"Everything She Wants" is a song by British pop duoWham!, originally released as a single in 1984 on Epic Records on a double A-side with "Last Christmas". It was written and produced by George Michael, one half of the duo, becoming their third consecutive million-selling number-one hit in the United States.
Origin
Recording
"Everything She Wants" was recorded in Paris and London after a few other tracks for Make It Big had been finished at Studio Miraval in southeastern France.
History
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, "Everything She Wants" is written from the angle of a man being disillusioned by the material demands of his female partner, 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 "if my best isn't good enough, then how can it be good enough for two?" 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 number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and became the third number-one song in a row from 1984's Make It Big album. Wham! had 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 that "Everything She Wants" was his favorite Wham! song. In 1996, the song was performed at the MTV Unplugged concert. In 1997, the song was remixed and re-released as "Everything She Wants '97" for the greatest hits album . In September 2011 during the Symphonica Tour, at a concert at SAP Arena, Mannheim, Germany, George Michael said that "Understand" featured on Twenty Five was written as a follow-up to "Everything She Wants" with the man in the song realizing that his woman cared a lot more about love than he ever dreamed of. "Everything She Wants" was featured on the official soundtrack album to Last Christmas released by Sony Music on CD, 2-disc vinyl, and digital formats on 8 November 2019.
The song was mentioned in a landmark 1998 sampling copyright decision in the case of Santrayll v. Burrell. US Federal Court Judge Peter K. Leisure concluded that MC Hammer had sampled music by another rap group. The Legend admitted to sampling Wham!'s "Everything She Wants" and not disclosing the sampled works when filing for copyright registration.
Music video
The official music video for the song was directed by Andy Morahan, and is footage of a live performance in black and white.
