Wham!’s Last Christmas has returned to the top of the charts on the single’s 40th anniversary.
Penned and produced by the late UK Cypriot superstar George Michael, the track was created with the aim of landing the Christmas Number One in 1984. However, the pop track was kept off the top spot by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?, a track that would go on to become the second best-selling single of all time.
It wasn’t until last year that Last Christmas finally earned the festive top spot.
Wham! also made history that year by setting the record for the longest-ever journey to the UK Christmas Number One which was 39 years.
Now, the festive classic is back at the top of the Official Singles Chart for an eighth non-conse-cutive week in just under four years, having first reached the summit for the first time on New Year’s Day 2021.
The accolade also comes as Last Christmas celebrates its 40th anniversary, which sees the single being released on a spe- cial limited-edition physical re-issue on both CD and various 12″ vinyl pressings including a picture disc and a zoetrope disc.
And, a BBC Two documentary about the creation and cultural impact of the holiday hit aired over the weekend.
Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley recalls how on a cold and dreary winter’s day, they were at George’s parents’ house with the TV on in the background. While they were killing time downstairs, George suddenly disappeared upstairs to his tiny bedroom studio.
Not long after, he called Andrew up, excited, saying, ‘Andy, you’ve got to come and listen to this.’ What Andrew heard was the foundation of Last Christmas – a rough version with the iconic keyboard melody and the cho-rus already in place. Even in its skeletal form, Andrew immedia-tely knew it was something special.
George had a clear goal: he wanted the song to be a Christmas number one as the perfect cherry on top of Wham!’s incre-dible 1984, which had already seen them dominate the charts with Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Careless Whisper.
Though Last Christmas didn’t achieve that feat until 39 years later, its lasting impact as one of the greatest festive songs ever written is undeniable.
The 2024 Official Christmas Number 1 will be announced on Friday 20 December.
Also in the race for the Christmas No1 spot is Tom Grennan with Amazon exclusive, It Can’t Be Christmas, Mariah Carey with All I Want For Christmas Is You, Gracie Abrams with That’s So True and Rosé with her floor-filling Bruno Mars collab APT.
Festive favourites taking resi-dency in the midweek Top 10 are Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree, Bobby Helm’s Jingle Bell Rock, and The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York.
The Top 40 will be counted down on BBC Radio 1’s The Official Chart with Jack Saunders from 4pm.