Wham!'s Andrew Ridgeley 'couldn't listen' to Last Christmas, why he called George Michael 'Yog' and how singer died
Last Christmas by Wham! has endured as one of the most listened to and famous Christmas songs of all time and now a new BBC Two documentary explores the history behind the hit and its legacy. Since its release in 1984, Last Christmas has gained four billion audio streams, had one billion video views and attained the number one chart position in 16 countries.
The documentary delves into the inside story of the song's creation by George Michael, who died on Christmas day 2016, and its enduring appeal and will air on BBC Two on Saturday, December 14 at 8.35pm. While promoting the documentary, Wham!'s Andrew Ridgeley, who formed the group in the early '80s after making friends with George at school in London, has opened up about finding it difficult to listen to Last Christmas - which celebrates 40 years of being a hit this December.
Speaking about whether he listens to the song with a smile, Ridgeley told Radio 2's Vernon Kay: “I do, I didn’t for a year or two post his death, it was difficult listening to it.”
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He added: “But now it represents a joyful time, it’s Christmas and also, in regard to our career together as Wham!, it represents really good times.”
Last Christmas is one of Wham!’s most popular tracks but it only reached number one on the UK chart in 2021, some 36 years after its release. Ridgeley, 61, reflected on the ongoing appeal of the hit while speaking to Kay on BBC Radio 2 show Tracks Of My Years.
After Kay said the song “typifies everything” he wants Christmas to be, Ridgeley said: “And I’m pretty sure George would be thrilled to pieces to hear you say that because that was his intention when he wrote it, to define Christmas in some way for people and it has come to do that.
“It is so evocative of an idea of Christmas. The keyboard part is reminiscent of sleigh bells, of course there are sleigh bells in it.
“Allied to the video which as you said represents an ideal Christmas, it has all the elements of cheer and so it has established itself as part of the fabric of Christmas.
“It’s brilliance is that it evokes for people, Christmas, however that may be in their own mind. It covers so many aspects of a Christmas. You mentioned heartbreak, but love, yes.”
Last Christmas was famously beaten to number one in 1984 by Band Aid’s charity single Do They Know It’s Christmas? which featured Michael, among a slew of other popular 1980s singers.
Asked if it feels like 40 years since the track’s release, Ridgeley said: “Yes and no. It is a long time ago but hearing it and looking at it, it might have been yesterday. It hasn’t dated.”
He added: “I am extremely proud of the fact that my best chum wrote a Christmas song with the intention, set himself the challenge, the goal, of writing a perennial Christmas favourite and it has exceeded, I think, any scope of imagination with regard to its success in that respect.”
Childhood best friends George and Andrew met when Andrew was the only child at their Hertfordshire comprehensive school who put his hand up when the teacher asked someone to look after the new boy, Georgios Panayiotou.
Both had immigrant fathers who had come to the UK escaping conflict, George's father was Greek Cypriot and Andrew's father had been expelled from Egypt during the Suez crisis. It is George's Greek roots that prompted Andrew to give him the nickname "Yog," which fans and TV viewers will notice Ridgeley calls him frequently in interviews.
Talking to Australia's 7News while promoting his recent autobiography, Andrew explained the nickname. He said: "His family called him Georgios, which sounded very similar to yoghurt. So his nickname was 'Yoghurt' for a very short while, and then we knew him as 'Yog'."
After Wham! George went on to a very successful solo career with hits like Faith, Outside and Jesus to a Child, as well as a addiction troubles and an arrest for public lewdness in 1998. But over the decades and headlines George retained a great sense of humour, poking fun at himself in Comic Relief skits and on Ricky Gervais' Extras and he and Andrew remained firm friends. They still saw each other fairly regularly, the last time a few months before George died, aged 53 from heart disease.
He had gone to George's Highgate home where they played Scrabble, and Andrew won. To lose a childhood friend, someone who had shared such a formative experience, “the like of which you don’t make again, was devastating”, says Andrew, talking to the Guardian. "But I look back on his life, not his death, and there’s so much to enjoy about his life and our life together.”
Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped airs on BBC Two at 8.35pm on Saturday, December 14. For the latest TV & Showbiz news, sign up to our newsletter.
