"Wild One" or "Real Wild Child" is an Australian rock and roll song written by Johnny Greenan, Johnny O'Keefe, and Dave Owens. While most sources state that O'Keefe was directly involved in composing the song, this has been questioned by others. Sydney disc jockey Tony Withers was credited with helping to get radio airplay for the song but writer credits on subsequent versions often omit Withers, who later worked in the United Kingdom on pirate stations Radio Atlanta and, as Tony Windsor, on Wonderful Radio London, Radio London. According to O'Keefe's guitarist, Lou Casch, the song was inspired by an incident at a gig in Newtown, New South Wales, Newtown, Sydney, in about 1957. According to Casch, as O'Keefe and the Dee Jays played at an upstairs venue, an "Italian wedding" reception was taking place downstairs. Some of the dance patrons came to blows with wedding guests in the men's toilets, and within minutes the brawl had become a full-scale riot that spilled out into the street, with police eventually calling in the Navy Shore Patrol to help restore order. In an article by Clinton Walker that tries to answer the question, What was Australia’s first rock’n’roll record? the writer quotes Dee Jays’ saxophonist – and the song’s co-writer – John Greenan corroborating Casch’s account and elaborating upon it. The release date of the single, 5 July 1958, is considered the birth of Australian rock and roll. The band Jet (band), Jet and Iggy Pop recorded a cover version that was released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the original release. The Living End performed the song at the 2008 APRA Awards (Australia), APRA Awards to mark the anniversary.

O'Keefe's recordings

O'Keefe was the first artist to record it, on his debut Extended play, EP ''Shakin' at the Stadium'', released on the Festival Records, Festival label. This version, ostensibly recorded live at the Sydney Stadium, was in fact a studio recording, overdubbed with the sound of a real audience. An alternate version was recorded and released outside Australia: in the United States (as "Real Wild Child") on Brunswick Records, Brunswick and in the UK on Coral Records, Coral. "Festival liner notes have always put forward that the crowd overdub was the only difference... Ignoring the crowd overdub at the start, both versions have a different intro and JOK's vocal on the foreign versions is noticeably wilder than on the EP version issued here… As far as I know, the US/UK single version which, IMHO, is markedly superior to our version, was never issued in Australia... at the time, [but] it did finally appear on a local compilation LP in the 70's and is now commonly available on various JOK CDs."
Tony Watson The song was the first Australian rock recording to reach the national charts, peaking at No. 20.

Iggy Pop version

Iggy Pop included a cover of the song on his seventh studio album ''Blah-Blah-Blah (Iggy Pop album), Blah-Blah-Blah'' (1986). Titled "Real Wild Child (Wild One)", this became a No. 10 hit on the UK Singles Chart in January 1987. In Canada it charted for 20 weeks despite never peaking higher than No. 65 on the ''RPM (magazine), RPM'' Top Singles chart. It also charted on the US Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock (chart), Album Rock Tracks chart, peaking at No. 27. In New Zealand the song reached No. 1 on the week of 21 June 1987, becoming Pop's biggest hit there. The Iggy Pop version was featured in the film ''Problem Child (film), Problem Child'' and its sequel, ''Problem Child 2''. It also featured in ''Crocodile Dundee II''. A clip of the song is also used in the opening titles of the Australian music television programme ''rage (TV program), rage''. Part of the version was also used at the start of the Remix Edit of Iggy Pop's own song "Monster Men" from ''Space Goofs''.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Jet and Iggy Pop version

A cover of the song was recorded again by Iggy Pop who teamed up with Aussie rockers Jet (band), Jet, titled "The Wild One". It was released as a CD single and download on 19 July 2008 as a tribute to Johnny O'Keefe and peaked at number 56 on the ARIA Charts, ARIA Singles Chart.

Charts

Other covers

In 1958, the song was released as a single by Jerry Allison, a member of the Crickets, using the name Ivan, with Buddy Holly backing him on guitar. Retitled "Real Wild Child," the song became a moderate hit, peaking at No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100. "Wild One" was also recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1958 but was not released until 1974 on Lee's album, ''Rockin' and Free''. His version also appears in the 1989 motion picture and soundtrack album for ''Great Balls of Fire! (film), Great Balls of Fire!'', ''Nowhere Boy'', and ''The Complete Novel'' edition of ''The Outsiders (film), The Outsiders''. His version was used as a plot device in the Australian movie ''Romulus, My Father''. It was recorded and released as "Real Wild Child" by Jet Harris, former bassist with the Shadows, in 1962 on Harris' self-titled EP. A further version, "Real Wild Child (Wild One)" was recorded by British guitarist, Albert Lee, on his 1982 self-titled album. Other artists to record this song include Status Quo (band), Status Quo, Everlife, The Runaways, Joan Jett#Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Marshall Crenshaw, Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker, Teenage Head (band), Teenage Head, Albert Lee and Wakefield (band), Wakefield. A cover by Christopher Otcasek appeared on the soundtrack to the film ''Pretty Woman''. The cover by Wakefield (band), Wakefield appeared in the movie ''EuroTrip'' and its soundtrack. An up-tempo rock version of the song (titled as ''Real Wild Child'') was covered by the fictional band Music from the Motion Picture Josie and the Pussycats, Josie and the Pussycats (lead vocals provided by singer Kay Hanley) in the 2001 Josie and the Pussycats (film), film of the same name. Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding recorded a version of the song for the soundtrack to the 2008 film ''Wild Child (film), Wild Child''. This song was also sung by Suzi Quatro and released in 1974 as a track on her second album Quatro (album), ''Quatro''. As pointed out by Clinton Walker once again, the songwriting credit was taken by her Chinnichap production team at RAK Records, whose Mike Chapman, as an Australian, would have been well familiar with. The most recent cover of the song, with the title "Real Wild Child," was by Levi Kreis portraying Jerry Lee Lewis on the original Broadway cast recording of the Broadway musical ''Million Dollar Quartet''. Kreis won a 2010 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. A seasonal version of the song was covered in December 2014 by former UK soap actor John Altman (actor), John Altman with backing band JoanOvArc.

Further utilisation

The 1986 Iggy Pop version of the song is used as the title music to the ABC Television (Australian TV network), Australian Broadcasting Corporation's all-night music video programme, ''Rage (TV program), rage'' and is also featured in the game ''List of songs in SingStar games (PlayStation 2), SingStar Amped''. This version is also used for the opening credits of the German TV series ''Der letzte Bulle'', first aired in Germany in 2010. In 1998, Australia Post issued a special edition set of twelve Postage stamp, stamps celebrating the early years of Australian rock and roll, featuring Australian hit songs of the late 50s, 60s and early 70s: "Each of them said something about us, and told the rest of the world this is what popular culture sounds like, and it has an Australian accent." One of the stamps featured Johnny O'Keefe and "Wild One". Everlife's cover was featured in the video game ''Lego Rock Band'' and the soundtrack to the 2006 movie ''The Wild (movie), The Wild''. Wakefield's cover was featured in the video game ''Tak and the Power of Juju''. It also appeared in the beginning and during the closing credits of ''Open Season 3''. Joan Jett's version appeared in an ad for the sitcom ''Hot in Cleveland''. It also appeared during the closing credits of ''Bad Teacher''. In 2014 it was used in a commercial (titled "Family Racer") for the 2015 Hyundai Sonata.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild One, The 1958 singles 1986 singles 2006 singles 2008 singles Jet (band) songs Warner Music Group singles Iggy Pop songs Jerry Lee Lewis songs Australian rock songs 1958 songs Leedon Records singles Number-one singles in New Zealand