10 Rare Kim Wilde CD’s
Presenting Her Most Collectable Discs
In the early Eighties, the Compact Disc (CD) was introduced as a new format to store music on. Throughout her career, Kim Wilde has released many CD’s. Some of them have become collectable for various reasons. This article focuses on 10 of the rarest Kim Wilde CD’s.
Catch As Catch Can, Japanese pressing, 1983
It’s probably no surprise that the first ever Kim Wilde CD should be very collectable by now. Released as early as 1983 exclusively in Japan, this disc was always going to be sought after. Most copies that have surfaced in the three decades since its release are incomplete: the ‘obi strip’ that is used on every CD in Japan (a small piece of paper usually wrapped around the left hand spine of the CD box providing information to the seller and the buyer about the item being sold) is usually missing. If you find a copy of this CD with one, you’re likely to become very rich: these CD’s have sold for over $300 even without the obi strip on it.
Manufactured by Toshiba EMI in Japan in 1983, this was actually the only Kim Wilde CD release with the record company RAK mentioned on the label. By the time other CD’s were released of Kim’s 1981-1983 musical output, RAK had been bought by EMI and the label didn’t exist anymore.
Kim Wilde, USA pressing, 1989
Even the biggest Kim Wilde fan could be fooled by this CD, if he or she didn’t know the tracklisting of every album by heart. If you’d compare the content of this American pressing of Kim Wilde’s debut album with a European release, you’d see that ‘Kids In America’ has been moved from track 5 to track 1, causing the other four tracks to move down one position. It’s not a very big difference, but interesting for collectors nonetheless.
Released by EMI America in 1989, this CD is now long out of print and pretty hard to find — especially if you’re outside of the USA. When a copy appears on eBay you can expect to pay at least the price of a new CD.
Close, USA pressing, 1988
When Kim Wilde released ‘Close’ in 1988, the CD had overtaken vinyl as the leading format for music. Still, record stores were not used to the small boxes they were delivered in — especially in the USA, where the ‘longbox’ was invented to artificially extend the height of CD boxes. This has made the USA release of ‘Close’ particularly collectable, since it came in such a ‘longbox’. Just like the obi’s in Japan mentioned above, longboxes were often thrown away and as such, it is very hard to find a complete set these days. None of these longboxes have surfaced online in recent years, so if it does, expect to pay at least $30… or much more!
Love is, UK promotional box set, 1992
Strictly speaking, this is not just a CD because the promotional set for Kim Wilde’s 1992 album ‘Love is’ also contained a tape of the album plus a promotional video which includes an interview with Kim and the music video for ‘Love Is Holy’. But this is a beautiful little box set and it’s undoubtedly a collectors item. The CD itself has its own catalogue number (‘WILDE 2’) and contains the warning ‘For Promotional Use Only, Not For Resale’. Other than that, the disc contains all the tracks of the commercially released album, just like the tape does.
This item is rarely offered online, but does surface on Record Fairs in Europe and the UK from time to time. Expect to pay at least £30.
Special Sampler, Japan, 1993
Another promotional CD, this time from Japan. Titled ‘Special Sampler’, this is indeed a very special sampler. It was released a few months before ‘The Singles Collection 1981-1993’ and vigorously promotes its lead single ‘If I Can’t Have You’, as it is included in this compilation four times. Other than that, it contains 11 of Kim’s biggest hits.
This CD is rumoured to have been printed in a run of just 50 copies, which would explain why it is hardly ever offered for sale. You can expect to pay well over £100 for this rare CD.
Now & Forever, counterfeit, 1995
This CD is different from all the others in this article, because it is totally illegal. It was not made by MCA Records, although the label and artwork says so, and it was not made in the EC, although the label and artwork says so. Most likely, this CD was made in Eastern Europe to serve the local audiences, but many copies found their way into Western Europe as well. Oddly, the ‘W’ featured in the artwork on the back was rotated 180 degrees, turning it into an ‘M’ .
If you want to buy a copy of ‘Now & Forever’, it’s best to steer clear of this one and go for the original Japanese release instead: it features an outer slipcase and four postcards and it’s easier to find…
The Originals box set, 1996, UK
13 years after the release of ‘Catch As Catch Can’ on CD in Japan (see above), this box set finally presented that same album for a wider audience. ‘The Originals’ presented mini vinyl replica CD’s in a nice clamshell box, released by EMI in the UK. It was a limited edition release and after it sold out, the price for this box set immediately shot up — mainly because ‘Catch As Catch Can’ was still not available as a separate CD.
These vinyl replicas were done fairly well, even if the inner sleeve for ‘Catch’ had been forgotten and these CD’s had not been remastered — which was particularly bad for the quality of ‘Catch’, because the original Japanese release contained a few errors which were replicated on this release.
The box was a nice little addition, but with no lyric sheets or any biography or other extras, it was still a low-budget release. Ironic, then, that you will have to pay at least £50 for a mint copy of this box set these days.
Collection, EU, 1998
‘Collection’ was released exclusively for a Dutch book & CD club, although copies have been available in other European countries as well. This 2CD package brought together two previous Disky releases: ‘The Best Of Kim Wilde’ (1996) and ‘More Of The Best’ (1998) and, as such, presented nearly every track recorded by Kim Wilde between 1981 and 1983 for RAK Records, omitting only ‘Cambodia’, ‘Dream Sequence’, ‘Shoot To Disable’ and the B-sides ‘Back Street Driver’ and ‘Just Another Guy’. Copies are still available online, usually for less than £10.
So why is this one in this list? Because there was a mispressing… And as far as we know, there must be a complete run of mispressings although only one has surfaced until now. In the mispressed version, CD1 plays Depeche Mode’s 1993 album ‘Songs Of Faith And Devotion’, despite the label indicating otherwise. We don’t know how to identify a mispressed copy — or how to indicate its value.
Popstars Of The Century, Switzerland, 2004
Another Book Club edition, ‘Popstars Of The Century’ was released in Switzerland by Disky, who were responsible for most of the Kim Wilde compilation albums released between 1996 and 2005. It was another repackaging of ‘The Best Of Kim Wilde’ (1996) but it has been very hard for fans to get hold of this particular edition, which is why it can be valued for more than £10 — we just don’t know how much more…
Snapshots, German promotional CD, 2011
When Kim Wilde released her CD of covers ‘Snapshots’, it was promoted with a pre-release CD which featured demo mixes and ‘mixed but not mastered’ versions.
The CD is particularly interesting for the demos version of ‘Just what I needed’, which is very different from the one on the commercially released album. The ‘mixed but not mastered’ versions are very similar to the commercially released tracks, but are slightly quieter in places. Musically, this CD is the most interesting of the ten discs in this article because it contains a few rare tracks that are otherwise unavailable. The few copies that have made it out to eBay have sold for well over €25.
In short: if you were to buy all 10 CD’s in this list, it will set you back a three figure sum, but you will have done a real good job as some are near impossible to find. If you simply want to own all of Kim’s songs there’s a different strategy to follow — but that story is for another day…
