With the resurrection of my thread on rock/metal ballads recently I remembered this journal and went looking for it. Right at the back of a dusty cupboard in the farthest recesses of the mustiest vault, accessible only by crossing a very rickety bridge over a gaping chasm, fording three brooks, each more babbling than the last, creeping past the sleeping dragon and finally abseiling down a sheer cliff face - or maybe just clicking the mouse a few times - I found it, and here it is. Hasn’t been updated in four years now, so let’s deal with that.
Title: “Where Did Your Heart Go?”
Artist: Wham!
Nationality: English
Year: 1986
Genre: Pop
Source: Album
The Final (also appears on the compilation
Music From the Edge of Heaven)
Written by: Dave Was/Don Was
Chart position(s) (Singles only): 50 (technically no. 1 as the B-side of Edge of Heaven, but I don’t think that counts)
Storyline: The usual thing about a breakup, with the man in the somewhat uncustomary role of the one being left behind and wondering why it all fell apart.
Main instrument: Acoustic Guitar
Other version(s) by: Was (Not Was) which was the original
Comments: When I first heard this I do admit that I thought "hold on, that's a Wham! song! That's pretty damn good!" but I more or less steered clear of it because of who Wham! were, and how much I, at the time, hated them for their pretty-boy image and dominance of the charts with uptempo, dancy, pop tunes. This was taken from the last album released by Wham! in 1986,
Music From the Edge of Heaven as well as
The Final, the latter of which was basically a greatest hits album, both released just prior to the band breaking up ahead of George Michael's shot at the solo limelight. It was also the B-side of their last number one hit single, the eponymous "Edge of Heaven". It makes a lot more sense to me now that I read that the song is in fact a cover version, which is not surprising as it was, at the time, totally different to anything else these guys had released. In fact, the only song comparable at all is 1984's "Careless Whisper" from the second album, and when released as a single it was credited to Michael only, and in effect became his first number one.
"Where Did Your Heart Go?" was originally written by and performed by electro/funk/disco outfit Was (Not Was), best known for their hit “Walk the Dinosaur”, but this did not chart for them. In fairness, Wham! Had as little success really, as it barely scraped into the top fifty, unless you count its presence as one of three - count ‘em, three! - B-sides to the final single “Edge of Heaven”, which took the number one spot in 1986. When George Michael rearranged it for Wham! - Andrew Ridgeley not only had no input into the process but it looks to me like he didn't even play on the song - he kept it fairly true to the original, and the result is a laid back, soft, melancholy love song that yearns for answers to questions that rarely yield such. It has some lovely smooth sax care of Andy Hamilton, and quite a downtempo South American feel to it. Although not his own composition, it shows the direction George Michael was leaning in, and foreshadows great ballads like "Father Figure", "A Different Corner" and "Kissing a Fool"; more mature, thoughtful songs that would often take a look at social issues, and culminate in, for me, his most telling and powerful song, "Mother's Pride".
It's clear at this point that Ridgeley is surplus to requirements, and Michael does not need him. He has built his career to date on the success of Wham! but he knows he is the only real member: he writes almost all the songs, does the arrangement and production, and takes the lion's share of the vocal duties. He is, quite literally, the voice of Wham! and everyone knows it. No-one is going to wonder what happened to "the other guy", and indeed Ridgeley will later give up the pretence of a musical career. But this song does show that George was beginning perhaps to realise that the Wham! formula had been stretched as far as it could reasonably be expected to be, and it was time for a change. The party was over, but for him, a whole new one beckoned.
This is as I say a total step away from anything Wham! had done before. The guys who brought us “Young Guns (Go For It)”, “Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)” and “Club Tropicana” had only attempted the odd ballad over two albums and several top ten singles. The little girls didn’t want that, perhaps, or maybe they just didn’t feel it fit in with their image. It’s also possible that writing a ballad might have taken more out of Michael (look, just forget about Ridgeley will you? The guy was nothing more than the equivalent of a session guitarist and another face to put on the album so that they had a duo to work with) who slowly grew into his songwriting. Either way, this song can’t be credited to him, since as I say it’s a cover, but I do like the idea of sort of reversing the theme of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” where it asks “Where did your heart go? Did you put it on a train? Did you leave it in the rain or down in Mexico?” It’s also slightly atypical as it sees the man, not the woman, dumped, and wondering what went wrong.
While it was a little late to be saying “look! Wham! are a serious band” - they were breaking up - this really could be credited as a George Michael song. Sure, he didn’t write it, but he did arrange and produce it, and of course sing it, and to be perfectly honest, I think he should have kept it for his debut solo album, rather than kind of wasting it here as a B-side and then a non-charting single. I’m actually surprised it didn’t do better than it did, but then maybe I’m not. Maybe that shows the priorities of the teenies who shook their booties and screamed to “Wake Me Up (Before You Go-go)” and “I’m Your Man”, and indeed “Edge of Heaven”, many of whom may not even have bothered with the B-side. Wham! fans were not the correct audience for this song, and I feel George Michael fans would have responded to it better, once he had shrugged off once and for all the memory of that group.
Nevertheless, it stands for me as a very clear signpost to what Michael would achieve in his too-short musical career, how mature he already had become in musical terms, and how already he knew a damn good song when he heard it, even if his fans didn’t.