music video for a second. Okay,

967
00:52:09,079 --> 00:52:11,760
So originally this was shot in Miami Beach. I've got

968
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,440
a picture of them at the hotel, the Holiday Inn

969
00:52:14,559 --> 00:52:17,639
in Miami the holidays where they stayed while they failed

970
00:52:17,639 --> 00:52:18,320
the video for this.

971
00:52:18,599 --> 00:52:20,119
Speaker 3: George walking around in a towel.

972
00:52:21,199 --> 00:52:24,960
Speaker 1: Yeah it was, that's exactly right. But shot in Miami.

973
00:52:25,079 --> 00:52:27,719
He did not like the way his hair looked. I think,

974
00:52:27,760 --> 00:52:29,920
I'll tell you this. So his hair is dark. It's

975
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:31,480
doesn't have that bleach blonde look in this.

976
00:52:31,559 --> 00:52:32,119
Speaker 3: It's dark.

977
00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:35,320
Speaker 1: So he calls his sister in London who's a hairstylist.

978
00:52:35,480 --> 00:52:38,280
They fly her out to Miami at the cost of

979
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:42,039
ten thousand pounds so she can come and cut and

980
00:52:42,119 --> 00:52:45,519
fix and style his hair. And that's why when you

981
00:52:45,559 --> 00:52:47,800
watch the music video, there's kind of two pieces that

982
00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:50,960
you have the Miami footage and you have the when

983
00:52:50,960 --> 00:52:53,239
he's in the sort of the theater with the chains

984
00:52:53,280 --> 00:52:57,800
hanging from the ceiling. His hair is blonde in those shots. So,

985
00:52:57,960 --> 00:52:58,880
and that's the reason why.

986
00:52:58,920 --> 00:53:01,760
Speaker 3: The director of the video is a guy named Duncan Gibbons.

987
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:05,840
He was working for a company called John Roseman Productions. Well,

988
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:09,039
John Roseman had something to say about the making of

989
00:53:09,199 --> 00:53:16,199
the video. He called it a disaster, right. Part of

990
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:20,039
that because George was being so prima donna about his hair, Yeah,

991
00:53:20,239 --> 00:53:22,960
and then part of it just because it was just dumb.

992
00:53:23,000 --> 00:53:25,360
It didn't make any sense with what was going on

993
00:53:26,119 --> 00:53:28,360
lyrically in the song. And so that's why you have

994
00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:32,000
that second half that is shot by Morhan.

995
00:53:32,239 --> 00:53:35,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. I did see somewhere where somebody said that,

996
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:37,199
you know, he went through all this trouble to make

997
00:53:37,239 --> 00:53:39,480
his hair look good and all it ended up doing

998
00:53:39,639 --> 00:53:42,840
was looking like Princess Diana.

999
00:53:43,960 --> 00:53:45,239
Speaker 3: By the way, I don't know if we mentioned it,

1000
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:48,039
but Morehan is the guy who also directed I Want

1001
00:53:48,039 --> 00:53:50,039
Your Sex, Faith and Father Figure.

1002
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:53,639
Speaker 1: By the way, this song hits number one February sixteenth,

1003
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:54,840
nineteen eighty five.

1004
00:53:55,039 --> 00:53:57,559
Speaker 3: That is three for those of you who are keeping track,

1005
00:53:57,639 --> 00:54:00,480
boys and girls, three number one hits, four to three

1006
00:54:00,599 --> 00:54:03,719
hits and one extra for the year that still got

1007
00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:05,679
to know him too. That's right. So when the single

1008
00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:09,079
was released, George Michael dedicated the song to his parents.

