Put The Needle On The Record - Week #36

Put The Needle On The Record Week #36 Wham! - Make It Big

For this weeks feature we go back to November 1984 and the Wham! album "Make It Big".

The 80s wouldn't be the 80s without a bit of Wham! on your turntable would it? This was the duo's 2nd album, the follow up to the album "Fantastic" that me and and my brother had on casette and played it to death in the car at full blast, thinking we were cool!

I prefer "Make It Big" as it definitely has the better songs on it, apparently the album was recorded in France so the duo could top up their tans inbetween recording sessions, why doesn't that surprise me! George Michael also produced the record.

The only drawback for me was the fact the album only contained 8 tracks, however, you can't complain about the quality of the songs, top notch without a doubt. One stand out memory for me about this album was the fact that the video for "Freedom" was on constant rotation in the pubs with video jukeboxes across Manchester, the 12 inch version of the track is superb.

The album featured 4 singles, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" (which reached number 1 in the UK Singles chart and number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart), "Careless Whisper" (which reached number 1 in the UK Singles chart and number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart), "Freedom", my favourite track on the album (which reached number 1 in the UK Singles chart and number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart) and ""Everything She Wants", which was a double A side with the Christmas classic "Last Christmas" (which reached number 2 in the UK Singles chart and number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart)

The album topped the album charts in both the UK and the States, as well as,numerous places in Europe and beyond. in the UK Album Chart.

Track Listing

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go
Everything She Wants
Heartbeat
Like A Baby
Freedom
If You Were There
Credit Card Baby
Careless Whisper

If you have this album in your collection, dig it out and give it a spin!