From:  "Colin Kilgour" 
Date:  Fri Jan 21, 2005  1:59 pm 
Subject:  This Is My Story: Marty Wilde
 
MARTY WILDE (by Colin Kilgour)

Born Reginald Leonard Smith, 15 April, 1936*
London, England

*some say 1939 but usually the earliest date is the accurate one!

After playing briefly in a skiffle group, Marty secured a residency at
London's Condor Club under the name Reg Patterson.

He was spotted by songwriter Lionel Bart, who subsequently informed
entrepreneur Larry Parnes. The starmaker was keen to sign the singer and
rapidly took over his career. Reg Smith henceforth became Marty Wilde. The
christian name was coined from the sentimental eponymous Ernest Borgnine
movie while the surname was meant to emphasise the wilder side of
Smith's nature (as with Parnes' other discoveries)

Parnes next arranged a record deal with Philips Records but Wilde's initial
singles, including a reading of Jimmie Rodgers' `Honeycomb', failed to
chart. Nevertheless, Wilde was promoted vigorously and appeared
frequently on BBC Television's music programme, 6.5 Special.

Soon after having a hit recording of Jody Reynolds' `Endless Sleep' in 1957,
Parnes persuaded the influential producer Jack Good to make Wilde the
resident star of his new television programme Oh Boy!

The arrangement worked well for Wilde until Good objected to his single
`Misery's Child' and vetoed the song. Worse followed when Good effectively
replaced Marty with a new singing star Cliff Richard. Before long, Cliff had
taken Marty's mantle as the UK's premier teen idol and was enjoying
consistent hits. Wilde, meanwhile, was gradually changing his image. After
considerable success with such songs as `Donna', `Teenager In Love', `Sea Of
Love' and his own composition `Bad Boy', he veered away from rock `n' roll.

His marriage to Joyce Baker of the Vernon Girls was considered a bad career
move at the time and partly contributed to Wilde's announcement that he
would henceforth be specialising in classy, Frank Sinatra-style ballads. For
several months he hosted a new pop show Boy Meets Girls and later starred in
the London West End production of Bye Bye Birdie.

Although Parnes was intent on promoting Wilde as an actor, the star was
resistant to such a move. His last major success was with a lacklustre
version of Bobby Vee's `Rubber Ball' in 1961. Later in the decade he
recorded for several labels, including a stint as the Wilde Three with
his wife Joyce, and future Moody Blues' vocalist Justin Hayward.

Wilde enjoyed considerable radio play and was unfortunate not to
enjoy a belated hit with the catchy `Abergavenny' in 1969. He also
scored some success as the writer of hits like Status Quo's
`Ice In The Sun'. By the 70s, Wilde was managing his son Ricky who was
briefly promoted as Britain's answer to Little Jimmy Osmond. Ricky later
achieved success as a songwriter for his sister,
Kim Wilde, who would go on to achieve far greater chart fame in the UK
and USA than her father.
=============
BGO have released two Marty Wilde albums from 1959/60 on one disc.
I've listed out the tracks and have scanned in the sleeve notes - and
interesting reading they make too

For my taste, a British singer like Marty could never really hold a candle
to the real American greats. That said however, he was one of ours and many
of his covers were very creditable, not least the track that opens this
collection ‘Down The Line’

I always thought old Mart had a curious twang to his voice. He does a very
acceptable version of the classic ‘Dream Lover’ but Pomus/Shuman’s ‘Teenage
Tears' proves even the great writers could have an off day

‘Honeycomb’ is almost embarrassingly bad but most of us would agree The
Wildester does a decent enough job on the likes of ‘Endless Sleep’ and ‘Sea
of Love’. Each time we have a quarrel someone would also nominate ‘A
Teenager in Love’

He does a surprisingly smooth job on ‘Are You Sincere’ and to illustrate his
versatility (and somebody's very good and very early choice of a great
song), chugs along very nicely on ‘So Glad You're Mine’

If I had to pick just one MW track for that mythical Desert Island
compilation, it would be the self-penned ‘Bad Boy, a stonkingly good
effort. Don't laugh but one of the main reasons I got this package
was to obtain ‘My Heart and I' which is an old cheesy, Vienn-esey
song made famous by the monocled Richard Tauber who originated
from somewhere in the old Hitler zone

The track slotted into that category of items which strike a chord from
years back (Marty's version) but which for a number of reasons have
(until now) remained elusive and ungettable. I think perhaps that's a
good idea for another thread

