WHAM! – THE FINAL 2LP – EXC+ UK GEORGE MICHAEL

Wham! – The Final
(Epic Records  1988  88681)
Matrix No’s: A1/B2/C5/D4 – UK Pressing

Sleeve in Excellent condition
– some wear to edges/corners and some rubbing
Inner Sleeves in Excellent condition
– some discolouration but no splits
No Photo Insert

Double Vinyl in Excellent+ condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from some light pops/crackles)

Wham! was a 1980s British musical duo formed by members George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley in 1981. They were briefly known in the United States as Wham! UK due to a naming conflict with an American band. Wham! sold more than 25 million certified records worldwide from 1982 to 1986.

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016), known professionally as George Michael, was an English singer, songwriter, and record producer who rose to fame as a member of the music duo Wham! He was best known in the 1980s and 1990s with his style of post-disco dance-pop, with best-selling songs such as “Last Christmas” and “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”.

Michael sold more than 100 million records worldwide. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith, sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. Michael garnered seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, including “Careless Whisper” and “Freedom! ’90”. He ranks among the best-selling British acts of all time, with Billboard magazine ranking him the 40th-most successful artist ever. Michael won various music awards throughout his 30-year career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male twice, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations. Michael, who was gay, was an active LGBT rights campaigner and HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser.

In 2004, the Radio Academy named Michael the most played artist on British radio during the period 1984–2004. The documentary A Different Story, released in 2005, covered his career and personal life. In 2006, Michael announced his first tour in 15 years, the worldwide 25 Live tour, spanning three individual tours over the course of three years (2006, 2007 and 2008). In 2016, he announced a second documentary on his life entitled Freedom, set to be released in March 2017. In the early hours of 25 December 2016, Michael, aged 53, was found dead in bed at his Oxfordshire home.

The Final is a compilation released in 1986 to summarise the career of British pop duo Wham!. The album was not initially released in North America, where Wham’s third and final studio album Music from the Edge of Heaven was released instead. Four songs from that album appear on this compilation. For many, it remains the definitive Wham! purchase containing all the hits, most of them in their single mixes. The double LP and cassette versions of the album included all the band’s 12″ Mixes apart from “Freedom”, and also included the “Club Tropicana” B-side, “Blue (Armed with Love)”. This was not included on the CD version and was also overlooked for the remaster, and remains only available on CD on a Japanese “Club Tropicana” CD single.

Track listing

All songs written by George Michael, except where indicated.

Double LP

Side one

1. “Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)” (Michael, Andrew Ridgeley) – 6:43
2. “Young Guns (Go for It!)” – 5:09
3. “Bad Boys” (12″ version) – 4:52
4. “Club Tropicana” (Michael, Ridgeley) – 4:25

Side two

5. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” – 3:51
6. “Careless Whisper” (12″ version) (Michael, Ridgeley) – 6:30
7. “Freedom” – 5:20
8. “Last Christmas” (Pudding Mix) – 6:47

Side three

9. “Everything She Wants” (Remix) – 6:30
10. “I’m Your Man” (Extended Stimulation) – 6:50
11. “Blue (Armed with Love)” – 3:50

Side four

12. “A Different Corner” – 3:59
13. “Battlestations” – 5:27
14. “Where Did Your Heart Go?” (David Was, Don Was) – 5:45
15. “The Edge of Heaven” – 4:37