Wrap Her Up
by Elton John (featuring George Michael)

Album: Ice On Fire (1985)
Charted: 12 20
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Songfacts®:

  • Elton called in some special guests on his Ice On Fire album, including Sister Sledge, Nik Kershaw, and Queen's rhythm section of Roger Taylor and John Deacon. On "Wrap Her Up," George Michael, one of the hottest pop stars in the land thanks to his duo Wham!, joins Elton on vocals (Michael also does backing vocals on another track from the album, "Nikita."

    In this song, they dream about wrapping up and taking home lovely ladies of just about any persuasion. Hearing them sing so lasciviously about bedding babes seems ludicrous, but that the time, Elton was married to a woman (Renate Blauel) and Michael had not yet come out as gay. The lyric was written by Bernie Taupin, who usually made his relationship songs more ambiguous, but in this case faced the challenge of writing for two singers.
  • On the album version, which runs 6:21, John and Michael list the names of a bunch of women they'd like to "wrap up." Some are starlets (Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Hepburn), and others more contemporary (Samantha Fox, Annie Lennox). Nancy Reagan and Shirley Temple also get mentioned, just in case anyone was taking this seriously. Two others of note:

    Kiki Dee, mentioned by Michael, sings backup on the track. She had a #1 duet with Elton in 1976 with "Don't Go Breaking My Heart."

    Michael also mentions Doris Day, who he namechecked in the 1984 Wham! hit "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" ("You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day").
  • The single was cut down to 4:16, omitting the part where the specific women are mentioned.
  • This is one of the few Elton John songs where he shared credit for writing the music. Along with Elton and Bernie Taupin, the other credited writers on this one are guitarist Davey Johnstone, drummer Charlie Morgan, keyboard player Fred Mandel and bass player Paul Westwood.
  • When this reached #20 in America at the end of 1985, it kept alive Elton John's streak of placing at least one song in the Hot 100 in every year since 1970. The streak continued until 1996.

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