| "Everything She Wants" | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by Wham! | |||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Make It Big | |||||||||||||||||||
| Released | December 27, 1984 (UK) April 17, 1985 (US) |
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| Format | 12", 7" | ||||||||||||||||||
| Recorded | 1984 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | New Wave, Synthpop, R&B, Post-disco | ||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 5:30 (single) 6:29 (full) |
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| Label | CBS | ||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | George Michael | ||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | George Michael | ||||||||||||||||||
| Wham! singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||||
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"Everything She Wants" is a song by British pop duo Wham!, released in 1984 on Epic Records on a double A-side with "Last Christmas". It was written by George Michael, one half of the duo.
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Upon release, "Last Christmas" took the majority of the attention and airplay as it was appropriate in early December as Christmas approached. However, the presence of an equally-billed flip side meant that radio stations had something else to play once "Last Christmas" had lost its topicality.
A five-minute song (there also exists a six-and-a-half-minutes-long version with an added bridge), "Everything She Wants" is written from the angle of a man rapidly approaching desperation at the material demands of his partner which seem to be coming to a head, despite the amount of work he does to keep her happy. In a twist, the second verse takes the story a step further by revealing that the woman is pregnant but the man cannot find any happiness in the announcement because of the extra pressure a baby will put upon him.
The presence of the Band Aid project meant that the double A-side peaked at number two in the UK singles chart, although in the process it became the biggest selling record not to get to number one. However, in the USA, the song did reach the summit of the Billboard Hot 100, and became the third number-one song in a row from 1984's Make It Big album.
Wham! would go on to have two more number-one hits in the UK before splitting at their height in 1986.
Although Michael bemoaned much of Wham!'s material as he began his solo career, "Everything She Wants" remained a song of which he was proud, and he continued to perform it in his shows. Furthermore, Michael remarked in an interview (to promote 25 Live tour) that "Everything She Wants" is his favourite Wham! song.
The song was remixed and re-released as "Everything She Wants '97" for the greatest hits album If You Were There in 1997.
The song was also mentioned in a landmark 1998 sampling copyright decision in the case of Santrayll v. Burrell.[1] Federal Court Judge Peter K. Leisure concluded that MC Hammer had sampled music by another rap group (The Legend). The Legend admitted to sampling Wham!'s "Everything She Wants" (among other songs) and not disclosing the sampled works when filing for copyright registration. In essence, Hammer argued that because The Legend admitted to sampling (i.e. "Everything She Wants"), this constituted a knowing failure to advise the Copyright Office of facts that might have led to the rejection of the copyright application. Meaning: no copyright protection, no lawsuit for infringement against Hammer. The court disagreed and found that: (1) it was possible that a jury might find that the failure to disclose the samples was not deliberate and (2) the samples played such a minor role in The Legend's song that the unauthorized use of samples "could not possibly have led the Copyright Office to reject the copyright applications."[2]
The popular Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, which named each episode after an 80s hit song, named an episode after this song.
Rapper Foxy Brown sampled "Everything She Wants" on the single "I Can't" from her number one album Chyna Doll.
| Chart (1984/5) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austria | 5 |
| France | 21 |
| Norway | 4 |
| Australia | 7 |
| UK | 2 |
| US | 1 |
| Preceded by "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single 25 May 1985 – 1 June 1985 |
Succeeded by "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears |
| Preceded by "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears |
Canadian RPM number-one single 15 June 1985 – 22 June 1985 |
Succeeded by "A View to a Kill" by Duran Duran |
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