Fantastic (Wham! album)

Fantastic
Studio album by
Wham!
Released1 July 1983
Recorded1982–1983
StudioMaison Rouge (London)[1]
Genre
Length36:42
Label
Producer
Wham! chronology
Fantastic
(1983) 		Make It Big
(1984)
Singles from Fantastic
  1. "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)"
    Released: 11 June 1982
  2. "Young Guns (Go for It)"
    Released: 17 September 1982
  3. "Bad Boys"
    Released: 6 May 1983
  4. "Club Tropicana"
    Released: 22 July 1983
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Rolling Stone[3]

Fantastic is the debut studio album by English pop duo Wham!, released on 1 July 1983.[4] It reached number one on the UK Albums Chart. It included the previously released singles "Young Guns", "Wham Rap!" and "Bad Boys". "Club Tropicana" was released as a single to coincide with the album's release. Although not on the album, "Club Fantastic Megamix" (a medley of songs from the album) was released against the band's wishes by Innervision soon after Fantastic, and whilst they were in proceedings to leave the label.[5]

According to Andrew Ridgeley in his 2019 book Wham! George and Me, it was during the early stages of writing and recording of this album that the pair agreed that George Michael should take sole responsibility for writing the group's material. Before securing their first record deal, they had written songs together, and made their first demos with these songs. When work started in the studio, Michael—according to Ridgeley—started working "at lightning speed", and it quickly became clear that he was by far the better songwriter. Ridgeley would later say that it was not something that he particularly wanted, but there was no doubt it was the way to go to achieve the success they both wanted.[6] Two new songs, "Golden Soul" and "Soul Boy", were written by Michael and Ridgeley for the album but both were shelved as "neither of them were any good".[7] They were replaced by tracks written and arranged by Michael.

The album features a hidden track (played on a honky-tonk-style piano) after the final 20 seconds of "Young Guns (Go for It!)".

In the US, the album was originally released as the group "WHAM! U.K.", due to a conflict with a US group with the same name (Columbia BFC-38911).

  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 June 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ AllMusic review
  3. ^ Rolling Stone review
  4. ^ "BPI certifications".
  5. ^ Davis, S. (2012). 80s Chart-Toppers: Every Chart-Topper Tells a Story. Mainstream Publishing. p. 264. ISBN 978-1-78057-411-0. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  6. ^ Ridgeley, Andrew (2019). Wham! George & Me (First ed.). Penguin. p. 182. ISBN 9780241385807.
  7. ^ Ridgeley, Andrew (2019). Wham! George & Me (First ed.). Penguin. p. 184. ISBN 9780241385807.