Wreckless Eric - Early History

Early History

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 appearance on record was "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 guitar (and most of the other instruments) by Nick Lowe, with Ian Dury on drums. The following month, the song was one of five tracks broadcast 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), and Paul Westerberg.

His debut album Wreckless Eric was a Top 50 hit in the UK Albums Chart. But, by the time his second album with Stiff Records The Wonderful World of Wreckless Eric came out, he was pushed by the punk record label to openly display the effect of his alcohol intake. He attempted a more pop music style on his next album, entitled Big Smash!, his last with Stiff. Ironically Cliff Richard's cover of "Broken Doll", from Big Smash!, was the highest that one of his songs ever charted.