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.
What can we say about this summer that hasn’t already been said? It was hot, very hot, and some records were broken – even those of that legendary hot summer in 1976. An appropriate song for such circumstances is the Peter Shelley & Marty Wilde-penned ‘Hot Summer Girls’. It was originally recorded by Barracuda in 1973, and covered by Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids in 1975.
That same year, a band called Typically Tropical had a summer hit with ‘Barbados’. (Younger readers will remember the Vengaboys version of that song, entitled ‘We’re going to Ibiza’.) Geraint Hughes and Jeffrey Calvert, who were behind Typically Tropical, produced an album of summery songs on the back of the success of their single, entitled ‘Barbados Sky’. One of the tracks was a cover version of ‘Hot Summer Girls’, which you can hear below.