1009
00:54:09,239 --> 00:54:12,000
Now we talked about how his father told him he

1010
00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:14,519
couldn't sing, expected him to go be a doctor or

1011
00:54:14,519 --> 00:54:17,239
an accountant or help out with the restaurant, right, did

1012
00:54:17,280 --> 00:54:19,719
not expect him to make it. But at some point

1013
00:54:19,880 --> 00:54:22,920
when they are big with this tour, he goes to

1014
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:26,719
see him in concert and sees an arena full of

1015
00:54:26,800 --> 00:54:30,960
people screaming and crying and singing along with his son,

1016
00:54:31,199 --> 00:54:33,960
and he says, I wept like a baby. I did

1017
00:54:33,960 --> 00:54:36,800
a complete U turn. I said I was wrong, We're right,

1018
00:54:37,519 --> 00:54:40,519
you were gifted, and I'm sorry. So in the liner

1019
00:54:40,559 --> 00:54:44,480
notes dedicated to his parents, says it was five minutes

1020
00:54:44,599 --> 00:54:45,920
in return for twenty one years.

1021
00:54:46,039 --> 00:54:49,519
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm glad that his dad saw the light. I mean,

1022
00:54:49,800 --> 00:54:53,119
how could you not acknowledge talent? There, I means on

1023
00:54:53,239 --> 00:54:56,239
display for the world to see that your son is

1024
00:54:56,280 --> 00:54:59,840
one of the greatest, most gifted singer songwriters of his era.

1025
00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:05,320
Speaker 3: So you mentioned earlier there. With this song, they released

1026
00:55:05,320 --> 00:55:11,039
it as Wham Featuring George Michael or just George Michael,

1027
00:55:11,079 --> 00:55:13,159
which was a little unusual given that this was just

1028
00:55:13,199 --> 00:55:16,199
their second album, but like I said, I feel like

1029
00:55:16,280 --> 00:55:19,400
these guys had an idea of what WAM was going

1030
00:55:19,480 --> 00:55:21,199
to be and it was not going to be something

1031
00:55:21,239 --> 00:55:21,719
that lasted.

1032
00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:24,480
Speaker 1: It's interesting this sort of agreement that they have on this.

1033
00:55:24,559 --> 00:55:27,760
Obviously they're prepping George for his solo career, but Andrew

1034
00:55:27,760 --> 00:55:31,440
did write this song as well. So Andrew's just an

1035
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:34,599
incredibly gracious guy. He saw George's talent, he saw where

1036
00:55:34,599 --> 00:55:36,159
he was going, and he got.

1037
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:39,880
Speaker 3: Out of the way. Yeah. And if you watch the

1038
00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:42,760
final concert, like the final of the final they'd come

1039
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:45,599
out with a third album that was really their goodbye album,

1040
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:48,079
and they do the final show of the final tour,

1041
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:50,920
these guys couldn't be getting along any better. Like, there's

1042
00:55:51,559 --> 00:55:54,760
literally no hostility that they have towards each other. They're

1043
00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:59,079
not acrimonious at all. They genuinely they love each other.

1044
00:55:59,199 --> 00:56:02,119
They are best friend ends and they knew that it

1045
00:56:02,159 --> 00:56:05,199
was just time for this phase of their lives to

1046
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:05,559
be over.

1047
00:56:05,920 --> 00:56:15,840
Speaker 1: Burnet, when he hugged Andrew at the end of that

1048
00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:18,239
last show in June of nineteen eighty six, they had

1049
00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:22,320
that huge concert Wembley Arena, hugged him and said, Andrew,

1050
00:56:22,360 --> 00:56:25,400
I could not have done this without you. That to me.

1051
00:56:25,719 --> 00:56:28,000
Andrew is happy to go off into the sunset and

1052
00:56:28,039 --> 00:56:30,239
wish George the best, and of course George goes on

1053
00:56:30,280 --> 00:56:33,440
to sell one hundred and twenty million albums worldwide from

1054
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:36,599
that point forward and puts himself in the echelon of

1055
00:56:36,679 --> 00:56:39,320
the Princes and the Michael Jackson's and the Madonnas of

1056
00:56:39,320 --> 00:56:39,800
the eighties.

