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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cat.no: 200777 9
- Cert: E
- Running time: 45 minutes
- Year: 1982-1986
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 10 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Stereo
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English, French
- Ratio: varies
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Discography
The Best of Wham! doesn’t quite feel like it does somehow..
They only lasted a mere four years in this incarnation before GeorgeMichael‘s solo career was blossoming and Andrew Rideley was headingfor pop’s scrapheap. In that short space of time though they created a handfulof cheesy pop anthems which would still light up a nightclub if they wereplayed today, although they’d have to be relegated to an 80s night, such asWake Me Up Before You Go Go, Wham Rap! and The Edge of Heavenand I can still remember Club Tropicana being given its world premiereon BBC Breakfast Time back with sexual deviant Frank Bough in 1983.
Seeing the track listing for this DVD though, it’smissing four tracks which would have topped it off nicely, all of whichappeared on the original ‘best of’ release, The Final in the late 80s,those being Young Guns (Go For It) and Bad Boys, plus George’s first twosolo singles, Careless Whisper and A Different Corner. How onearth did they come to miss those out? Answers please!
Their singles chart history, excluding George’s solo stuff, is as follows :
Oct 82No. 3Young Guns (Go For It)Jan 83No. 8Wham RapMay 83No. 2Bad BoysJul 83No. 4Club TropicanaDec 83No.15Club Fantastic MegamixMay 84No. 1Wake Me Up Before You Go GoOct 84No. 1FreedomDec 84No. 2Last Christmas / Everything She WantsNov 85No. 1I’m Your ManDec 85No. 6Last Christmas (re-issue)Jun 86No. 1The Edge of Heaven / Where Did Your Heart Go?Dec 86No.45Last Christmas (2nd re-issue)
To think, had they not chanced their arm a third time with that Xmas single,they could have appeared in the Guinness Book of Hit Singles as one of thoseartists who went out on a high with a No.1 single.
There are 10 chapters and the listing is as follows :
1. Programme Start
2. Wham Rap!
3. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
4. Club Tropicana
5. Last Christmas
6. The Edge of Heaven
7. Where Did Your Heart Go?
8. I’m Your Man
9. Everything She Wants
10. Freedom
The videos are shot either in standard 4:3 fullscreen or a non-anamorphic16:9. It mostly looks very good too, except “Wham Rap!” suffers fromits age, but that’s only to be expected.The average bitrate is a very high 8.14Mb/s, often peaking over 9Mb/s.
The sound has been remixed for Dolby Digital 5.1. Most of the tracks benefitfrom this compared to the rather lacklustre stereo equivalent also contained,but the rear effects don’t quite work as well during the first two tracks.
Extras :The Discography just provides a track listing for each of theiralbums, which just seemed to extend to two proper ones and compilationsto follow.
There are subtitles in English and French, but the menus are silent andstatic.
Overall, this should’ve contained the extra tracks I mentioned and only costa tenner. Will even the most wanton Wham fan fork out twenty notes forthree-quarters-of-an-hour of material?
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.