It’s Saturday night, and it’s time to get back out on the dance floor as the all Wham! weekend continues. This time around, I’ve got a batch of Wham!-related extended dance remixes.
As I’ve said before, there’s some sort of bizarre cult following for “Last Christmas,” so a third of these remixes are various versions of that song. I’m not sure why people would go to such lengths, but I guess you have to find some way to feel you’re making use of your Pro Tools on a regular basis. Also, I think that…hey…are you paying attention?…Oh, it’s that photo over to the left, isn’t it? I thought so. Yeah, I guess you didn’t expect you were gonna come to Popdose this weekend and see something that would haunt your dreams for the rest of the winter, but sometimes life just isn’t fair, is it? Remember, though — when life hands you pale shirtless Brits in leather posing homoerotically, you make leatherade…wait a minute.
Okay, okay, I admit, I don’t have much to say about this group of songs other than they’re longer, and differ slightly from the more familiar versions. A couple of notes, though, should suffice. The five minute, 50 second version of “Everything She Wants” is probably the most familiar of these, as it was used in the song’s video. I think it’s superior to the shorter album and 7″ versions. I can understand cutting down the single version, since most hit songs still are rarely longer than five minutes in length, but Make it Big has only eight songs and runs under 40 minutes; you’d think they could squeeze the extra minute and change onto Side Two, but for some reason the decision was made to go this route.
Also, I was disappointed to find that the Long Mix of “Freedom” is the standard Epic 12″ version, which clocks in at 7:14, all of it due to a remixed portion of the 7″/album version tacked onto the opening. My most preferred mix of it is the one used in its video, which clocks in at 5:20, and contains a piccolo-trumpet a la “Penny Lane” in the outro (you can hear it now that I’ve mentioned it, can’t you?). This version can be found on various Wham! compilations and Greatest Hits packages.
Finally, you don’t need to listen that closely to the extended mix of “I Knew You Were Waiting for Me” to hear some of the same percussion effects that Narada Michael Walden would use in another #1 song he’d produce the following year: Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”
Wham! – Wham Rap (Enjoy What You Do) (Unsocial Mix)
Wham! – Last Christmas (Pudding Mix)
Wham! – Last Christmas (Benny Benassi Remix)
Wham! – Last Christmas (Techno Remix)
Wham! – Freedom (Long Mix)
Wham! – Young Guns (Go For It) (12″ Version)
Wham! – I’m Your Man (Extended Stimulation)
Wham! – Everything She Wants (12″ Version)
George Michael & Aretha Franklin – I Knew You Were Waiting for Me (Extended Remix)
George Michael – Killer (NYC Club Mix)
That’s it for Saturday night. Make sure not to get up too late Sunday morning, because we’re doing brunch with probably the Whammiest Wham! song of them all.
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