Christmas Day marks a year since George’s untimely death, found to be from natural causes, and Andrew is hoping to get the singer his first Christmas number one.

Despite the band’s classic holiday track being a firm festive favourite, it never topped the charts while George was alive.

Writing in the Mail, Andrew Ridgeley said getting the track to the top of the charts would be a fitting tribute to his late friend.

He said: “It has only been as we make our way towards Christmas and the anniversary of his passing that I have decided to speak in depth, and to lend my support to the most fitting tribute to my dearest friend of all – a bid to make Last Christmas this year’s Christmas No 1.

“For me and so many others, the bittersweet nature of the song means it will forever mark the best and the worst of times. Released in 1984, it is one of the most popular and iconic Christmas records of all time, selling more than two million copies

“Yet Last Christmas remains the biggest-selling UK chart single never to have taken the No 1 spot – pipped to the post by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas.”

He added: “George was passionate about getting his songs to No 1, which is why it is important to me now that the anniversary of his death be marked by an accolade of this kind.

“When I received the news of my oldest friend’s death on the afternoon of Christmas Day last year, I had, only five minutes beforehand, sent him a message wishing him a wonderful Christmas.

“That night, after I had phoned our friends to convey the dreadful news – and despite having shed an ocean of tears already that day – the sheer eviscerating sense of loss cut my legs from beneath me and, on the deck and on my knees, I cried like I’d never cried before.

“Nothing had prepared me for the depth of pain George’s death precipitated.”

Andrew continued: “For me and for countless others, this coming Christmas will be tinged with sadness. I hope the haunting beauty of Last Christmas and the pleasure it brings might ease that sorrow – and that, with your help, posterity may one day record Last Christmas as a No 1. It would please my old chum no end!”

He also opened up about the making of the song: “Last Christmas had its beginnings on an ordinary Sunday in 1984. George and I were visiting his parents. We’d had a bite to eat and were sitting together relaxing with the television on in the background when, almost unnoticed, George disappeared upstairs for an hour or so. When he came back down, such was his excitement, it was as if he had discovered gold which, in a sense, he had.”

 “We went to his old room, the room in which we had spent hours as kids recording pastiches of radio shows and jingles, the room where he kept a keyboard and something on which to record his sparks of inspiration, and he played me the introduction and the beguiling, wistful chorus melody to Last Christmas. It was a moment of wonder.

“George had performed musical alchemy, distilling the essence of Christmas into music. Adding a lyric which told the tale of betrayed love was a masterstroke and, as he did so often, he touched hearts.”

More than 30,000 people have joined the campaign to get the song to Number 1 on Facebook.

The song was number three in Friday’s chart.

This year’s Official Christmas Number 1 race kicked off Friday 15 December with the cut-off point for sales and streams to be counted toward the chart being midnight tonight.

The Christmas Official Chart Top 40 will be counted down on The Official Chart on BBC Radio 1, on Friday 22 December from 4pm.