Thirty years ago on this date, odds are you (or your parents) were shamelessly enjoying Wham!'s single "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go." There's no shame in that. We ourselves were just singing very evocatively to Lady Gaga's "Alejandro" last week.
Well, one indication that "Wake Me Up" is potentially an embarrassing song is how much it ends up on television. Not performances from George Michael and Andrew Ridgely themselves, but the song inserted directly into media.
Check out a few instances of Wham!'s biggest hit hitting the airwaves:
Kids Incorporated (1984)
Kids Incorporated was like a televised frontrunner to the Kidz Bop series. The children's television program aired in syndication during its early years, following a group of children who make up the pop/rock group named in the title. The series easily worked in hit songs of the day, having the characters play them onstage at some point during the episode. One of the kids onstage went on to be a major musical figure, but it wasn't the lead. At the edge of the stage in the video below you can see nine year-old Stacy Ferguson aka Fergie dancing and singing along.
Last Christmas (2004)
"Wake Me Up" wasn't Wham's last hit of 1984. The group also dropped its holiday classic "Last Christmas" that year and altered riding in the car with your parents during the holidays forever. A Japanese movie sharing the same title was made during 2004, featuring actor and vocalist Yūji Oda. He recorded a version of the film's title song of course but added a recording of "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" for good measure. We couldn't find an embeddable version of the track but you can listen to the Christmas song below.
Family Guy (2005)
Plenty of '80s pop tunes make appearances during the pop-culture slaughterhouse that is Family Guy and Wham! gets its due. Chris Griffin sings the song in the obnoxious voice provided by Seth Green while a South American tribe provides the necessary "jitterbug" background vocals. Overall it's a fairly offensive portrayal of tribal culture and an affront to our ears but we doubt Seth MacFarlane meant it to go any other way. We'll always prefer Chris appearing in A-ha's "Take On Me" video.
The X Factor (2009)
Season 7 of the British version of the vocal reality competition featured an appearance from the single "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go," on account of it being from a UK act after all. Rather than one performer handling the song however, all of the finalists tackle the track together, accompanied by a legion of background dancers bedecked in the lite-brite colors featured during the music video for the original track. No "Choose Life" T-shirts however.
Happy Feet Two (2011)
Happy Feet is a series filled with musical recreations designed for the dancing purposes of massive colonies of penguins. Even the side bits feature musical references. During a brief scene featuring Will and Bill the krill (shrimp, essentially), the latter sings the hook of "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go," much to the annoyance of his counterpart. He then transitions into "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley.
Glee (2013)
The premise of the Season 5's "Guilty Pleasures" seems kind of a stretch, but the Wham! classic fits well with it. A pair of substitute glee club instructors attempt to get the New Directions kids to sing "guilty pleasure" songs in order to bring them together. We suppose that sharing guilty pleasure music is a somewhat friendly thing to do. The pair perform "Wake Me Up" as their own guilty pleasure song, which transitions into a full stage performance featuring bright colors and, this time, the classic "Choose Life" T-shirts.
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