EVERYTHING SHE WANTS

"'Everything She Wants'" was a song by British pop duo Wham!, released in 1984 on Epic Records on a double A-side with "Last Christmas". It was written by George Michael, one half of the duo.

Contents

History

Track listing

7": Epic / QA 4949 (UK)

12": Epic / QTA 4949 (UK)

Chart performance

Court Case

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 (there also exists a six-and-a-half-minutes-long version with an added bridge), "Everything She Wants" was written from the angle of a man rapidly approaching desperation at the material demands of his partner which seem to be coming to a head, despite the amount of work he did to keep them. In a twist, the second verse took the story a step further by revealing that the woman was pregnant but the man could not find any happiness in the announcement because of the extra pressure a baby would put upon him.
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 the summit of the Billboard Hot 100, and became the third number-one song in a row from 1984's ''Make It Big'' album.
Wham! would go on to have 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.

Track listing

7": Epic / QA 4949 (UK)

# "Everything She Wants [7" Remix]" (5:31)
# "Last Christmas" (4:24)

12": Epic / QTA 4949 (UK)

# "Everything She Wants [12" Remix]" (6:34)
# "Last Christmas [Pudding Mix]" (6:44)

★ also released in a limited edition with a 1985 calendar (WQTA 4949)

Chart performance

Chart (1984/5)	Peak position
Austria	5
France	21
Norway	4
Australia	7
UK	2
US	1

Rapper Foxy Brown sampled 'Everything She Wants' on the single 'I Cant' from her number one album 'Chyna Doll'

Court Case

The song was also mentioned in a landmark 1998 sampling copyright decision in the case of Santrayll v. Burrell[1]. Federal Court Judge Peter K. Leisure concluded that MC Hammer had sampled music by another rap group (The Legend). The Legend admitted to sampling Wham!'s "Everything She Wants" (among other songs) and not disclosing the sampled works when filing for copyright registration. In essence, Hammer argued that because The Legend admitted to sampling (i.e. "Everything She Wants"), this constituted a knowing failure to advise the Copyright Office of facts that might have led to the rejection of the copyright application. Meaning: no copyright protection, no lawsuit for infringement against Hammer. The court disagreed and found that: (1) it was possible that a jury might find that the failure to disclose the samples was not deliberate and (2) the samples played such a minor role in The Legend's song that the unauthorized use of samples "could not possibly have led the Copyright Office to reject the copyright applications."
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