Song written by Ricky and Marty Wilde. Sixth track of the album Teases & Dares. This track was the first single to be taken from the album and the first single to be released by MCA Records. It was released in October 1984 to reasonable chart success. It re-established Kim Wilde as a fullgrown popstar in charts worldwide. The track was called Go For It in the USA and Canada.

Versions

There are six versions of ‘The Second Time’: the album version, the 7″ version, the extended version, the US remix, plus the extended dance version and dub version of ‘Go For It’.

Formats

The track was released as on 7″ and 12″ single, with a different 12″ single in America. The 7″ single also appeared as a picture disc in the UK.
See also this page in the discography.

Music video

A music video was filmed to promote the single.
Go to this page for more information.

Live performances

‘The second time’ was performed live during the Another Step Tour in 1986, the Bad Tour in 1988, the Perfect Girl Tour in 2007, live gigs in 2008 and 2009, the Come Out and Play Tour in 2011, the Snapshots & Greatest Hits Tour in 2012, the tour with Nik Kershaw in Australia in 2013, Christmas gigs in December 2013 and the Dutch tours in October 2015 and October 2016.

Cover versions

‘The second time’ has been covered by Lynn Sweet. The song was also covered in Croatian as ‘Drugo Vrijeme’ by Elvira Voća.

Kim about ‘The Second Time’

I suppose the lyrics were explicit, but we didn’t really make a big deal about the lyrics. I think it’s really funny. I like the paradox of pop music – that’s what attracted me to it. At one extreme it can be so serious and mean so much and at the other end it can be so trivial. There’s somewhere between the two where you don’t know if you’re listening to something that is really serious or tongue-in-cheek.
‘The Second Time’ was very sexually explicit and that’s totally alien to me. I never talk about sex to the press – I never tell them who I’m going out with. I’m never associated with that side of things. As far as the public is concerned, from what I can make out, I come across as a ‘nice girl’. So I quite like the fact that I was up there singing a song that was more sexually explicit than “Relax” and getting away with it. That’s what I like about the pop business. it can be very silly. (1)

I felt the Second Time project worked well sometimes, but mostly was an embarrassment. At the time my career was at its lowest, my confidence to trust my instincts, impaired. I knew something wasn’t right, but I felt I should give the project a fair shot. Unfortunately it reflected badly on an album I’m very proud of – Teases and Dares. (2)

Some of those videos really embarrass me. Some of them don’t but some of them do, like ‘The Second Time’. Dressed up like a ridiculous woman with a wet wig on. (3)

Credits

’57 Fender Stratocaster, Yamaha DX 7, Mini Moog, Roland Jupiter 8, Synclavier II, backing vocals: Ricki Wilde
Produced by Ricki Wilde and Marty Wilde.
Engineer: Nigel Mills with thanks to Stephen Stewart-Short and Pete Schwier.

Highest chart positions

Denmark: 9
Germany: 9 (15 weeks)
Netherlands: 24 (6 weeks)
Switzerland: 7 (12 weeks)
United Kingdom: 29 (6 weeks)
United States: 65 (7 weeks)

Interview sources

(1) Is this woman ruder than Frankie? In: Record Mirror (UK), January 5, 1985
(2) Kim Wilde In: Music Collector (UK), November 1990
(3) Music Box, Super Channel, 1988