Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

Andrew Ridgeley lived at home with his parents even after Wham! made it big, which isn't as lame as it sounds: they were on the road all the time, so it was easier than maintaining his own empty household (he and George Michael used a room in the house to make their demos). One day, Ridgeley needed a wake-up call, so he left a note for him mum on his door. He wrote, "Wake me up up," and realizing he duplicated a word, finished the sentence with "before you go go." George Michael got a kick out of it and decided to use it as a song title. Michael put together a song called "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go," and it became Wham's first American hit.

A "go-go" is a dance club, and dancing is the theme of this song, which tells the story of a guy who is head over heels for his girl, and bummed when he finds out she went dancing while he slept. He asks that in the future, she wake him up before she goes.

This isn't the first "go-go" hit; Smokey Robinson's group The Miracles scored in 1965 with "Going To A Go-Go." Dobie Gray had a minor hit that same year with "See You At The Go-Go," and Lee Dorsey charted in 1967 with "Go-Go Girl," which was written by Allen Toussaint. Around the time of this song's release, the all-girl American group The go-go's were big.