7" : Epic QA 4949
12" : Epic QTA 4949
12" : Epic WQTA 4949 (limited edition with a 1985 calendar)
CHARTED : 15 DEC 84
HIGHEST CHART POSITION : 2
Number of Weeks : 13
FRONT COVER
Photography Martyn Goddard / Artwork Peter Saville Associates
"I don't even think that I love you"
After the Christmas release of Last Christmas, attention turned to its flip side, Everything She Wants. New versions were reissued — 'The Remix Of' on 7", and a long version with an added bridge on 12" — in slightly different catalogue numbers to the original, with a brand new cover sleeve. These new releases helped to prolong the single's chart run in the U.K, though it couldn't take it to No. 1.
In some european countries, the single was released a few weeks later : in France, where Last Christmas was not released because Freedom was still selling well, Everything She Wants entered the charts in April 85, peaking at a poor #21, but staying in the Top 50 for an impressive 22 weeks, making it finally a good seller.
Following Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Careless Whisper, the song was chosen as the group's next single in the States : it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #60 in March, went Top Ten 8 weeks later, and quickly jumped to No. 1 on 25 May 1985, staying in the Hot 100 for 20 weeks. It was Wham!'s third consecutive U.S. Number One !
It was equally successfull in Canada, where it went to No. 1 in April.
In some european countries, the single was released a few weeks later : in France, where Last Christmas was not released because Freedom was still selling well, Everything She Wants entered the charts in April 85, peaking at a poor #21, but staying in the Top 50 for an impressive 22 weeks, making it finally a good seller.
Following Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go and Careless Whisper, the song was chosen as the group's next single in the States : it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #60 in March, went Top Ten 8 weeks later, and quickly jumped to No. 1 on 25 May 1985, staying in the Hot 100 for 20 weeks. It was Wham!'s third consecutive U.S. Number One !
It was equally successfull in Canada, where it went to No. 1 in April.
7" single (U.K / Europe)
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 5:31
B. Last Christmas — 4:34
12" single (U.K / Europe)
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 6:34
B. Last Christmas (Pudding Mix) — 6:47
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 5:31
B. Last Christmas — 4:34
12" single (U.K / Europe)
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 6:34
B. Last Christmas (Pudding Mix) — 6:47
European 7" Front Cover
European 7" Back Cover
European 12" Front Cover
Everything She Wants marks a truly important moment in Michael’s songwriting, as he found a seamless way to blend his interrogation of relationships with the Marxist ideology he was beginning to explore in earnest. In the process, he created not only a No. 1 single in the U.S. but also an anticapitalist piece that’s moving and insightful without being heavy-handed, using romance as a means examine the perils of unchecked consumerism in the “free” market.
The song begins as a lover’s lament sung from the perspective of a man growing frustrated with his female partner’s constant need to spend. Even at that surface level of reading, Everything She Wants holds up as one of Michael’s stronger songwriting efforts. But the reason it still resonates with him — it’s one of the few Wham! songs he still happily associates himself with — is that it so smoothly explores his political concerns.
During this period of his life — his late teens and early 20s — Michael was finding himself increasingly resistant to capitalism’s reliance on greed and consumerism. At first willing only to throw a few jabs at the Thatcher administration (c.f., the single Wham! Rap which was banned in the U.K. and which features Michael boasting of being “a dole boy”), Michael become more sensitized to the decentralized workings of capitalist exploitation through the malignant dealmaking of Wham!‘s record label, CBS. In a 1984 interview, filmed during the sessions for Make It Big, Michael notes, “When you are talking about CBS as a company, you’re not talking about individuals at all, you’re talking about huge corporate structure which has no one to blame really.” This concern with the faceless hegemony led him, like his New Wave confreres Scritti Politti, to a fascination with Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci.
Disguising the state apparatus as a grasping lover in Everything She Wants, Michael played with the ways that those in power — like a demanding beloved —turn our values and our work into ideas and acts that invariably benefit the state itself, in its function as water carrier for the corporate hegemony. When Michael sings, “Won’t you tell me / Why I work so hard for you? / All to give you my money”, the speaker has begun to recognize his work’s true purpose: to facilitate capital accumulation for oligarchs operating under the ruse of the state. There’s no return on investment here for him, and he later sings, “They told me marriage” — read : the social contract — “was give and take ... you’ve got some giving to do”. The end of work, in the capitalist state, isn’t personal gain, emotional or spiritual satisfaction, or even essential human comfort. It’s the perpetuation of the corporate hegemony that binds us.