Wilde About Marty:
Down The Line
Love Of My Life
Put Me Down
Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Dream Lover
You've Got Love
I Flipped
All American Boy
Mean Woman Blues
Are You Sincere?
High School Confidential
Don't Pity Me
Splish Splash
So Glad You're Mine

Showcase:
Honeycomb
No One Knows
The Fire Of Love
Endless Sleep
A Teenager In Love
My Heart And I
Donna
It's Been Nice
Sea Of Love
Teenage Tears
Bad Boy
Johnny Rocco

Firstly John Tobler’s notes - 2003
"Back in the late 1950s, British popular music came under the massive
influence of rock'n'roll, which had already made a major impact in the USA.
To be perfectly frank, many of the early British rock'n'rollers were poor
copyists of the American model, and without mentioning any names, some of
them were verging on pathetic. However, a handful of home-grown hopefuls
shone out from the general run-of-the-mill impersonators; the one whose
career has dwarfed the achievements of everyone else is, of course, Cliff
Richard, but back in 1958-an unbelievable 45 years ago! - Cliff's greatest
rival was a tall, dark and handsome 19 year old from Greenwich in south-east
London named Reg Smith, who is better known as Marty Wilde.

An explanation of this pseudonym is probably called for, and it involves the
first great British rock'n'roll impresario, Larry Parnes, who sensed that
this new rock'n'roll epidemic needed British artists who would inevitably
eventually equal the appeal of their American counterparts. Obviously, the
act which eventually not only equalled the appeal of US rock'n'roll, but
surpassed it, was The Beatles, but before the Fab Four came to prominence in
the early 1960s, Mister Parnes Shillings & Pence (as Larry Parnes was
dubbed, due to his ability to generate income for himself and his stable of
artists) controlled the careers of many British vocalists, to most of whom
he gave somewhat fanciful stage names; Billy Fury (real name Ronald
Wycherley), Johnny Gentle, Lance Fortune, Dickie Pride (Richard Knellar),
Dotty Power, Vince Eager.

In fact, the very first artist Parnes managed to success was Tommy Steele
(Thomas Hicks), who went on to international stardom after topping the
British chart in 1957 with `Singing The Blues' and becoming the first rocker
to be immortalised in wax at Madame Tussaud's. Later, Steele moved on to
stage musicals like 'Half A Sixpence' and then to Hollywood, where he
starred in movies like 'The Happiest Millionaire and 'Finian's Rainbow'.

Tommy Steele largely turned his back on rock 'n' roll after achieving his
breakthrough, but it should be understood that when the "wild" music of Bill
Haley. Elvis Presley, Little Richard and the others emerged, it was
generally regarded by showbusiness veterans as a five minute wonder which
would soon be replaced by some other passing fad - which just goes to show
how wrong they were. The stated ambition of many of the early British
rock'n'rollers was to became an "all-round entertainer", thus guaranteeing a
lifetime career.

Tommy Steele probably achieved that aim, but few others retained their fame
for more than a few months after moving away from the style which made them
famous.

Marty Wilde was propelled in the "all-round entertainer" direction, which in
some ways was unfortunate. Larry Parnes had enjoyed considerable success
with Tommy Steele, and was understandably keen for Wilde to go the same way.
Parnes and his partner, John Kennedy, had spotted Wilde performing
(apparently as Reg Patterson) at London's Condor Club in 1957, and quickly
added him to a package show. While his first single, 'Honeycomb' (included
here on `Showcase), a cover version of the US hit by Jimmie Rodgers, was not
a hit, nor were his next two singles, Wilde got his first chart entry with a
cover version of the Jody Reynolds US hit, 'Endless Sleep' (also on
`Showcase), which peaked in the UK Top 5 in the summer of 1958. However, two
further 1958 singles again failed to chart; both sides of the second of
those singles, 'No-One Knows'/'The Fire Of Love', also appeared on `Showcase
when it was released in May, 1960.

