For those of a certain vintage, like myself, Marty Wilde was Kim Wilde’s dad. Marty, along with his son Ricky were the songwriting team behind most (if not all) of Kim’s early hits, including the classic ‘Kids In America’. What I didn’t realise until much later was that Marty had been a performer in his own right and was one of the first British rock ’n’ rollers along with Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard. Performing with his backing band the Wildcats, Wilde had a number of hits in the late 50s and early 60s as well as being a regular performer on early British music shows, 6.5 Special, Oh Boy! and Boy Meets Girl. His marriage to Vernon Girl Joyce Baker lead to a decline in his popularity as a teen idol but Wilde was not finished with the music business.
He appeared in a West End production of the musical ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ as well as becoming a noted songwriter. This included penning such tunes aa ‘Jesamine’ for The Casuals, ‘I’m A Tiger’ for Lulu and ‘Ice In The Sun’ for Status Quo. However, Wilde also continued to perform and throughout the late 60s and 70 he released a number of singles under pseudonyms. What this compilation does is collect all of those singles together and present them in chronological order.
Side A
- Abagevenney – Shannon (1968)
- Alice In Blue – Shannon (1968)
- Jesamine – Shannon (1969)
- Lullaby – Shannon (1969)
- When You Wish Upon A Star – The Scrumpy N Dumpy (1972)
- The Scrumpy N Dumpy Boogaloo – The Scrumpy N Dumpy (1972)
- Caterpillar – Cold Fly (1973)
- Yesterday Started For Judy – Cold Fly (1973)
Side B
- Rock & Roll Crazy – Zappo (1973)
- Right On! – Zappo (1973)
- 20 Fantastic Bands – The Dazzling All Night Rock Band (1973)
- 20 Fantastic Bands (Continued) – The Dazzling All Night Rock Band (1973)
- Shang-a-Lang Song – Ruby Pearl and The Dreamboats (1974)
- Will You Stop That – Ruby Pearl and The Dreamboats (1974)
- Come Back & Love Me – Shannon (1975)
- She’s A High Flyer – Shannon (1975)
The front cover of the LP is adapted from the picture sleeve of the ‘Rock & Roll Crazy’ single that was released under the name of Zappo. A good deal of the these records came out on the Magnet label that was bought up by Warner Brothers. That is why that companies logo is on the front cover.
As a bonus, here is a mini album with all of the songs that Marty Wilde recorded under the name of ‘The Wilde Three’. These recordings came out on two singles and featured not only Wilde, but his wife and a pre-Moody Blues Justin Hayward. Side A contains these singles whereas the B-Side contains demos/alternative versions of songs that the group did not release at the time.
Side A
- Since You’ve Gone – The Wilde Three (1965)
- Just As Long – The Wilde Three (1965)
- I Cried – The Wilde Three (1965)
Side B
- Well Who’s That – The Wilde Three (1965)
- Since You’ve Gone (Alternative Take) (1965)
- Just As Long (Alternative Take) (1965)
- I Just Wanna Dance (Demo) (1965)
There aren’t that many pictures out there of this group, but this is one of the better ones and is made to look like a Decca EP sleeve from the 60s.