Our efforts bring us not toward a sense of accomplishment but instead strand on us the hedonic treadmill of consumer theory. The first verse’s “Everything you want and everything you see / Is out of reach, not good enough” points out the consumer-citizen’s never-ending aspirations. There’s always something better to buy, to elevate our lives, but it remains unattainable. Fooled like the beloved until “everything she wants is everything she sees”, we remain caught in a desire to own more in an effort to rise above, but with our labor only serving the hegemony. We’re trapped.
Metaphorically, Michael uses pregnancy to stand in for that trap. The worker/lover cannot leave his relationship to the corporate hegemony/beloved because the economic demands continually increase. The pregnancy, though, reminds us of our own complicity in creating our situation. Much like the beloved is both an individual tricked into empty bourgeoisie desires (verse one) and the social strictures that create those desires (verse two), we continually reinforce the values that trap us, reinscribing our servitude with each check signed (“all the things we sign / all the things we buy”) in our continual acts of conspicuous consumption.
While the prospects that the song surveys seem bleak, Michael is able to sneak in some hope. Taken as a love drama, the lines explaining that all of this consumption “ain’t gonna keep us together” sound regretful. However, understood as recognition of the end of capitalist bondage, the lines reveal themselves as an epiphany. Unlike in some pessimistic conceptions of late capitalism, Michael imagines no apocalypse in which the system has commodified everything (even love and childbirth). Instead, he conceives of the spaces that exist in what we don’t buy. As we recognize those spaces as opportunities, our relationship to our corporate culture becomes de-naturalized, and we can escape into the interstices.
It’s a lot to pack into a pop song, and its subtlety remains rewarding even 25 years later. Michael’s awareness of both the personal demands of a relationship and the political demands of consumption combine for a powerful piece of art, offering not only insight, but a reasoned and emotional hope for those caught in an oppressive system.
Justin Cober-Lake — PopMatters.
The song begins as a lover’s lament sung from the perspective of a man growing frustrated with his female partner’s constant need to spend. Even at that surface level of reading, Everything She Wants holds up as one of Michael’s stronger songwriting efforts. But the reason it still resonates with him — it’s one of the few Wham! songs he still happily associates himself with — is that it so smoothly explores his political concerns.
During this period of his life — his late teens and early 20s — Michael was finding himself increasingly resistant to capitalism’s reliance on greed and consumerism. At first willing only to throw a few jabs at the Thatcher administration (c.f., the single Wham! Rap which was banned in the U.K. and which features Michael boasting of being “a dole boy”), Michael become more sensitized to the decentralized workings of capitalist exploitation through the malignant dealmaking of Wham!‘s record label, CBS. In a 1984 interview, filmed during the sessions for Make It Big, Michael notes, “When you are talking about CBS as a company, you’re not talking about individuals at all, you’re talking about huge corporate structure which has no one to blame really.” This concern with the faceless hegemony led him, like his New Wave confreres Scritti Politti, to a fascination with Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci.
Disguising the state apparatus as a grasping lover in Everything She Wants, Michael played with the ways that those in power — like a demanding beloved —turn our values and our work into ideas and acts that invariably benefit the state itself, in its function as water carrier for the corporate hegemony. When Michael sings, “Won’t you tell me / Why I work so hard for you? / All to give you my money”, the speaker has begun to recognize his work’s true purpose: to facilitate capital accumulation for oligarchs operating under the ruse of the state. There’s no return on investment here for him, and he later sings, “They told me marriage” — read : the social contract — “was give and take ... you’ve got some giving to do”. The end of work, in the capitalist state, isn’t personal gain, emotional or spiritual satisfaction, or even essential human comfort. It’s the perpetuation of the corporate hegemony that binds us.
Our efforts bring us not toward a sense of accomplishment but instead strand on us the hedonic treadmill of consumer theory. The first verse’s “Everything you want and everything you see / Is out of reach, not good enough” points out the consumer-citizen’s never-ending aspirations. There’s always something better to buy, to elevate our lives, but it remains unattainable. Fooled like the beloved until “everything she wants is everything she sees”, we remain caught in a desire to own more in an effort to rise above, but with our labor only serving the hegemony. We’re trapped.
Metaphorically, Michael uses pregnancy to stand in for that trap. The worker/lover cannot leave his relationship to the corporate hegemony/beloved because the economic demands continually increase. The pregnancy, though, reminds us of our own complicity in creating our situation. Much like the beloved is both an individual tricked into empty bourgeoisie desires (verse one) and the social strictures that create those desires (verse two), we continually reinforce the values that trap us, reinscribing our servitude with each check signed (“all the things we sign / all the things we buy”) in our continual acts of conspicuous consumption.
