Last Christmas

December 15, 1984

Last Christmas is a song the group Wham!, Which was first published in 1984. Composed by George Michael piece has since been re-released almost every year at Christmas time and has become a classic of popular Christmas music. The song's lyrics are about lost love relationship.

Formation

The former record company of Wham! wanted to publish on the fly a Christmas song. According to some sources to George Michael have only rewritten the text of an already composed by him piece titled "Last Easter " ( " Last Easter" ), by adapting it to Christmas and the season. Other sources consider this story not credible because it was so far confirmed neither by the record company Sony nor the artist himself. The video clip for Last Christmas was filmed in a chalet in the Swiss ski resort of Saas Fee in the Valais Alps and cost £ 60,000. The partners of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were two background singers. These had later than Pepsi & Shirlie a Top Ten hit.

Publication

The single was first released at the Epic label on 15 December 1984. On the B - side of the car also composed by Michael piece Everything She Wants. After the single fell in January 1985 in the charts again, the record company decided to swap the A and B side. This was followed by Everything She Wants a Top 10 hit (No. 8) in Germany.

Last Christmas sold in the UK more than 1.4 million times. In December 1984, the single also reached the highest ever chart position at number 2 in the British BBC charts. However, the song was not a number 1 hit, as the song Do They Know It 's Christmas? this position held by Band Aid project for several weeks. Last Christmas, making it the best-selling UK music piece, which never topped the charts. In Germany Last Christmas is regularly represented since 1997 in December in the charts and manages the airplay charts even regularly in the top 5 The piece was also repeatedly gecovert, inter alia, the Backstreet Boys, Ashley Tisdale, Crazy Frog, The Boss Hoss, Travis, Max Raabe and Madsen, and is also found on many Christmas compilations. In addition, there is of the indie pop band Erdmöbel a 2006 erschienes German cover under the title Christmas. The royalties go alone to George Michael and not to his former bandmate Andrew Ridgeley.

The success of the song, the author tries Sebastian Hammelehle in an article in the Welt am Sonntag in December 2004, explained as follows:

Litigation

Shortly after the release, there was a dispute with Barry Manilow. Subject of the dispute was the similarity of the song with Manilow's hit song " Can not Smile without You ". There was an agreement out of court, by virtue of which approached all proceeds from the song in the first year of the Action Band Aid. The exact amount is not known, however, about 1.4 million copies of the single sold in the corresponding period.

Cover versions

The song has been covered many times, by, among other things:

• Billie Piper (1999)
• Daniel Lopes (2003)
• Erdmöbel ( 2006) ( German text, title: "Christmas" )
• Ashley Tisdale (2006)
• Crazy Frog (2006)
• Cascada (2007)
• Birgit Õigemeel (2008)
• Alcazar (2009)
• Glee Cast (2010)
• Milla Kay (2011)
• Matthias Reim (2011)

Chart positions since 1984

Note: * = including 9 weeks as a B-side of Everything She Wants