For the second straight week, I have to sheepishly admit that my introduction to this week's tune was a TV commercial, that being an Expedia commercial from 2022 featuring Ewan McGregor. There's just a snippet of the song at the end, but it was enough to catch my attention and warrant an online search. Funny thing, though--it was originally released in 1977 and is considered a punk classic. That's my era and a genre I'm very familiar with, but in the end it's just another in a long list of ways that music surprises us....
Wreckless Eric (Eric Goulden) (born 1954 in the U.K.) got his start in 1973 when he began attending Art School--he became interested in the local music scene and joined a few bands along the way. By 1977 he was one of the first to join Stiff Records--with such future musical luminaries as Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, and Devo. He also released his first album, which had a modicum of commercial success. Wreckless Eric was able to parlay that early success into a now nearly fifty-year career. He's been in four different bands, lived in France and the United States (his now home), and currently makes music with his wife, Amy Rigby. For his career, he's released nine albums as Wreckless Eric, one as Eric Goulden, six with his bands, and three with his wife. He's been a part of fourteen compilations and released fourteen singles in all of his musical incarnations. Any way you shake it, that's a pretty long and varied career.
"Whole Wide World" was originally released in 1977 on Wreckless Eric's debut album, the rather cleverly named Wreckless Eric. The single did not chart, while the album reached #46 on the U.K. Albums Chart.
Fun Fact: "Whole Wide World" was written in 1974 and was the first song he ever recorded. It was originally released on the compilation A Bunch of Stiff Records in 1977. So Wreckless Eric, who technically did not have a hit single with this week's song, built his fifty-year career on the first recording he ever made.
Opening with a guitar that mimics a ticking clock, Wreckless Eric weaves the tale of a young man looking for love--who will admittedly "go the whole wide world" to find it (though he seems to think he's going to find it on a tropical island--probably because of his Mom). The song builds from a softly played and sung intro to an absolute explosion as the narrator's urgency hits a ten. There's a couple of odd (but noticeable) bass quirks, as well as one on the drums that became something I actually waited for. In the end, Wreckless Eric's vocals (note that this is one of the few songs sung by someone British in which you can still hear the accent) seal the deal--there's a searing intensity combined with a youthful exuberance that drives the song to its greatness. If you're going to have one hit, you want it to be just like this one.
Lyric Sheet: "Why am I hangin' around in the rain out here, tryin' to pick up a girl?/Why are my eyes fillin' up with these lonely tears, when there's girls all over the world?"
Enjoy:
Peace,
emaycee
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