1057
00:56:40,280 --> 00:56:42,440
Speaker 3: So I don't want to leave the song without talking

1058
00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:59,159
about the Ceether cover. Okay, this is actually a really

1059
00:56:59,199 --> 00:57:03,480
great cover. And see there is this South African band

1060
00:57:03,639 --> 00:57:07,199
that is a very hardcore band, but they do a

1061
00:57:07,239 --> 00:57:09,400
great job with the song. They got asked to do

1062
00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:11,920
a Valentine's Day song and they thought this is so ridiculous.

1063
00:57:12,039 --> 00:57:15,000
Let's do something crazy like a Wham song. They do

1064
00:57:15,119 --> 00:57:18,519
it and it becomes a big hit for them. And

1065
00:57:18,599 --> 00:57:21,880
so they're touring with Nickelback, which we'll be covering later on.

1066
00:57:22,079 --> 00:57:24,920
Let's go who do you hate more? Nickelbacker, Creed. We

1067
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:28,119
will be covering those two bands later on this summer.

1068
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:28,559
Speaker 1: Ready for it.

1069
00:57:28,800 --> 00:57:32,000
Speaker 3: And they're turing with Nickelback and they say, the younger

1070
00:57:32,239 --> 00:57:35,119
kids in the crowd are like singing along because they

1071
00:57:35,119 --> 00:57:37,480
think it's a Seither song. They don't know about Wham.

1072
00:57:37,920 --> 00:57:40,280
And then you've got the older guys who are there

1073
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:42,440
for the hard rock, who are like giving them the

1074
00:57:42,519 --> 00:57:46,199
finger and throwing bottles at them because they think they're

1075
00:57:46,280 --> 00:57:48,440
I don't know something, homophobia thing or something I.

1076
00:57:48,400 --> 00:57:52,360
Speaker 1: Don't that's funny. Yeah, all right, are we ready for

1077
00:57:52,400 --> 00:57:53,119
final judgment?

1078
00:57:53,480 --> 00:57:55,559
Speaker 3: Boys and girls? It is that time we have covered

1079
00:57:55,559 --> 00:57:59,719
both of these albums. They are both incredible albums. They're

1080
00:57:59,719 --> 00:58:03,000
both big if you will, they are big sig chair,

1081
00:58:03,119 --> 00:58:05,639
big chair and make it big. Yes, it's time for

1082
00:58:05,679 --> 00:58:08,480
final judgment. I nominate Jason Colvin to speak first.

1083
00:58:08,639 --> 00:58:12,039
Speaker 1: Okay, So for me, I'm a pop guy, always been

1084
00:58:12,039 --> 00:58:15,159
a pop guy. I love rock as well. These are

1085
00:58:15,360 --> 00:58:20,320
two great mid eighties sort of pop rock albums. I

1086
00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:23,800
would say that I love Make It Big more than most.

1087
00:58:24,159 --> 00:58:26,599
The good hooks, good looks, formula I worked on me

1088
00:58:26,599 --> 00:58:28,639
as a kid. I thought these guys were cool, thought

1089
00:58:28,639 --> 00:58:30,400
they put out great music. I thought it was a

1090
00:58:30,400 --> 00:58:33,039
lot of fun. I was all in, had this tape,

1091
00:58:33,199 --> 00:58:37,960
loved it. But the Tears for Fears album is better.

1092
00:58:38,119 --> 00:58:41,079
It speaks to my soul more. It's a little more serious.

1093
00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:43,639
Although I tend to be more happy go lucky and

1094
00:58:43,719 --> 00:58:47,719
less serious. I can't deny the head over heels. Everybody

1095
00:58:47,719 --> 00:58:50,519
wants to rule the world. Shout mothers, talk for me,

1096
00:58:50,800 --> 00:58:54,039
spiking the football, Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair.

1097
00:58:54,159 --> 00:58:56,159
It's the better of these two albums.

