In January 1981 the 20-year-old Kim Wilde released her first single. Six weeks later “Kids in America” climbed to #2 UK Singles Chart - only held off from #1 by Shakin' Stevens' “This Ole House”. Five months later it reached #25 Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and it became one of the first successful “teen” new-wave breakthroughs of the UK. Behind all of it was a family operation: the lyric was written by her brother Ricky, the music by her father Marty Wilde (a 50s UK pop star). A girl from a London suburb sang about American teenagers she had never seen.
The Wilde family: a 50s pop star + his children
Marty Wilde (born Reginald Smith) is one of the pioneers of 50s British rock'n'roll. In 1958 he had the hit “Endless Sleep” (#4 UK), in 1959 “Teenager in Love” (#2 UK). By the mid-60s Marty's star had waned, but from the 70s on he was writing songs for other artists - Status Quo, Lulu, The Casuals.
Marty and his wife Joyce Baker had two children: Ricky Wilde (1961) and Kim Wilde (1960). Both grew up in a house with music constantly on. At 10 Ricky was already writing simple songs; Kim sang them on family tapes.
In late 1980 Ricky and Marty cut a demo for their sister Kim - a track about the “kids in America”, even though no Wilde had been to the US in 1980. The idea was: America as an abstract object of desire where teenagers supposedly “know better” what to do with their lives.
Why “kids in America” if the author had never been to America
Ricky Wilde told Record Mirror in 1981: “I don't know what the kids in America are like. I do know that we, British teenagers in the suburbs, dream of America. I was writing a song about a dream. „We're the kids in America" is not a statement, it's a claim. We want to be someone, and America is the word for „being someone"”.
That ambiguity - the song is simultaneously about British teens and about an imagined America - made the track successful in both territories. In 1981 American teens heard the chorus as a description of themselves. British teens heard it as the dream of becoming them.
“Ricky and I lived in Hertfordshire. The nearest „American city" to us was Birmingham. And the song is about East California. We were obviously making it up.”
- Kim Wilde, The Guardian, 2019
Recording: Eden Studios, December 1980
Tracking happened at Eden Studios in Chiswick, West London, in December 1980. Producer - Ricky Wilde (Kim's younger brother, aged 19). One of the youngest production credits in British pop history - Ricky produced his sister's debut at 19.
The instrumental backbone is the Roland Jupiter-4 synth. It provides the recognizable sweeping pad on the intro. Drums come from a Roland CR-78 machine plus live drums by Jeff Seopardi. Bass - Mark Smith on a Fender Precision. The two-chord guitar riff - Ricky Wilde on a Fender Stratocaster.
The key sonic detail is the two-note guitar riff on the chorus. A simplest-possible melodic figure: an interval from C to A. Ricky repeats it in four different octaves layered through double-tracking. That creates a “wall” effect - the sound seems wide, while in fact only two notes are being played.
- Key: A minor, no modulations
- BPM: 172 (!) - one of the fastest hits of the early 80s
- Length: 3:24
- Album: Kim Wilde (June 1981, RAK Records)
- UK sales: 600,000 singles (Gold)
- Worldwide: over 3 million
Chart history
Released 26 January 1981. By 14 February - #2 UK Singles Chart, where it stayed three weeks. #1 was held by Shakin' Stevens' “This Ole House”. Austria - #1. West Germany - #1 for three weeks. Sweden - #1. Netherlands - #1 for six weeks.
The US release came in April 1981. By June - #25 Billboard Hot 100. A respectable result for a British debut, though not quite the European blaze.
The album Kim Wilde hit #3 UK Albums Chart. Kim was nominated for the 1982 Brit Award for Best British Female Artist. All three crafts stayed in the family: Ricky picked up the production credit, Marty the writing, Kim the performance.
Kim's voice and her niche
Kim Wilde's vocal on “Kids in America” is deliberately flat. She sings every note without vibrato, without belt, without affectation. A conscious producer choice - Ricky wanted Kim's voice to sound “like one of the instruments, not like a protagonist”.
That made Kim Wilde unique in the British pop scene of 1981. Rivals - Sheena Easton, Toyah Willcox, Debbie Harry - all sang emotionally, with peaks. Kim sounded like an observer. That synced with the new wave - the 80s were shaping a vocal template of “detached girl in a bright outfit” that Madonna, Pat Benatar, and Martha Quinn would later tap.
Kim Wilde's long career
After “Kids in America” Kim released around 30 more singles. Her biggest hit - “You Keep Me Hangin' On” (a Supremes cover, 1986) - reached #1 Billboard Hot 100, making Kim one of the very few British women with a US #1 in the 80s. In 1987 she was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal.
In 1996 Kim abruptly stepped away from music - to become a gardener. In 1998 she published How to Grow Fresh Fruits & Vegetables. In 2001 she earned a Royal Horticultural Society diploma. Until 2010 she hosted a gardening programme on BBC.
In 2013 Kim returned to music - released Wilde Winter Songbook and from 2015 toured regularly. In 2023 a concert at Royal Albert Hall celebrated her 62nd birthday - the room was full of British 50-60-year-olds who had grown up on “Kids in America”.
Legacy: how the song became a pop standard
“Kids in America” is one of the most-covered pop songs of the 80s. Over 44 years it has been recorded by 140+ artists: The Muffs (1996), No Secrets (2001), Bloodhound Gang (2005), Saucy Monky (2007), Lawson (2013). The most famous cover is The Muffs', 1996, featured on the Clueless soundtrack, bringing the song back to life in the 90s.
By 2024 “Kids in America” sits in the top-20 all-time British “new wave” hits per NME and is one of the most frequently used songs in teen films (especially in the 2010s - Eighth Grade, Ladybird, The Kissing Booth).
What to listen to next
For the 1981 British new-wave debut context: Kim Wilde “Kids in America” → Visage “Fade to Grey” (1980) → Human League “Don't You Want Me” (1981). Three different ways to package a synth + a young female vocal.
For a career-arc comparison to Kim, try Madonna's “Like a Virgin” (1984) and Cyndi Lauper's “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (1983). Three women, three strategies: Wilde - “cool observer”, Lauper - “eccentric joy”, Madonna - “total image”. Three 80s pop blueprints, all still in play.