7 Reasons

Tag: Wham!

  • Guest Post: 7 Reasons To Turn The Radio Up This Summer

    Guest Post: 7 Reasons To Turn The Radio Up This Summer

    7 Reasons To Turn Up The Radio This Summer

    Each year the summer feels like it begins with the melodic ringing of a catchy light hearted pop song that will stay in our heads for the entire season of hot weather and barbeques. There seems to be a song that signifies summer for all of us. Let’s take a look at some reasons to turn the volume dial to max.

    1.  Madonna – Holiday. It’s cheesy, easy and often the bragging song for those lucky enough to have booked a beach holiday. It’s not uncommon to hear Madonna’s holiday ringing round the canteen at work as Dave from Sales rubs it in that you’ll be taking on his workload for 2 weeks while he’s off to Majorca.

    Year: 1982 UK Chart Position: 2

    2.  Cliff Richard – Summer Holiday. If you’re under 40 you may not have heard this song ever, and if you do, it’s unlikely that you’ll be rushing out to buy it. Before CDs had been invented and no one knew iPods were even possible, the squeaky clean crooner Cliff Richard managed to string the song out in to an entire film and the album of the same named topped the album charts. Expect embarrassing parents and grandparents to sing this one prior to a trip to the seaside or a family picnic.

    Year: 1963 UK Chart Position: 1

    3.  Fresh Prince & Jazzy Jeff – Summertime. Before Will Smith began chasing aliens around films sets he was making funky friendly rap music under the alias The Fresh Prince. This is a good song for cruising in the car with the top down.

    Year: 1991 UK Chart Position: 8

    4.  The Beach Boys – Surfing USA. Released the same year as Cliff Richard’s summer holiday but much cooler, because it’s about surfing and surfing is cool. If you haven’t heard this summer song you clearly haven’t been to a beach bar, school disco or the USA.

    Year: 1963 UK Chart Position: 34

    5.  Wham! – Club Tropicana. Club Tropicana drinks are free – well if you’re on an all-inclusive package holiday they are! George Michael dances round the pool in this popular eighties hit that takes the listener off to the topical cocktail pool party dream.

    Year: 1983 UK Chart Position: 4

    6.  LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem. For modern pop fans this dance track signifies the start of summer, late nights in Ibiza and hot sweaty night clubs for of scantily clad youngsters. Hear it once and it will stay in your head. All summer.

    Year: 2011 UK Chart Position: 1

    7.  Mungo Jerry – In the Summertime. This classic tune has been used for many TV adverts. It’s a feel good, low key track but yet has achieved the status of the biggest selling single of all time worldwide. A cover version from the 1990s by Shaggy got to number 5 in the UK charts too.

    Year: 1970 UK Chart Position: 1

    Summer tunes are the soundtrack to happy days and carefree relaxation, whether you take your holiday as a road trip, visiting the vineyards with a house exchange France, camping in the woods or jetting off to the Balearics. For luxury home swapping accommodation for holidays all around the world, visit Lovehomeswap.com who kindly provided us with these top summer songs.

  • 7 Reasons ‘Last Christmas’ Is The Greatest Music Video Ever.

    7 Reasons ‘Last Christmas’ Is The Greatest Music Video Ever.

    1.  The Set-up. The start of the video could very well be the start of a James Bond film that stars Jennifer Aniston. Two jeeps pull up in the snow. A door opens. A man gets out. He turns around. And that’s where is ends. You could never have a Bond villain with a hairstyle like that. Well, not unless Bond himself was played by Mika.

    2.  The Waving. Let’s be honest about this, it’s horrendous. It is not proper waving. It is five people auditioning for a job as a window cleaner, 0:24 – 0:30. Personally I would give the job to the woman in the middle. She was getting right into the corners.

    3.  The Tinsel Drop. Nice moves George. Or not. The idea is that he drops the tinsel onto last year’s lover, so that he can crouch down, apologise and stare into her eyes. Watch it though. At 1:27 there is a cut in the video. Only for a split second, but it can be seen. This is because George Michael is useless when it comes to dropping tinsel. They did 132 takes and everytime George missed his lover. In the end they decided just to chuck a bit of tinsel over her and merge the two segments. It didn’t work. But it’s lovely that George has his faults.

    4.  The Ice Cool Dude. Look at this guy at 1:40. It’s freezing outside yet he has been in the woods chopping up a tree without gloves or a hat. It took me a while to work out why this might be the case but it came to me eventually. He wasn’t wearing a hat because if he was he wouldn’t have been able to hear the director shout instructions at him. He wasn’t wearing gloves because he’s an idiot.

    5.  The Chat Up Lines. You just have to look at the two girl’s faces at 2:19 to know that they have just been asked by the smarmy git on the left if they fancy a threesome. Unfortunately they cut away from them to show George preparing to inhale wine through his nose, so no one quite knows whether the threesome happened or not. Nothing wrong with imagining though.

    6.  The Irony. There is quite a lot of it in Last Christmas, but the main one is George Michael supposedly giving his heart away 365 days previously. To a girl. You seriously expect us to believe that George? With that running style between 3:00 and 3:05? But that’s what’s so great about it. For four minutes and sixteen seconds we convince ourselves to believe it. Then we pretend we can’t stand this song.

    7.  The Skis. Oh, they had skis with them – 3:50. I am sure I am not the only person to notice that they didn’t actually do any skiing. All we saw them do is drink wine, run around in the snow, look at each other seductively and eat a birthday cake (2:11 – don’t ask me why, it was probably someone’s birthday. Jesus’ probably). But that’s fine, it means Wham! were in touch with reality. Sure, people mean to attack the slalom when on a winter holiday, but as soon as they start on the Quality Street they decide it’s just not going to happen. Real people. Real attitudes to getting fat.