Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World
Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World
Wreckless Eric is best known as one of the original members of the late 1970s Stiff Records artist roster, along with Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. Eric’s first ever record was the appearance of “Whole Wide World” on the Stiff label sampler A Bunch of Stiff Records in April 1977. The single version of that song was finally released in August. The song was produced by, and featured bass (and most of the other instruments) by Nick Lowe, with Ian Dury on drums. The following month, the song was one of five tracks broadcasted for the first of two sessions Eric recorded for DJ John Peel at BBC Radio 1. The song went on to make number 47 in John Peel’s ‘Festive Fifty’, the so-called ‘lost list’ of 1977; it was number 8 in the Sounds Critics’ singles of the year; and it received an ‘honourable mention’ in the NME critics’ chart. The song’s reputation has grown over the years and numerous bands have covered “Whole Wide World”, such as the Lightning Seeds, Mental As Anything, The Monkees (who covered the song on their Pool It! album in 1987), The Proclaimers (who covered it on their 2007 album Life With You), The Prissteens, and Paul Westerberg.