1098
00:58:57,079 --> 00:59:00,239
Speaker 3: When we got done with Tears for Fears, I was

1099
00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:03,760
thinking to myself, this is going to be a landslide

1100
00:59:03,760 --> 00:59:07,840
for Tears for Fears. I didn't have high aspirations for

1101
00:59:08,079 --> 00:59:10,880
Make It Big. I was at that moment that I

1102
00:59:10,920 --> 00:59:14,400
hadn't yet studied it. I was thinking bubblegum pop, right,

1103
00:59:15,039 --> 00:59:17,880
which I thought you would land both feed in. But

1104
00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:23,079
upon going through the album, rediscovering some of these songs,

1105
00:59:23,400 --> 00:59:26,719
looking at the lyrics of these songs in more detail,

1106
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:31,159
Make It Big is a high quality album. It has

1107
00:59:31,519 --> 00:59:34,840
a feel good component that is kind of missing from

1108
00:59:34,920 --> 00:59:37,679
Tears for Fears, Ye songs from the Big Chair, and

1109
00:59:37,800 --> 00:59:40,280
so I think of it. I think of these two

1110
00:59:40,360 --> 00:59:42,639
albums very much in the same way when we did

1111
00:59:42,679 --> 00:59:45,719
our Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA versus Huey Lewis

1112
00:59:45,719 --> 00:59:48,000
and the News Sports. If I'm going to the beach

1113
00:59:48,039 --> 00:59:50,000
and it's sunny and I want to put the top

1114
00:59:50,039 --> 00:59:52,719
down and crank up the volume. I'm bringing Huey Lewis

1115
00:59:52,719 --> 00:59:55,000
in the news. If I've just had a fight with

1116
00:59:55,119 --> 00:59:59,239
my spouse, or you know, some somebody just wrecked their

1117
00:59:59,320 --> 01:00:01,559
car into my carr in the parking lot and I'm

1118
01:00:01,639 --> 01:00:05,360
angry and it's nighttime, I want to listen to Bruce Springsteen. Right,

1119
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:08,440
So Tears for Fears is my angry drive music or

1120
01:00:08,480 --> 01:00:11,840
maybe my sad drive music, and Wham is my happy,

1121
01:00:11,880 --> 01:00:13,519
go lucky Let's go to the beach and have some

1122
01:00:13,599 --> 01:00:16,519
fun and kick a volleyball around. So any depending on

1123
01:00:16,559 --> 01:00:18,719
the day, one of the other of these albums is

1124
01:00:18,760 --> 01:00:22,679
going to be number one for me. But overall, looking

1125
01:00:22,719 --> 01:00:26,960
at the entire album, because they both have huge banger

1126
01:00:27,000 --> 01:00:30,760
songs off of them. Right, I can't find filler songs

1127
01:00:31,360 --> 01:00:34,840
in Songs from the Big Chair. I can and make

1128
01:00:34,880 --> 01:00:37,920
it big. The filler songs are skippers, and I didn't

1129
01:00:37,920 --> 01:00:40,639
have any skippers on Songs from the Big Chair. And

1130
01:00:40,719 --> 01:00:43,159
like I said, Songs from the Big Chair was like

1131
01:00:43,159 --> 01:00:45,599
that girl from high school that you kind of disregarded

1132
01:00:45,639 --> 01:00:47,719
and then fell in love with when you saw her

1133
01:00:47,760 --> 01:00:50,840
again forty years later. So I have to agree with you.

1134
01:00:51,320 --> 01:00:54,360
Songs from the Big Chair is the better of these

1135
01:00:54,360 --> 01:00:56,880
two albums. But dang, it is a much closer race

1136
01:00:56,920 --> 01:00:57,760
than I thought it was.

1137
01:00:57,920 --> 01:01:00,760
Speaker 1: That is awesome. I love it you chose George Bichael

1138
01:01:01,079 --> 01:01:03,599
in the in Excess battle. I did I think George

1139
01:01:03,599 --> 01:01:05,079
Michael's guy six and tea a little bit?

