The song has been covered by many artists including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Whigfield, Crazy Frog and Billie Piper.

[7] The song reached number one in the UK after it was streamed 9.2 million times in the last week of 2020 and sold 1,555 downloads, resulting in a total of 40,149 combined sales.

With a LinnDrum drum machine, a Roland Juno-60 synth and sleigh bells, they began recording the song in the summer, Michael having "plastered [the studio] in Christmas decorations to set the mood".

[6] The only other people in the studio were engineer Chris Porter and two assistants, Paul Gommersal and Richard Moakes.

[3][39] As of December 2023, "Last Christmas" has sold over 1.93 million physical copies and downloads, becoming the eighth best-selling single of all time in the UK overall.

[44] In December 2023, for the first time in the song's history, it won the coveted Christmas number 1 spot on The Official Chart Show with Jack Saunders.

[48] In Ireland the single went to number one for one week in December 1984 before being replaced at the top by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?".

[49] The single was originally released in two different formats in Japan with different cover art, a 7-inch and 12-inch vinyl (Long version) both with "Credit Card Baby" as their B-side.

[52][53] As a result of the success, "Last Christmas" is the eighth best-selling single of all time in Japan released by a non-Japanese act, with total physical sales of 683,000 units.

"Last Christmas" was not released commercially as a single in the United States until November 2014, when it was made available on 12" vinyl as a Record Store Day exclusive.

members Michael and Ridgeley accompanying girlfriends to see friends at an unspecified ski resort cottage; the cable-car that is visible in two shots is from Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where the video was filmed on 21 November 1984.

[3][71] It becomes clear early on that the character of Ridgeley's girlfriend (played by model Kathy Hill) was previously in a relationship with Michael and that the song is aimed at her.

In the present time, Ridgeley is wearing the brooch, suggesting that Hill gave the same gift (perhaps by regifting it) to her new love after she and Michael parted ways.

At the end of the video, everyone leaves the cottage and when the group get out of the cable-car, they are all properly "paired off" with Michael and his new girlfriend played by actress Debbie Killingback, looking happy.

[73] The music video's original film director Andy Morahan had found seven out of the eight rolls of original 35mm rushes and worked with teams at Cinelab London and VFX artist Russ Shaw at Nice Biscuits post production to recreate the video using the higher-resolution film.

[234] On behalf of the writers of the song "Can't Smile Without You", made popular by Barry Manilow, publishing company Dick James Music sued Michael for plagiarism in the mid-1980s, claiming that "Last Christmas" lifted its melody from the former.

The case was dismissed when a musicologist presented 60-odd songs from the past century that had a comparable chord sequence and melody.

[3][235] Italian dance act Whigfield covered "Last Christmas" and released it as a double A-side with "Big Time" in the UK in December 1995.

The single was produced by Larry Pignagnoli and reached number 21 in the UK, which was Whigfield's final release on Systematic Records.

The accompanying music video for Whigfield's cover was directed by Italian director Giacomo De Simone, featuring the singer performing the song in a winter landscape.

In the latter country, "Last Christmas" / "Big Time" peaked at number 21 during its first week on the UK singles chart, on 10 December 1995.

[...] The Whigster has taken what was a definitive Christmas song and given it a monster 'I Feel Love' hi-NRG fuel-injection that will have the nation stomping those accursed parsnips into Auntie Mabel's best rug in front of The Queen..."[237] Gill Whyte from Smash Hits gave it two out of five, describing it as "a cover of the George Michael swoon choon for the festive season, given the usual tinny pop Whiggers treatment, with lots of bingy-bongy synths.

Tisdale performed the single in 2007 on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Christmas in Rockefeller Center, and in 2009 in the Citadel Outlets of Los Angeles, California.

A short music video was made using footage which was filmed for the Classic Christmas's album advertising, it features McElderry outside in the snow, collecting logs and taking them to a large house preparing for a Christmas party, a similar video was made for McElderry's version of "O Come All Ye Faithful".

[273] Grande's cover draws primarily from pop music, contemporary R&B and soul and also includes newly written lyrics in place of some of the originals.

[294] Jepsen's rendition was praised by critics for combining stylistic elements similar to the original with modern production.

[297] Bianca Gracie of Idolator described the song as "quintessential Carly" for highlighting Jepsen's unique vocals and synth production and wrote that her cover will "charm your... socks off".

[298] Nolan Feeney of Time echoed those sentiments, noting that "Last Christmas" is "the kind of brokenhearted yet warm and sweet song [Jepsen] excels at".

[299] Jackson McHenry of Vulture applauded Jepsen for her straightforward approach to the song and avoiding the "vocal gymnastics" that bog down some Christmas covers.

[300] A more critical review came from music blog Popcrush, who deemed the cover overproduced, saying "The slick production is a disservice to both Jepsen's vocals and the original's emotional heft.