Any musician that’s been around for decades is normally going to have to take a close look at their setlist every time they go back onstage. Even though they can play the hits that everybody loves, there will always be a handful of tracks that sound dated in retrospect. While George Michael made sure to keep most of his greatest moments on his records, he admitted he had to limit himself to playing only ‘Everything She Wants’ and ‘I’m Your Man’ live from his Wham days.
Then again, Michael would spend the rest of his life trying to outrun his boyhood group. While he was probably happy with everyone singing tracks like ‘Freedom’ and ‘Club Tropicana’, there were more than a few fans who were probably looking at him a certain way when he suddenly tried to transition from the happy-go-lucky kid to the embodiment of James Dean on the album Faith.
Because when Michael went solo, it wasn’t just a change of pace; it was a career reset. The minute that people heard ‘Careless Whisper’, they knew the crooner was undergoing a massive career switch, but the minute that tracks like ‘Father Figure’ and ‘I Want Your Sex’ hit the airwaves, most knew he couldn’t play that live in concert and then get everyone jumping to ‘Wham Rap’ a few songs later.
Michael was probably still proud to have one of the best run of hit singles of the 1980s, but when talking about his solo tours, he thought only two of Wham’s classics could survive all those years, saying, “There are only a couple of Wham songs I can get away with — ‘Everything She Wants’ and ‘I’m Your Man.’”
When paired up against the rest of the pop duo’s catalogue, though, ‘Everything She Wants’ is probably the best transitionary moment for Michael. From the R&B-style vocal he put on to the moody chorus, you can clearly see that this kid was capable of going from teenybopper hits to solid gold in the future.
And while ‘I’m Your Man’ is a lot tamer by comparison, it’s still fairly safe as far as adult-oriented pop goes. There are still more than a few lines that might be a little bit juvenile, but even for a kid barely out of his teens, it’s still a decent little love song about never giving up on your partner.
Then again, it’s understandable why Michael needed to outgrow those kind of tracks, too. The whole point of ending Wham in the first place was so that they could both keep the duo as part of their youth, so it would be a bit strange to see the smoother, elegant version of Michael trying to justify putting ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ into a setlist.
No matter how many people wanted to relive their glory days, Michael knew that he needed to move forward if he wanted to be taken seriously as an artist. That meant Wham would probably never meet the stage again, but most fans can at least smile knowing that they were a part of something special for those few years.
