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.
The Freshmen were formed in 1962 in Northern Ireland. The initial line-up changed over the nearly two decades of the band’s existence as members came and went. Apart from Derek Dean, members included keyboard player, saxophonist, and singer, Billy Brown, who also arranged their trademark vocal harmonies, Damien McElroy (guitar), Torry McGahey (bass), Maurice Henry (saxophone), Sean Mahon (trumpet/trombone), and David McKnight (drums). The Freshmen supported The Beach Boys on their 1967 Irish tour.
They started out as a band that mainly performed cover versions of wellknown songs, but later on during their career they would also record and perform original material. Their 1970 single ‘Halfway to where’ is most interesting for Wilde fans, as the song was written by Marty Wilde and Ronnie Scott. As far as we know, this song was only recorded by the Freshmen, which makes it a rather unique Wilde composition, and hard to get hold of these days.
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