I sit here alone, and I wonder why

Continuing my trip back through the 1981 album charts.

26/07/81 : Kim Wilde - Kim Wilde

Our first proper visit with Kim, although we did meet her in passing with a new entry in '25 and it was a lot better than I was expecting. I've no real clue what to expect from this - Kim was never either cool or uncool, so it might have dated badly or just live in a strange timeless state.

Hmmm - it's an interesting one. You get the feeling that she desperately wants to be the English Blondie (but there's a decent argument she's doing a better job than they did most of the time - particularly when we consider Debbie's recent offering). But there are also definite 60s influences - quite probably because all the songs are co-written by her dad, Marty Wilde (as well as her brother Ricky). So I think it manages to be both of its time and timeless - I can't say I loved it (except for "Kids In America" of course, which is enjoyable catchy) and it's fair to say her voice definitely improved in later years, but it certainly wasn't terrible and it was a fun enough reminder of the time.

We're at #4 in the charts this week on her third week of a fourteen week run, with it having peaked at #3 in its second week - easily her most successful album, but I was surprised to see she's had 13 albums in the charts over the years. The rest of the top five this week were Cliff Richard, Randy Crawford, Stars On 45 and a Motorhead live album with the highest new entry being the Cats original cast recording (#6) which features Paul Nicholas, Elaine Paige, Wayne Sleep and Bryan Blessed.

Wikipedia tells us this is her debut album and it doesn't have a lot more on there other than telling us that most of the playing on the album was done by The Enid, who were formed in '73 - apparently they got on with Kim but were paid very little for their efforts (and it's not any of them on the album cover). Checking out her entry to pad things out, she was the most successful British solo female artist chartwise in the '80s, with SEVENTEEN top 40 singles - she also had a #1 track in the US with "You Keep Me Hanging On" (which I'd completely forgotten about). Back to the album, it was surprisingly well received critically - Smash Hits only gave it 6.5/10 but they did amusingly say "this is the best Blondie album for a couple of years". And commercially, it smashed it in Europe, getting to #1 in Germany and Sweden but it only got to #86 in the US (but that still seems like a decent effort).

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent version of this for three quid, but if you want the yellow vinyl reissue from '20 (which seems like a very odd year to reissue it) complete with a "Happy New Year" postcard from Kim, then it's going to set you £60. Which certainly seems to be overdoing matters but I enjoyed this visit and you certainly can't begrudge Kim her success - she also seems to have dealt with it admirably.

02/08/81 - A very talented lad

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