Haven Favourites - George Michael/Wham!: Final

[raliverpool]

Haven Favourites - George Michael/Wham! : The Final



40 Tracks and two Semi Finals sees us down to a Final of 21 songs which are in alphabetical order:

A Different Corner www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPWHkK-_a_A
Amazing www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YziZ1FlAWs
Careless Whisper www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ
Club Tropicana www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYX0sjP6Za8
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsKqMNDoR4o
Everything She Wants www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf_Lwe6p-Cg
Faith www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cs3Pvmmv0E
Fastlove www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHAQlFq6TFg
Father Figure www.youtube.com/watch?v=udtByWgt1Mk
Freedom (Wham!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUHBtYXVzjA
Freedom! '90 www.youtube.com/watch?v=diYAc7gB-0A
I'm Your Man www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W0d9xMhZbo
Jesus To A Child www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNBj4EV_hAo
Kissing A Fool www.youtube.com/watch?v=omsBhh8vA7c
Last Christmas www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gmARGvPlI
Outside www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwZAYdHcDtU
Praying For Time www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihfmwtMbcJE
The Edge Of Heaven www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCqEyJc-wdk
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIgZ7gMze7A
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAizy6dIxE8
Young Guns (Go For It!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=doZ6wOJHu_E

You have (virtually) two weeks to PM me with your Top 10 favourite George Michael/Wham! tracks from this final selection using the traditional Eurovision Song Contest scoring system (1st 12 Pts; 2nd 10 Pts; 3rd 8 Pts; 4th 7 Pts ... down to .... 10th 1 Pt) by the time I come online Monday 8th May early evening, and I will reveal the results during the following week.

The next Haven Favourites contest afterwards will be the Pet Shop Boys ......

[Deleted]

Votes are in. This list is far from my personal top 21, but you've got to work with what you are given. Also surprised how much early Wham stuff made it through.

[o]

I prefer Wham to George Michael, sorry

[Mic1812]

Voted

[vya]

voted

[Jordan]

Voted

[raliverpool]

Vague update:

Thank you for the 8 sets of votes in so far.

Every track is off the mark, with just two tracks left on a single digit point total.

Whilst it appears to be a very open contest, with the current leader not receiving points from 3 of the 8 voters so far.

[rubcale]

Agree with o.

Wham were brilliant but I didn't really like much of GM's solo stuff.

[darkstar79]

My votes are in.

[raliverpool]

Latest vague update:

Thank you for the 12 sets of votes so far ...

Every song has got into double digits. And there are currently just 2 points separating 2nd and 5th place.

I'm keeping this vote open for another week.

[Earl Purple]

Ok, I will vote in it because I haven't yet, although it is very difficult, especially now Cowboys And Angels which is my clear favourite didn't get through.

[raliverpool]

I'm up to 14 sets of votes.

Any more in the next 48 or so hours?

[raliverpool]

I have 15 sets of votes in, unless I receive anymore before 19:00 Hours tomorrow, then I will look to countdown the final results.

[raliverpool]

The Losing Semi Finalists:

Position / Seeding / Song Title / S Final %

22nd 12 One More Try 4.4
22nd 17 Too Funky 4.4
24th 33 Waiting For That Day 4.07
25th 31 Heal The Pain 3.85
25th 14 I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me) 3.85
27th 43 Bad Boys 3.49
27th 27 Cowboys & Angels 3.49
27th 35 The Strangest Thing '97 3.49
30th 26 You Have Been Loved 3.3

31st 32 Flawless (Go To The City) 2.91
31st 30 Killer / Papa Was A Rolling Stone 2.91
31st 40 Monkey 2.91
31st 28 Spinning The Wheel 2.91
35th 21 I Can't Make You Love Me 2.75
35th 34 Star People '97 2.75
37th 29 Somebody To Love 2.2
38th 16 I Want Your Sex 1.74
39th 18 December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas) 1.38
40th 13 As 0.87

[raliverpool]

Onto the Final 21 (Where posible I'll try not to select the official videos):

(Position / Seeding / Song Title (Year) / Points)

21st 20 Amazing (2004) 17 Pts


The least oldest song to make the final is this UK #4, Australia #6, & #1 in Spain, and his biggest chart hit this century (Euro Chart #2) taken from the Patience album. The song is about and dedicated to George Michael's partner, Kenny Goss.

It received points from 5 Haveners with Darkstar79 6 Pts being the most generous.

[raliverpool]

The first shock result?

20th 5 Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (1991) 25 Pts


Originally recorded in 1974 by Elton John for his studio album Caribou where as a single it peaked at USA #2...  The pair first performed the song at the Live Aid concert in 1985 (See Video ^) (with Michael singing and John playing). Six years later, George Michael's Cover to Cover tour regularly included the song, and for the final show at Wembley Arena, London on 23 March 1991, Michael brought out John as a surprise guest to sing it with him. It was this version released as a single in November 1991 where it became a #1 hit in UK, USA, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway & Switzerland, and made the top 5 virtually everywhere else.

It received points from 7 of us, with whitneyfan & Earl Purple's 6 Points being the highest.

[Gezza]

The only single I like from Michael from 2001 onward is "Shoot The Dog" even though it was critically panned. "Amazing" is OK but a bit throwaway

[raliverpool]

19th 23 I'm Your Man (1985) 26 Pts


The stand alone uptempo George Michael penned 1985 single was released within six months before the the band announced their split. "I'm Your Man" was the last song George performed with Andrew Ridgeley at the 1991 Rock In Rio concert (see video). It peaked at #1 in the UK, Ireland, & New Zealand, as well as Australia #3, Canada #7 & USA #3 (behind "Burning Heart" by Survivor and "That's What Friends Are For" by Dionne and Friends).

It scored points from 4 Haveners including 2 3rds from Andy, & rubcale.

[raliverpool]

May 16, 2017 20:28:34 GMT 1 Gezza said:

The only single I like from Michael from 2001 onward is "Shoot The Dog" even though it was critically panned. "Amazing" is OK but a bit throwaway

"Shoot The Dog" is my second favourite 21st song of his behind "December Song (I Dreamed Of Christmas)".

[raliverpool]

18th 36 The Edge Of Heaven (1986) 28 Pts


Wham! had announced in the spring of 1986 that Michael and his musical partner Andrew Ridgeley would go their separate ways after a farewell single, album and concert. The album was called The Final and the concert was held in front of 72,000 fans at London's Wembley Stadium on Saturday 28 June 1986 (Anorak factoid: A pre fame Debbie Gibson won an MTV USA competition to attend the farewell gig and have a backstage pass). This hard edged uptempo track featured Elton John on piano, and was released as a double record set in the UK, with an updated version of Wham!'s early signature song "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" on the flip of disc one, and two new songs (my favourite from the EP) "Battlestations" and a cover of the Was (Not Was) song "Where Did Your Heart Go?"—on the flip of the second disc. It topped the charts in the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, & Belgium; as well as USA #10 & Australia #2.

This received points from 5 Haveners including 2 2nds Andy & ManicKangaroo