Marty Wilde had been discovered by rock and roll entrepreneur Larry
Parnes who was keen to expand his management of young hopefuls
beyond his first signing Tommy Steele. At that time Marty had
already changed his name from 'Smith' to 'Patterson' but Parnes, in
line with his thinking for all his stars, changed the name entirely
creating 'Marty Wilde'.
Marty's big break came with the advent of the UK's first rock and
roll TV show, Jack Good's 'Six-5 Special', where his good singing
voice made him a great asset. Not only could Wilde 'rock and roll',
but he could also sing ballads. This ability led to his version of
Jody Reynolds US hit 'Endless Sleep', which was one of many cover
versions that Marty Wilde was called upon to make. All of these
covers were well done, some like 'Endless Sleep' were arguably
superior to the original, but this lack of his own material would
prove a big handicap. Marty transferred himself to Jack Good's new
ITV show 'Oh Boy!' following the BBC's foolish dismissal of Jack
Good. He was the star of that show when Cliff Richard suddenly
appeared, riding high from the issue of his first record, 'Move
It!'. The two stars allegedly got on well but Larry Parnes decided
to pull Marty out of the show rather than risk him being seen as a
subsidiary act to Cliff. In retrospect, Parnes would regret this
move because it enabled Cliff to quickly assume Marty's former role
as the UK's foremost rock and roll star.
Although Marty's covers of US songs continued to chart they were in
direct competition with the originals and by the early 1960s Marty
was struggling to make even the top 20. Despite the downward slide
in his record sales most of his records were well made. However, the
competition from the US and from Mersey beat was too great and even
his wonderful, self penned, 'Come Running' failed to chart.
Marty Wilde married Vernon's girl 'Joyce Baker' and later in the
1960s he created an unsuccessful trio with himself, Joyce, and
Justin Hayward- the 'Wilde Three' . Fortunately, Marty had a loyal
base of fans- particularly in the North of England which enabled him
to ride out the 'group' obsession. He later re-established himself
as a premier act at rock and roll nostalgia concerts. He took
sufficient time off from this to help his daughter Kim Wilde become
a major international star, before she retired to landscape
gardening. Marty still tours regularly and retains that excellent
singing voice that gave him such a good start in his long show
business career.
Reference *45-rpm.org.uk |
|