While the prospects that the song surveys seem bleak, Michael is able to sneak in some hope. Taken as a love drama, the lines explaining that all of this consumption “ain’t gonna keep us together” sound regretful. However, understood as recognition of the end of capitalist bondage, the lines reveal themselves as an epiphany. Unlike in some pessimistic conceptions of late capitalism, Michael imagines no apocalypse in which the system has commodified everything (even love and childbirth). Instead, he conceives of the spaces that exist in what we don’t buy. As we recognize those spaces as opportunities, our relationship to our corporate culture becomes de-naturalized, and we can escape into the interstices.
It’s a lot to pack into a pop song, and its subtlety remains rewarding even 25 years later. Michael’s awareness of both the personal demands of a relationship and the political demands of consumption combine for a powerful piece of art, offering not only insight, but a reasoned and emotional hope for those caught in an oppressive system.
Justin Cober-Lake — PopMatters.
7" single (U.S)
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 5:10
B. Like A Baby — 4:12
12" single (U.S)
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 6:34
B. Like A Baby — 4:12
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 5:10
B. Like A Baby — 4:12
12" single (U.S)
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 6:34
B. Like A Baby — 4:12
U.S 7" Front Cover
U.S 7" Back Cover
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.
7" single (Japan)
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 5:10
B1. Like A Baby — 4:12
B2. Message From Wham!
A. Everything She Wants (Remix) — 5:10
B1. Like A Baby — 4:12
B2. Message From Wham!
Japanese 7" Front Cover
Japanese 7" Back Cover
MUSIC VIDEO
Andy Morahan directed the black and white video for the U.S. release of Everything She Wants in March 1985. The video matches studio shoots of George and Andy with many live shoots from The Big Tour. In a 1986 Billboard interview, Morahan said : "When we did the video for Everything She Wants in black and white, it did something for Wham! at a time when they were in danger of becoming just another pop band. It kind of brought them back in the credibility stakes. George is one of the world's greatest performers, so we were able to utilize that strength".
EVERYTHING SHE WANTS
(George Michael)
Somebody told me
That for everything she wants
Is everything she sees
I guess I must have loved you
Because I said you were the perfect girl for me, baby
And now I'm six months older
And everything you are and everything you see
Is out of reach not good enough
I don't know what the hell you want from me
Somebody tell me
Why I work so hard for you
(To give you money)
Some people work for a living
Some people work fun
Girl I just work for you
They told me marriage was a give and take
Well you show me you can take you've got some givin' to do
And now you tell me that your having my baby
I'll tell you that I'm happy if you want me to
But one step further and my back will break
If my best isn't good enough
And how can it be good enough for two
I can't work any harder than I do
Somebody tell me
Why I work so hard for you
(To give you money)
Why do I do the things I do
Can you tell my why?
That for everything she wants
Is everything she sees
I guess I must have loved you
Because I said you were the perfect girl for me, baby
And now I'm six months older
And everything you are and everything you see
Is out of reach not good enough
I don't know what the hell you want from me
Somebody tell me
Why I work so hard for you
(To give you money)
Some people work for a living
Some people work fun
Girl I just work for you
They told me marriage was a give and take
Well you show me you can take you've got some givin' to do
And now you tell me that your having my baby
I'll tell you that I'm happy if you want me to
But one step further and my back will break
If my best isn't good enough
And how can it be good enough for two
I can't work any harder than I do
Somebody tell me
Why I work so hard for you
(To give you money)
Why do I do the things I do
Can you tell my why?
My god, I don't even think that I love you
Somebody tell me
Why I work so hard for you
(To give you money)
How could you settle
For a boy like me
When all I can see
Is the end of the week
All the things we sign
And the things we buy
Ain't gonna keep us together
It's just a matter of time
My situation
Never changes
Walking in and out of that door
Like a stranger
For the wages
I give you all
You say you want more
And all I can see
Is the end of the week
All the things we sign
And the things we buy
Ain't gonna keep us together
Girl it's just a matter of time
Somebody tell me
Why I work so hard for you
(To give you money)
How could you settle
For a boy like me
When all I can see
Is the end of the week
All the things we sign
And the things we buy
Ain't gonna keep us together
It's just a matter of time
My situation
Never changes
Walking in and out of that door
Like a stranger
For the wages
I give you all
You say you want more
And all I can see
Is the end of the week
All the things we sign
And the things we buy
Ain't gonna keep us together
Girl it's just a matter of time
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