boss Mickie Most heard Wilde singing on a backing track to another song recorded by her brother Ricky Wilde, an aspiring young songwriter and producer who had had some fame as a child singer in the style of Donny Osmond in the early 1970s. Most liked Kim's voice and looks and expressed an interest in working with her. Eager to grab the opportunity, Ricky went home and wrote "Kids in America" that same day with his father Marty. Marty Wilde, also a former singer, had been a teen idol and actor in the UK in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They wrote the song using a WASP synthesizer owned by Ricky. He has said that its main synth line was influenced by that of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's "Messages", while the eighth note synth bassline, which forms the intro, was inspired by Gary Numan. They went into the studio with everything except the lyrics to the chorus, which Marty Wilde, who was responsible for writing the lyrics to the song, came up with at the last minute. The line "Whoah-oh!", which is sung after the song's title lyrics, was originally meant to be a guitar lick or a brass stab, but sounded much better sung by the male backing vocals, according to Marty. After hearing the track for the first time, Most declared it would be a smash hit, but it needed remixing, which he did together with Marty at RAK Studios. The song was shelved for a year before being released as Kim Wilde's first single in January 1981.
1994 version
"Kids in America 1994" was released in May 1994 in order to help promote Wilde's compilation albumThe Remix Collection. Although it was intended to be released in the UK, for unknown reasons these plans were cancelled at the last minute. However, the track was released in other countries in several remixed forms using Wilde's original vocals from 1981. The "radio version" of the track was remixed by Cappella, with James Stevenson on guitar.
2006 version
Among some of her other classic hits, Wilde recorded a new version of the song for her 2006 comeback album Never Say Never, featuring English singer Charlotte Hatherley. This version, like the rest of the album, was produced by German producer Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, with whom she had previously worked in 2002 for German singer Nena's 20th anniversary album Nena feat. Nenaon the track "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime", a new version of her 1984 hit single. Wilde contributed English verses to the song, which was slightly remixed and released as a single in 2003.
Reception
"Kids in America" was the song that signalled the start of Wilde's career. It sold so well in its first week, foul play was suspected and it wasn't included in that week's chart. In its first eight weeks of release, the single sold more than half a million copies in the UK alone. The song peaked at number two in the UK in 1981. The following year it reached the top 30 on the US BillboardHot 100 and ranked as the 91st most successful song of 1982 on the Hot 100 year-end chart. Elsewhere, the record peaked atop the charts of Finland and South Africa. In Europe and Australia, the song was also a major top 10 hit. After "Kids in America", Wilde's father and brother continued to write songs for her. In later years, she chiefly co-wrote with her brother.
