BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1984
“Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” is a two-million-selling, Platinum-certified 1984 song by the English pop duo Wham!, which became their first American and UK #1 hit. It was written and produced by George Michael, one half of the duo.
The song entered the UK singles chart at number four — after much hype from the duo claiming they would go straight in at number one, which was a rare occurrence then — and climbed to the top spot seven days later, staying there for two weeks.
SIDE A:
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go 3:51
SIDE B:
A Ray Of Sunshine (Specially Recorded For The Tube) 4:52
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (Instrumental) 4:02
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
U.S. CHART HISTORY:
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | #1 |
| 1984 | Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go | U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | #4 |
| 1984 | Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go | U.S. Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play | #27 |
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Epic/Sony – 12-3P-536
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 45 RPM
Country: Japan
Released: 1984
Genre: Electronic
Style: Synth-pop
Credits: Arranged By – George Michael
Producer – George Michael
Written By – George Michael
NOTES:
Special thanks to Siobhan (Who has the unviable task of “WAKING” us up)
Photography by Koh Hasebe (Music Life)
Wham! Fan Club, PO Box, 1AP, London, W1AP
Find The 12″ On DISCOGS
EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Platter: Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Speed Control: Pro-Ject Speed Box S
Phono Pre-amp: Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Tube: Tung-Sol 12AX7ECC803-S Gold Electron Tube
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
Record Cleaning: VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Artwork Scans: Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Recording/Editing: Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Down Sampling: iZotope RX Advanced 2
Artwork Editor: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Click Removeal: ClickRepair (DeClick Level 3)
FLAC/MP3 Conversion: dBpoweramp
M3U Playlist: Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
Hello:
Could you be so kind, and re-upload this song?
Thank you kindly.
Thank you! Would it be possible to re-enable the link?
TY
Thank you!
This was great….and useful <3
My wife loves this track, however has to be the worst and cheesiest cover picture in the world!!
I think it’s rather cute very 80’s!
It was not actually live sir .. LOVE MACHINE and A RAY OF SUNSHINE were pre recorded as stated for little shows like that one. If you look at similar ones to that in the UK.. Most were pre recorded and sadly enough the versions were also diff to the official release.. Which in my option would have been great bonus tracks for the Remastered or even The Anniverseray edition. There are only 2 Wham recording in circulation that are live.. Wham! Special Time 2 LP Driscoll set recorded in Japan (Unofficial) and Wham! in Philly .. Which is where… Read more »
I did say Wham didn’t play live?! (second paragraph)
The Thompson Twins also mimed when they went on. Seems such a waste coz as I say, about 90% of bands on The Tube did play live, and in Wham’s case it’s not like they *couldn’t* play it live, they had a massive backing band.
Here’s the actual Tube performance that is on the b-side of this 12″.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOB4rqFuoH4
The Tube was a pretty special music show. It was broadcast live, and most (90% ?) bands performed live. They didn’t feature pop acts too much (more rock and indie, hence the audience are pretty unenthused by George & Andy) and the studio was set out like a gig environment.
I really wish Wham had played fully live, although I suppose it means we get this special re-recorded version (which I guess was done in one take as if they were playing it live).
Great memories of this song.
Thanks for your continued Wham revival 🙂
You’re welcome Junior 🙂
Again Paul, touched by your mastery and generosity. I love this Wham! series.
Jeff
You’re welcome Jeff 🙂
Paul muchas muchas gracias llegue a pensar que nunca tendria este single
De nada Carlos 🙂
Thanks Paul for continuing with more of Wham! and Japanese pressings to boot!!! I do agree that the UK sleeve is more stylish while this Japanese one seems more like a poster or a magazine centrefold shot. But its value really lies in its rarity. We really have to thank Andrew’s mum for inspiring this title and tune. For this Make It Big era, George really saw Wham! as a 60s duo in the 80s. And when he bragged at the beginning of 1984 that Wham! would come back and score 4 #1’s by year end…everybody laughed. But by December… Read more »
I had a choose life t-shirt as I mentioned in an above comment I lip-synced this song with a friend for a school talent show fun memory lol. The cover picture was taken by Koh Hasebe for Music Life so it was a magazine pic I think 🙂
Awesome as usual. Doubt i’ve heard the Instrumental for well over a decade!
Enjoy Neil 🙂
This was the beginning of the end for me.
Before this song it’d been cool to like Wham! – they were hard, edgy, with social commentary… and then they did this?!??
I felt embarrassed, even at that young age. And cheated, it was so girly and like they’d just gone after the cheap buck.
It took me until the shock split-up announcement to get over it, and then I threw myself headlong back in to Wham, rose tinted glasses and all.
I was about 12.
Not me I embraced it all the way. I even did a school talent show and lip-synced the song complete with a Go-Go white t-shirt lol.
honey…now thats how u did……..
😀 Ace!!
I’ve not heard that live (ish) version of Ray of Sunshine before, I love it – I wish there were more recordings of when they were touring the first few singles.
a little fact for you. I saved up to buy the french only cd single of this that was released back in the 90s. I was hoping the instrumental would be a properly mastered version and guess what..it is a VINYL rip put on cd!!
Yeah that happens a lot.
And a very bad vinyl rip too, yuk.
I’m enjoying these Wham! posts so much more than George’s new album.
lol. 😀
stunning….cannot thank you enough..
Thank you Hugh 🙂
The nice thing about 12 inch rips like this is you get rare dub/instrumental versions otherwise not available, thanks!
You’re welcome Martijn Van Heeringen 🙂
i was hoping you would post this one. Love this toon but i also like the instrumental version that i always ang to lol. thanks a million DJPaul, you’re truly are the best
… Brian
*Tune
*Sang to
You’re welcome Brian 🙂
Thanks Paul. A Ray Of Sunshine should’ve been a single as well.
You’re welcome Omar. I agree love “A Ray Of Sunshine” 🙂
Thank you Paul!!!
Simply amazing! 🙂
You’re welcome Spring 🙂
And we enter the Make It Big era! Thanks for this Paul! Really enjoying rediscovering Wham!
You’re welcome Todd 🙂
This Japanese pressing has a rather strange cartoonish cover, I think. Great to have a quality rip of the rare instrumental.
Looking forward to ‘Freedom’. Will it be one post with all the versions or two separate posts?
Thanks for this Wham! restart. Like it a lot. You should do more series every now and then. This Wham! series became such a huge success!
Yes – the UK cover is so much more stylish because it’s by Peter Saville, the designer for New Order, DinDisc and Factory Records.
OMG, I forgot he’d done The Final, I didn’t realise he’d done WMUBYGG too, though strangley I don’t remember seeing either in The Design Museum’s Peter Saville retrospective a few years back. 😀
This is an amazing page: http://www.petersaville.info/sleeves/1982-1984.html And the other years. Not all of them are Saville – many are Brett Wickens – but his body of work is really quite remarkable.
Havn’t decided yet Stefano I will probably just add the single mix to the Japnese post. I like the Japanese sleeves because thaey are sometimes alternate to the rest of the world making them more collectible 🙂