Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley Reflects on 40 Years of ‘Last Christmas’

When Wham!’s Andrew Ridgeley first heard George Michael lay down his heart to “Last Christmas,” he knew the beloved Christmas tune was something special.

The magical moment happened when the holiday spirit struck his late bandmate in his childhood bedroom in London.

“We were killing time around his mom and dad’s house. It was a Sunday afternoon and the football was on,” Ridgeley, 61, told The Post. “And George disappeared upstairs (where) he had a little Fostex four-track recording studio, which used a cassette tape to record four tracks on. And (he) came back about an hour later and said, ‘Andy, Andy, you’ve got to come upstairs and listen to this!’

What Ridgley heard “written on the spot” was the beginning of “Last Christmas’s” journey to 40 years of festive emotion.

“He had written the bare-bones keyboard track, the basic drum track and a bit of the verse and chorus,” he recalled. “And it was a great moment … I knew it was a hit record. We’d had a few at the time, so we knew them when we heard them.”

Indeed, “Last Christmas” – released four decades ago on December 3, 1984 – continued the hot streak that Wham! was on after iconic hits like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and “Careless Whisper”. It still brings joy to the world every season – it is currently no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 – the holiday classic is now being celebrated with a new 40th anniversary EP and a Netflix documentary, “Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped.”

“It’s become part of the fabric of Christmas,” Ridgeley said. “It’s a very clever lyric and set to a melody that’s really charming, very beautiful, very light. And the two kinds work brilliantly together.”

Michael set out with “an aspiration” to write a song that would become the 1984 Christmas No. 1 single in the UK.

“It was supposed to be the icing on the cake for 1984. That was the intended purpose,” Ridgeley said. “Growing up in the ’70s, Christmas No. 1 was a really big deal.”

But, he added, “It was a challenge for George as a songwriter to write within prescribed parameters … And also to write (a carol) with such originality — the story of a betrayed love.”

When it came time to record the song at Advision Studios in London, Michael was a one-man band, playing a synthesizer, drum machine and sleigh bells in addition to singing all the vocals.

“It sounded the same as it sounded in his bedroom,” Ridgeley said. “There was no need for the band. He was left to himself.”

The Andrew Morahan-directed video — featuring Michael, Ridgeley and their fellow revelers in a ski lodge in Saas-Fee, Switzerland — was shot just weeks before the single was released.

“It was basically a group of friends that we were enjoying time with back in England, so it was natural to bring them along to shoot a video that was basically a house party,” Ridgeley said. “You take a bunch of 21-year-olds away and give them free accommodation, food and drink and you’ve got a bit of a party on your hands.”

But after “Last Christmas” was released as a double A-side single with the “Make It Big” hit “Everything She Wants”, it stalled at No. 2 in the UK, and was held off the top spot by Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” — an all-star charity single also featuring Michael.

Thirty-six Christmases later, the synth-pop bop finally hit No. 1 in Great Britain on New Year’s Day 2021. And it eventually became Christmas no. 1 in 2023. “Only 39 years later,” Ridgeley said with a laugh.

“Last Christmas” has gone on to inspire the 2019 film of the same name and countless covers by everyone from Taylor Swift to Ariana Grande. Ridgeley’s personal favorite? Gwen Stefani’s 2017 version.

“I like the arrangement and the production is great,” he said. “It has a Phil Spector-type sound, beautiful string arrangement.”

Eight years after Michael’s death in Christmas 2016the holiday chestnut recently reached a new high as no. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

And for Ridgeley, “Last Christmas” has lost none of its spark four decades later.

“It’s a song that has an essential freshness and vitality,” he said. “So I’m not sick of it.”