By then, Wilde had established himself as a chart regular with four more UK
Top 10 hits during 1959, the first of which was his cover version of 'Donna'
by Ritchie Valens, released in the spring of that year. This was Wilde's
first UK Top 3 hit, and it was followed by another UK Top 3 success during
the summer, this time a cover version of A Teenager In Love', which in
Britain outsold the original version by Dion & The Belmonts - some
achievement! A third consecutive Top 3 single for Wilde in the autumn of
1959 was his cover version of `Sea Of Love', a US hit for Phil Phillips. All
three of those Top 3 hits are featured on 'Showcase', as is the flipside of
'Sea Of Love', a beat ballad titled 'Teenage Tears'. However, many feel that
Wilde's last hit of 1959, 'Bad Boy', was the most important of his chart
successes, because he wrote the song himself. 'Bad Boy' also became the
first of his two US Top 50 hits, and his only US hit under the name of Marty
Wilde - his second US hit (in 1969) was Abergavenny', which he released
under the name of Shannon. 'Bad Boy' is included here on 'Showcase', as is
its excellent flipside, 'It's Been Nice' (which was also recorded - as the
A-side of a 1963 single - by The Everly Brothers).

However, 1960 was Wilde's penultimate year as a chart regular, and
completing the 'Showcase' album was his second UK hit of that year, 'Johnny
Rocco' (Top 30) and its flipside, `My Heart And I'. 'Showcase', which was
released in May, 1960, was Marty Wilde's second LP. The fact that it failed
to chart can be explained by the status of the LP record over forty years
ago. 78 rpm singles had been replaced by seven inch 45s only a couple of
years before, and not everyone yet had the hardware to play an album. Sure,
Cliff Richard made the chart with his first two LPs, but then Cliff was
unmarried; it has been said that Marty Wilde's fall from chart grace was
largely the result of his marrying Joyce Baker (herself a pop star as one of
The Vernons Girls) in late 1959, which meant that teenage girls regarded him
as unavailable, ludicrous though this seems in the 21st Century.

The other half of this collection is Marty Wilde's first LP, 'Wilde About
Marty', a 14 track album of cover versions of songs originally recorded by
American acts. At the time of its release in August, 1959, it was regarded
as a fine piece of work, and despite the passing of over 40 years, it still
sounds pretty good to me. The song selection was excellent, with every song
but one a classic, albeit in some cases a minor classic. `Down The Line',
'Put Me Down', 'Mean Woman Blues' and 'High School Confidential' were all
known from versions by Jerry Lee Lewis, while 'Love Of My Life' was one of
the many timeless hits written by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant and recorded
by The Everly Brothers. 'Blue Moon Of Kentucky', written by bluegrass
pioneer Bill Monroe, was one of the early masterpieces recorded by Elvis
Presley at the start of his career with Sun Records, and `So Glad You're
Mine', which was also recorded by Elvis, was written, like 'That's All
Right', The King's first single, by bluesman Arthur Crudup.

Presley also recorded `Mean Woman Blues'. Interestingly, there are two songs
on 'Wilde About Marty' made famous by Bobby Darin 'Dream Lover' and Splish
Splash', although the biggest UK hit version of the latter was, bizarrely
enough, by comedian Charlie Drake. 'You've Got Love' was one of the
brilliant tracks on 'The So Glad You're Mine Chirping Crickets', the first
LP released by Buddy Holly, and - further street cred - the song's writers
included Roy Orbison and Norman Petty, the man who made Buddy Holly a star
(some say - others are less charitable). One of the more unexpected
inclusions is All-American Boy', which had been a big international hit for
Bill Parsons, who later turned out to be Bobby Bare, a well-rated country
artist. All American Boy' was a jokey parody of the dynamic start to the
career of Elvis Presley.

Even less likely was Are You Sincere', a 1958 US Top 3 hit for Andy
Williams. Now Andy Williams was very much the American version of the
"all-round entertainer", and his first 15 US hits were on the Cadence label,
where his labelmates were The Everly Brothers. In those days, he was
regarded as being on the edge of rock'n'roll, especially after his only US
Number One, Butterfly' (in competition with a version by a genuine US
rock'n'roller, Charlie Gracie, whose single also topped the US chart).
However, Are You Sincere' wasn't really as good as Butterfly', so maybe this
wasn't such a great choice for Marty Wilde. 'Don't Pity Me' was a 1958 US
Top 40 hit for Dion & The Belmonts, whose first hit of 1959 was A Teenager
In Love', which also provided Marty Wilde with a UK Top 3 hit the same year
(included on 'Showcase). Arguably the only fairly obscure song on the album
was 'I Flipped', an album track by Gene Vincent, but altogether, this was a
very good LP (and one of the first purchased by yours truly), and it is
about time that it is appearing on CD in its original form.