1140
01:01:05,159 --> 01:01:07,199
Speaker 3: He does? Yeah, I I mean he is. He is

1141
01:01:07,320 --> 01:01:11,920
truly or excuse me, was truly a gifted musician one

1142
01:01:11,920 --> 01:01:14,960
of the trevies. I didn't realize he had passed away

1143
01:01:15,039 --> 01:01:19,599
on Christmas Day, Christmas Day, twenty sixteen. Yep, all right,

1144
01:01:19,840 --> 01:01:23,320
that does it for this matchup. Next week we have

1145
01:01:23,440 --> 01:01:25,119
got another stellar matchup.

1146
01:01:27,360 --> 01:01:32,079
Speaker 1: We are doing a what the heck Happened between Jaws

1147
01:01:32,159 --> 01:01:35,159
three and Beverly Hills Cop three with our good buddy

1148
01:01:35,199 --> 01:01:36,960
Jeff Johnson from the Film By podcast.

1149
01:01:37,039 --> 01:01:39,239
Speaker 3: I just want you to know you are to blame

1150
01:01:39,679 --> 01:01:42,519
the fact that I just spent six dollars and ninety

1151
01:01:42,599 --> 01:01:47,679
nine cents to buy a blue ray disc of Jaws three,

1152
01:01:47,880 --> 01:01:51,199
which we left before it was over in the theater

1153
01:01:51,559 --> 01:01:52,559
forty one years ago.

1154
01:01:52,719 --> 01:01:56,079
Speaker 1: Okay, listen, we covered Jaws in season one the Film

1155
01:01:56,079 --> 01:01:59,159
By Guys. They covered Jaws two during their nineteen seventy

1156
01:01:59,199 --> 01:02:02,079
eight thing. We both did JOS four with them together?

1157
01:02:02,119 --> 01:02:03,239
And what the heck happened?

1158
01:02:03,280 --> 01:02:03,440
Speaker 6: Thing?

1159
01:02:03,519 --> 01:02:07,760
Speaker 1: We can't just not do JOSS three good, but we're not.

1160
01:02:07,960 --> 01:02:10,159
Come back next week for our discussion on that.

1161
01:02:10,480 --> 01:02:13,719
Speaker 3: Guys, if you have listened this far, please just show

1162
01:02:13,760 --> 01:02:15,119
us a little bit of love. You don't even have

1163
01:02:15,159 --> 01:02:17,800
to spend money just to hit the five star on

1164
01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:20,920
whatever app you're using to listen to this podcast. If

1165
01:02:20,960 --> 01:02:23,559
you leave a review, that helps get us up in

1166
01:02:23,559 --> 01:02:25,599
the rankings so that more people see us. So, if

1167
01:02:25,639 --> 01:02:27,480
you love us, the best thing is to tell other

1168
01:02:27,519 --> 01:02:30,480
people about us. The second best thing is to join

1169
01:02:30,519 --> 01:02:33,800
our Patreon family because that's freaking fantastic. And then if

1170
01:02:33,800 --> 01:02:35,480
you've got nothing else to do, just give us a

1171
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:37,199
little five star in a review. You know what our

1172
01:02:37,199 --> 01:02:39,719
marketing budget is, it's your dollars. You're listening to it

1173
01:02:39,800 --> 01:02:40,639
right now, that's right.

1174
01:02:40,840 --> 01:02:43,000
Speaker 1: So you know who we rely on to share the word,

1175
01:02:43,239 --> 01:02:44,079
people like yourselves.

1176
01:02:44,159 --> 01:02:45,960
Speaker 3: There you go, Thank you very much, Thank you, guys.

1177
01:02:46,280 --> 01:02:48,360
Speaker 1: We will see you next week for Jows three versus

1178
01:02:48,400 --> 01:02:52,000
Beverly Hills Cop three. What the heck happened? You put

1179
01:02:52,079 --> 01:02:53,519
boom boom in mah.

1180
01:02:57,880 --> 01:02:58,679
Speaker 3: W my phone.

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01:02:58,719 --> 01:02:59,119
Speaker 6: Here we go