30 December 2016
Newsdesk
Following his untimely death on Christmas Day, fans of George Michael have been paying tribute to the late star by revisiting his classic records.
Chart icon George Michael achieved 11 Number 1 singles and 9 chart-topping albums across his Wham! and solo career, and this week returns to the Official Charts.
Since the news of his passing on 25 December, fans have flocked to George Michael’s greatest hits collection, Ladies & Gentlemen, which sees a huge 5625% surge in combined sales and streams week on week, re-entering the Top 10 for the first time in 17 years today at Number 8. The retrospective topped the chart for eight weeks upon its release in 1998, and was announced by the Official Charts Company earlier this year as one of the 60 best-selling albums of all time in the UK, as the Official Albums Chart celebrated its 60th anniversary.
Elsewhere, his last album with Wham!, The Final, is at 40, while 2006’s Twenty Five (47), 1987’s Faith (62), 2014’s Symphonica (73) and 1996’s Older (84) all return to the Top 100.
On the Official Singles Chart, four Wham!/George Michael tracks reappear in the Top 100, Wham’s Last Christmas climbs to Number 7, returning to the Top 10 for the first time in 31 years. Last Christmas remains the best-selling single in the UK never to have reached Number 1 – it was released the same week as the phenomenon that was Band Aid, and so was kept off the top spot at Number 2 for five consecutive weeks in December 1984. Last Christmas is the second most-streamed track of the week, with 3.6m streams.
Careless Whisper places just outside the Top 40 at 44, while Faith (64) and Elton John duet Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (91) land inside the Top 100.
The UK’s best-selling vinyl single of the week is a recent re-release of George Michael’s Freedom ’90, which lands at Number 1 on this week’s Official Vinyl Singles Chart. The weekly Official Vinyl Singles and Albums Chart was introduced in April 2015 following a resurgence in sales of vinyl in the UK.
Martin Talbot, Chief Executive of the Official Charts Company comments: "The sudden and terribly sad death of George Michael has naturally prompted his fans to re-explore his rich catalogue again, paying tribute to his incredible talent, both as a solo artist and founder of Wham! Quite appropriately, given the season, it is Last Christmas which makes the biggest impact."