So that's the music - 26 tracks including half a dozen UK hit singles, one
of which also made the US Top 50. Wilde's backing group were known as The
Wild Cats, and included such stellar musicians as 'Big Jim' Sullivan on lead
guitar (so nicknamed to differentiate him from the teenage guitar prodigy,
Jimmy Page, later of Led Zeppelin, but in the pre-Zep 1960s, a session
musician), Brian 'Liquorice Locking (bass) and Brian Bennett (drums); this
latter pair went on to become members of The Shadows, replacing originals
Jet Harris & Tony Meehan.

And what happened to Marty Wilde? He had appeared to great acclaim on early
British rock'n'roll TV shows 'Oh Boy!' and 'Boy Meets Girls', in which he
was the resident star, and even performed at a Royal Variety Performance. He
made a cowboy-type movie, 'The Hellions', and appeared in the West End
production of the stage musical, 'Bye Bye Birdie', but his hit singles
became smaller and less regular, with occasional exceptions like 'Rubber
Ball' (Top 10, 1961) and `Jezebel' (Top 20, 1962). While the beat group boom
produced numerous new stars, Wilde was viewed as one of the old guard, and
although he continued to record during the 1960s and early 1970s, he never
again reached the UK chart as an artist - although as a songwriter, he
enjoyed success with Status Quo's Ice In The Sun', `Jesamine' by The Casuals
and 'I'm A Tiger' by Lulu.

In the 1980s, his daughter, Kim, enjoyed even greater chart success than her
father two decades earlier, doubtless often benefiting from paternal advice
and hit songs he wrote for her. Finally, the story goes that when Marty was
performing in Birkenhead on a Larry Parnes package tour, a young
Liverpudlian named Ron Wycherley came to the show because he wanted to play
some songs to Parnes and Marty - which was Billy Fury's start in
showbusiness. Unlike the unfortunate Billy Fury, Marty Wilde remains with
us, an elder statesman and pioneer of rock'n'roll in Britain".
-----------------------------

Now John Franz - from the original sleevenote for 'Wilde About Marty’ 1959

"In this day and age when, to coin a phrase, one can find new rock singing
sensations under every stone it is inevitable that few of these discoveries
in any way justify the extravagant claims of their managers and agents. We
at Philips, however, sincerely believe this is not the case with Marty
Wilde.

In 1957 when we were running weekly studio tests and auditions and listening
to the outpourings of dozen after dozen of so-called new singing sensations
(none of whom we have heard of since), Larry Parnes, the well-known
impresario, brought along an extremely tall, friendly young fellow whom he
introduced as Marty Wilde. After hearing his first song (`Honeycomb') he was
signed on the spot and arrangements were put in hand for him to record that
very song the following week; which he did with great success.

Around the same time Marty was appearing in cabaret and was seen by BBC
producer Josephine Douglas, who immediately booked him into the very popular
`6.5 Special' TV show three days later. The effect of Marty on TV screens
throughout the country was quite overwhelming and brought forth avalanches
of fan mail, telegrams, phone calls, etc. He immediately became a regular
featured artist on this show and later on made many appearances on ABC TV's
fabulously successful 'Oh Boy' programme.

During all this time his records were selling extremely well, although as
yet he had not been fortunate enough to have one reach a high position in
the Hit Parade. This came when he recorded `Endless Sleep', which at once
made a great appeal to his legions of fans and in no time at all was one of
the biggest hits in the country. A short while later this was followed by
'Donna', which was an even bigger hit, and at the time of writing the
success of his `A Teenager In Love' disc can only be described as enormous.

With success following success it would have been easy for Marty to rest on
his laurels, but he is not that sort of person; he has an admirable habit of
never being satisfied with his work and is constantly experimenting and
working hard in order to improve his undoubtedly great talent. Proof of his
versatility is the fact that although he entered the business as a rock
singer, he now includes ballads and all types of material. Also, he has
appeared in a straight acting part in the new film 'Jet Storm' wherein he
plays alongside such great personalities as Dame Sybil Thorndike, Diane
Cilento and Stanley Baker.

The songs in this album represent many of his favourites and also some that
have been big hits for other artists. Some of the accompaniments are head
arrangements by Marty's own group - the others are by Wally Stott and Ivor
Raymonde".

Additional material here is my own + from Guinness Who's Who of Fifties
Music

Colin Kilgour: January, 2005