WHAM! -- Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

 

Well, after about a month, Reminiscings of Youth is back in the 1980s.

Fun fact here: there are already three WHAM! articles on KKP (two of them based on the same song) and yet this one is the first one to be placed as a ROY article. In fact, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" is the first song by George Michael and Andrew Ridgely that I had ever heard, so my initial impressions of the duo had been of some really nice and insanely happy young men with an "UP WITH LIFE!" attitude. It wouldn't be a little later that I got to see their earlier videos with George and Andrew acting like antisocial London toughs in songs like "Wham Rap". 

Released in May 1984, little did a lot of us know at the time that this was just the beginning of the WHAM! steamroller, but with Michael's smoldering good looks and incredible voice, perhaps we should have known. Strangely enough, I don't think I ever heard "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" on the radio for some reason, and as such, I'm always going to experience it in my head with that impossibly cheerful video. I mean, I didn't know that oversized T-shirts were a fashion fad; in my case, it was always a necessity. In any case, "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" hit No. 1 on the American, Canadian and British pop charts.

So, what was also hitting the top of the Oricon charts in May 1984?

1. Checkers -- Kanashikute Jealousy （哀しくてジェラシー）

2. Akina Nakamori -- Southern Wind （サザンウインド）

3. Seiko Matsuda -- Jikan no Kuni no Alice（時の国のアリス)