| "Club Tropicana" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Wham! | ||||
| from the album Fantastic | ||||
| B-side | "Blue (Armed With Love)" | |||
| Released | 23 July 1983 | |||
| Format | 12", 7" | |||
| Recorded | 1983 | |||
| Genre | Post-disco | |||
| Length | 4:28 | |||
| Label | CBS | |||
| Writer(s) | George Michael Andrew Ridgeley |
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| Producer | Steve Brown George Michael |
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| Wham! singles chronology | ||||
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"Club Tropicana" is a song by British pop duo Wham!, released in 1983 on Innervision Records. It was written by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley.
The song was a mild departure from Wham!'s previous singles, which had all been motivated by social or political issues. "Club Tropicana", however, was a satire of the boom for cheap package holidays for younger, single people of a hedonistic nature. It was specifically seen in the UK as a swipe at the very popular Club 18-30 scheme and fruit drink Tropicana.
A memorable video directed by Duncan Gibbins was made at Pikes Hotel in Ibiza, with scenes of George and Andrew on the beach, making eyes at bikini-clad girls played by their backing singers Dee C. Lee and Shirlie Holliman. They were also seen relaxing by a pool and sipping cocktails to promote the new Tropicana Tropicals range, along with the famous scene of trumpet-playing taking place in the pool itself. A twist in the sexual tension between the two men and two women was revealed at the end, when it turned out that George and Andrew were airline pilots and Dee and Shirlie were stewardesses.
The song was released in July 1983 and peaked at #4 in the UK, going on to become the 39th best selling single of 1983. It was the fourth and final single to be taken from the album Fantastic. Wham! went on to dominate the UK charts, achieving four #1 singles before splitting at their height in 1986.
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The B-side, "Blue (Armed With Love)", is a semi-instrumental dub track of higher quality than is generally expected for B-side material, and would not have been out of place on Fantastic. During their "Club Fantastic" tour in late 1983 and in 1985 in China, they performed this song live, complete with sung verses, and the result was released as "Blue (Live In China)" on their 1986 LP Music from the Edge of Heaven as well as the B-side of 1986's single release of "Last Christmas."
| Chart (1983) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian singles chart | 60 |
| Dutch Top 40[1] | 8 |
| Norwegian singles chart[2] | 10 |
| UK Singles Chart[3] | 4 |
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