Kim Wilde’s first records were written and produced by her father and brother, Marty and Ricky. The three of them have had a great influence on the music world, as this regular series ‘Wilde World’ shows.
Earlier this year we discovered a Czech version of Ricky Wilde’s debut single ‘I am an astronaut’ by Jaromír Mayer. This was an addition to the English, Swedish and Norwegian covers of the song. However, there’s still more: in 1974 the Dutch children’s choir De Waagzangertjes recorded the song ‘Ik ben een astronaut’, a Dutch version of the song.
‘Ik ben een astronaut’ was translated by Jacques Zwart, who co-wrote half of the tracks on the 1974 album ‘Wij houden van Rock en Roll’ (‘We love Rock and Roll’), which in fact doesn’t sound very rock and roll at all. The Alkmaar-based choir achieved national fame by performing on TV programmes like ‘Stuif es in’ and ‘Op losse groeven’, both very popular programmes on national television in the Netherlands. They released several albums including a Christmas album in 1982 and also appeared on two albums by famous Dutch singer Rob de Nijs.