"Hot Child in the City" is an ode to runaways from the album City Nights. It was recorded by Nick Gilder and it went to number one both in Canada (October 14, 1978) and in the United States (October 28, 1978). It was not his first number one single: as the lead singer of the glam rock band Sweeney Todd, he had hit #1 in Canada on June 26, 1976 (in the RPM listing) with the single "Roxy Roller", which remained at the top for three weeks. He won 2 Juno Awards in Canada and a People's Choice Award in the US. According to The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits it held the record for taking the longest amount of time to reach number one.
Despite the song's innocent and catchy pop stylings, the tune is based on Gilder's experiences witnessing child prostitution. "I've seen a lot of young girls, 15 and 16, walking down Hollywood Boulevard with their pimps. Their home environment drove them to distraction so they ran away, only to be trapped by something even worse. It hurts to see that so I tried writing from the perspective of a lecher – in the guise of an innocent pop song."
Sex and the City has an episode named after and also featuring the song.
The song was covered by London on their 1990 album Playa Del Rock.
Famous quotes containing the words hot, child and/or city:
“Coming about its own business
Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.”
—Ted Hughes (b. 1930)
“Raising children is a spur-of-the-moment, seat-of-the-pants sort of deal, as any parent knows, particularly after an adult child says that his most searing memory consists of an offhand comment in the car on the way to second grade that the parent cannot even dimly recall.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“In soliciting donations from his flock, a preacher may promise eternal life in a celestial city whose streets are paved with gold, and that’s none of the law’s business. But if he promises an annual free stay in a luxury hotel on Earth, he’d better have the rooms available.”
—Unknown. Charlotte Observer (October 6, 1989)