#142: Young Guns by Wham!

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKGM
Peak Month: May 1983
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #3
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Young Guns”
Lyrics: “Young Guns”

Wham! is the name of a British pop duo formed in 1981. George Michael (born Georgiōs Kyriakos Panagiōtou) was born in East Finchley, England, in 1963. In his teens, he began his involvement in the music business by working as a DJ, playing at the Bel Air Restaurant in London. In 1975, he met Andrew Ridgeley in school in Bushey, Hertfordshire. Andrew Ridgeley was also born in 1963, in Surrey, England. Prior to forming Wham! with George Michael, Ridgeley was in a band called The Executive. Ridgeley explained that the name originated from a need for “something that captured the essence of what set us apart—our energy and our friendship—and then it came to us: Wham! Wham! was snappy, immediate, fun and boisterous too.” In 1982, the debut record to be released by the band was “Wham Rap!” in June 1982. The song charted at only No. 105 on the UK pop chart. However, it was re-released in 1983 when the band was catching on and reached the Top Ten in Australia, the Netherlands and the UK.

The second single Wham! released was titled “Young Guns (Go For It)”.

George Michael wrote “Young Guns (Go for It)” about a teenage boy’s worry that his best friend is getting too committed to a girl when he should be enjoying his youth and the single life. It features a middle eight aside in which the girl conversely tries to get her boyfriend to ditch the best friend, prompting a vocal battle, akin to a tug of war, between the girlfriend and the best friend, which prompted the ‘go for it’ aspect of the song, as featured in the title.

“Young Guns” peaked at #3 in Montreal, #4 in Los Angeles, and #5 in Sherbrooke (PQ). Internationally, “Young Guns (Go For It)” peaked at number-one in Sweden, #3 in the UK, #4 in Australia, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, #8 in Belgium, #10 in Norway, and #11 in Finland.

After the re-release of “Wham Rap”, Wham! released “Bad Boys”. The single topped the pop chart in Paraguay, It was also a Top Ten hit in Australia, Belgium, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK. In addition, “Club Tropicana” was  Top Ten hit in Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK.

In 1984, Wham! had an international Top Ten hit titled “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”. The single topped the pop charts in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Sweden, the UK, and USA. It was also a Top Ten hit in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Guatemala, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, and West Germany. That year “Careless Whisper” – credited to Wham! featuring George Michael – topped the pop chart in Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Peru, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA. It also charted in the Top Ten in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Hungary, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Portugal, Sweden, and West Germany.

In 1984, Wham! released a double A-side single “Last Christmas” and “Everything She Wants”. “Last Christmas” was got airplay on North American radio stations in December 1984. However, it was not generally listed as a charted hit as a ‘Christmas single’. More recently, “Last Christmas” has topped the pop charts during the Christmas holidays in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and the UK. “Everything She Wants” began to chart in February 1985, reaching number-one in Iceland and the United States. It also charted into the Top Ten in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the UK, and West Germany.

Wham! released their second album Make It Big. The lead single “Freedom” was a Top Ten hit in the fall and summer of 1985. It reached number-one in Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the UK. It was a Top Ten hit in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA.

Wham! appeared at Live Aid, with George Michael and Elton John singing a duet of “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”, among other highlights. And in late November 1984, George Michael was one of the vocalists for the Band Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas“.

In November 1985, Wham! released “I’m Your Man”, the lead single from the album Music from the Edge of Heaven. “I’m Your Man” was again another international Top Ten hit for the duo. It topped the pop charts in Denmark, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand and the UK. It reached the Top Ten in another ten nations. In the summer of 1986, “The Edge of Heaven” topped the pop charts in Belgium, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the UK. It was also a Top Ten hit in another dozen countries. Wham! had a final single release titled “Where Did Your Heart Go?” It was a Top Ten hit in the Netherlands, and reached the Top 20 in Finland and Iceland.

George Michael was keen to create music targeted at a more adult market rather than the duo’s primarily teenage audience, and therefore, he and Andrew Ridgeley officially announced the break-up of Wham! in the spring of 1986. A solo George Michael effort featured on Wham!s last album was “A Different Corner”. It topped the pop charts in Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, the UK, and Zimbabwe. It also reached the Top Ten in another eleven nations. Wham! had a final concert on June 28, 1986, at Wembley Stadium for 72,000 fans.

