Fantastic (Wham! album)

In 1975, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley met as pre-teens at Bushey Meads School in Bushey, Hertfordshire. Upon realising they share a common interest in music, the two became close friends.^[8] During 1979 and 1980, Michael and Ridgeley performed in a ska revival band called the Executive, alongside Ridgeley's brother Paul, David Mortimer, Andrew Leaver, Jamie Gould and Tony Bywaters.^[9] The group was relatively short-lived, and following its break-up, Michael and Ridgeley formed Wham!.^[8]

Prior to the recording of their first demo tape, Michael and Ridgeley had already written some songs together. The genesis of "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do)" involved Ridgeley shouting the words "Wham! Bam! I am the man!" to the beat of "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang while dancing at Bogart's club in South Harrow, London.^[10] On "Club Tropicana", the duo had taken inspiration from their experience of dancing in nightclubs (such as the Le Beat Route) and "the hedonism of London's New Romantic hangouts, like the Blitz,"^[11] while "Careless Whisper" – a pop^[12] ballad touching on the subject of infidelity^[13] – would later be recorded by Michael as a solo single and included on Wham!'s second studio album, Make It Big (1984).^[14]

According to Ridgeley in his 2019 book Wham! George & Me, it was during the early stages of writing and recording of this album that the pair agreed that Michael should take sole responsibility for writing the group's material. When work started in the studio, Michael—according to Ridgeley—started working "at lightning speed", and it quickly became clear that he was by far the better songwriter. Ridgeley would later say that it was not something that he particularly wanted, but there was no doubt it was the way to go to achieve the success they both wanted.^[15] Two new songs, "Golden Soul" and "Soul Boy", were written for the album but both were shelved as "neither of them were any good".^[16]

The album features a hidden track (played on a honky-tonk-style piano) after the final 20 seconds of "Young Guns (Go for It!)".

In the US, the album was originally released as the group "WHAM! U.K.", due to a conflict with a US group with the same name (Columbia BFC-38911).

Wham!

• George Michael – lead vocals (1–4, 7, 8), backing vocals (1–3), arrangements (4–7), all vocals (5, 6), horn arrangements (5), instruments (6)
• Andrew Ridgeley – guitars (1–5, 7, 8), arrangements (4)

Additional musicians

Shouting on "Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?)"

• Bob Carter, George Michael, David Mortimer, Andrew Ridgeley and Paul Ridgeley

Handclaps on "Club Tropicana"

• Deon Estus, Steve Evans, George Michael, Andrew Ridgeley and Phil Wilcox

• George Michael – producer (1–3, 5–8)
• Steve Brown – producer (1–3, 5–8)
• Bob Carter – producer (4)
• Tony Taverner – engineer
• Wham! – cover design
• Shoot That Tiger! – cover design
• Chris Craymer – front cover photography, inner sleeve photography
• Janusz Guttner – inner sleeve photography

Michael and Ridgeley embarked on a UK tour to promote the album in October 1983, opening at Aberdeen's Capitol Theatre, before going on to dates in Scotland, England and Wales, and ending in November at the Centre in Brighton.