Post Wham!’s breakup, George Michael and Aretha Franklin released a duet titled “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)”. The single was a smash hit topping the pop charts in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, the USA, and Zimbabwe. It was also a Top Ten hit in another nine countries. The single won both Franklin and Michael a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Later in 1987, from the album Faith came “I Want Your Sex”. The single also featured in the film Beverly Hills Cop. It topped the pop charts in Belgium, Ireland, and the Netherlands. It also cracked the Top Ten in over fifteen more nations. While “Faith” reached number-one in Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the USA. It also reached the Top Ten in ten more countries. Faith was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Album of the Year category.

More tracks from Faith reached number-one in multiple countries: “Father Figure”, “One More Try”, “Monkey” and “Kissing a Fool”. George Michael continued the have more chart-topping hits in the following decades. These include “Praying for Time”, “Freedom ’90”, “Too Funky”, “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” (a duet with Elton John), “Somebody To Love” (a duet with Queen), “Jesus To a Child”, “Fastlove”, “Spinning the Wheel”, “Star People ’97”, “Outside”, “Freeek!”, “Amazing”, “An Easier Affair”, and “Flawless (Go to the City)”.  George Michael received more Grammy Award nominations in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for both “Father Figure” and “Freedom ’90”. While he and Elton John received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”. His fourth studio album, Songs from the Last Century, earned him another Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category. While “Amazing” was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical category. And “Flawless (Go to the City)” received a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video.

Throughout his solo career, George Michael sold over 100 million records. In 1998, George Michael was arrested for public lewdness in a public washroom at Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, California. Michael was the subject of a sting operation and tempted by an undercover cop. George Michael’s song “Outside” satirized the public toilet incident, and the music video featured men dressed as policemen kissing. In the following decade George Michael had several run-ins with the authorities variously in relation to possession of Class C drugs, being unfit to drive while under the influence, and banned from driving from 2010 to 2014. George Michael was abusing cannabis, and sleeping pills. He sustained a head injury from a car accident in 2013. Meanwhile, from his record sales and tours, by 2015 George Michael was worth £105 million.

In the early hours of Christmas Day 2016, Michael died in bed at his home in Goring-on-Thames, at the age of 53. He was found by his partner, Fadi Fawaz. In March 2017, a senior coroner in Oxfordshire attributed Michael’s death to natural causes due to dilated cardiomyopathy, with myocarditis, and fatty liver disease. In 2023, George Michael was ranked number-two in a list of the Top 20 male (pop music) vocalists of the past century by Smooth Radio.

George Michael also was nominated for eleven Ivor Novello Awards in Britain, winning six of these. In Canada, he received six Juno Award nominations. He also won five Brit Awards, and received 24 nominations.

After Wham! dissolved, Andrew Ridgeley moved to Monaco and tried his hand at Formula Three motor racing. Meeting with little success, he moved to Los Angeles in pursuit of a career in acting. However, nothing came of it. He released one solo album in 1990, Son of Albert. The single “Shake” was a Top 20 hit in Australia. Ridgeley spent his life surfing, cycling, walking and living off Wham! royalties. He married Bananarama singer Keren Woodward in 1990. The couple got a divorce in 2017. In 2019, Ridgeley authored a memoir titled Wham!: George Michael and Me.

Wham! was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.

July 4, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
Robert Steele, Careless Whispers: The Life and Career of George Michael, (Omnibus Press, 2021).
Emine Saner, “‘Oh God, I envied his voice!’ Andrew Ridgeley on ego, angst and loving George Michael,” Guardian, July 19, 2023.
“George Michael posthumously enters Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with tribute from Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley,” Cleveland Plain-Dealer, November 4, 2023.
Maura Johnston, “In Book, Andrew Ridgeley Pays Tribute To George Michael And A More Innocent Pop Era,” NPR, October 10, 2019.
Andrew Ridgeley, Wham!, George Michael and Me: A Memoir, (Random House, 2019).
Max Blau and Chloe Melas, “George Michael: Chart topper and cultural icon dead at 53,” December 26, 2016.
“The 20 best male singers of all time, ranked in order of pure vocal ability,” SmoothRadio.com.
“Obituary: George Michael,” BBC, December 25, 2016.

CKGM 980-AM Montreal (PQ) | May 12, 1983