Top 10 rare Kim Wilde mixes
Hard-to-find versions of Kim Wilde singles
Between 1981 and now, Kim Wilde has released a lot of music, and a lot of remixes as well. Thanks to a reissue campaign, some of that music is widely available again. But there’s still some work to be done. A CD-singles box set would go a long way towards solving the problem of unavailable versions of Kim Wilde songs, but while we’re waiting, here’s the 10 remixes that are hard to find right now, because they were only ever available on vinyl - or online only!
#1: If I Can’t Have You (Instrumental Version)
‘If I can’t have you’ was a cover version of the Bee Gees/Yvonne Elliman track for the original soundtrack of ‘Saturday Night Fever’, released in 1993 to promote the ‘Singles Collection 1981–1993’ compilation album. A handful of remixes were widely available at the time: Phil Kelsey created a remix and dub and extended versions were added on most CD-singles as well. A John Robinson mix was released in Japan only at first, but then found its way onto the CD-singles of follow-up ‘In my life’.
However, John Robinson also created an instrumental version of his remix and that one was only ever released on a Japanese promotional 12" single. If you find that record you are likely to pay £100, so a CD release of that track would be a blessing for fans.
#2: Can’t Get Enough (Of Your Love) (Club mix)
The promotional 12" single KIM 1, released by MCA Germany in 1990, featured three remixes of ‘Can’t Get Enough (Of Your Love)’ created by Steve Anderson. These were exciting versions with a more dance-oriented feel when compared to the guitar-wielding original track. An edited version of these remixes appeared on the CD-single for ‘World In Perfect Harmony’ a few months later, but the three original remixes remain unreleased on CD so far.
Getting your hands on a good copy of the original record will set you back anything above £30, so there’s another set of tracks that fans will be dying to hear for anything less than that.
#3: In My Life (Wilde Groovy)
‘In My Life’ was originally released as a bonus track on ‘The Singles Collection 1981–1993’, but eventually released as the second single from that album. Many different versions of this track exist, but the Wilde Groovy remix was only ever released on a promotional 12" single at the time. The promotional disc played the same mix on both sides, but never made it to a CD release. All the other versions were released on CD: three remixes by West End and three remixes by Ricky Wilde. Whether he was also responsible for this Wilde Groovy version is unknown.
Strangely, this promotional disc isn’t all that expensive - it’s usually cheaper than £5 if you can find it.
#4: Kids In America (X Cut Cut)
Released as the third single from the ‘Singles Collection 1981–1993’ compilation album almost everywhere except in the UK and the USA, the Cappella remix version of ‘Kids in America’ was followed by ten remix versions from various contributors. When you buy the European and Japanese CD-singles, you get most of them, but a promotional 12" single, which was released in the UK only (go figure!) featured two rare remixes created by Cristian Piccinelli and Luca Cittadini, also known as DJ Professor. The ‘X Cut Cut’ and the ‘X Club Dub’ sound similar, but obviously the ‘X Cut Cut’ features more vocals and as such is the more interesting one of the two.
These days it’s not so hard to find this 12" single online for a few quid plus postage, but a CD release would obviously be very welcome.
#5: Born To Be Wild (Original Version)
‘Born To Be Wild’ was originally released in the spring of 2002 on the website for the German Touring Car Races website. Producer by Jeo Pard, the original version featured sound effects of cars racing by. On the CD-single that was released on October 14 , 2002 (pictured here), those effects were erased, and a ‘cleaner’ version of the track remained, as well as two remix versions. You won’t find the original version online anymore, and as such it has become very much a rarity.
#6: Breakin’ Away (T’empo Vocal)
The first single from Kim Wilde’s 1995 album ‘Now & Forever’ was ‘Breakin’ Away’, and like other singles from the album it came in various remix versions. Some of them were released commercially, but some of them were not. You can find some on CD, but most of them were released on vinyl only. But the one track that was only released on promotional vinyl was - oddly enough - the T’empo Vocal mix, and as such it is the rarest of the six versions. Some might argue it’s also the best remix version of the track. You will find this 7'30 minute remix on the promotional 12" WKIMT 21 only, for £2 plus postage.
#7: Shame (Jupiter’s 12" mix)
The single ‘Shame’, released in October 1996 just a few weeks after Kim got married to Hal whilst in the middle of her performances in the musical Tommy, was remixed by Jupiter, Matt Darey and T’empo. While Matt Darey and T’empo delivered a club and dub mix, Jupiter delivered a radio mix and a 12" mix. Matt Darey and T’empo’s club mixes appeared on the CD-single at the time, but Jupiter’s 12" mix never got a CD release.
It’s not so hard to find Jupiter’s 12" mix for less than £5 on vinyl, but this is another one of those remixed you’d really wish to hear without crackles and pops.
#8: Another Step (Closer To You) (Original Album Version) and #9: Say You Really Want Me (Urban Version)
All of the 1986 tracks by Kim Wilde were gathered together on the Cherry Pop 2CD re-release of ‘Another step’… or so we thought. One omission and one error caused some embarrassment. The omission was the original album version of ‘Another Step (Closer To You)’, only ever issued in the first pressings of ‘Another Step’. The second album version is different and more widespread. You’ll only have to listen to the first few seconds of the songs to notice the difference.
The error was the Urban Version of ‘Say You Really Want Me’. There are many remix versions of that song, and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of them was mislabeled in the process - especially when you consider the fact that a few tracks on the CD re-release had to be ripped from vinyl because they weren’t in the record company’s archives anymore!
So what happened? The Urban Version was not included in the re-release of ‘Another Step’, but a regular edit of the album version was, and mislabeled. The ‘real’ Urban Version remains unreleased on CD and has so far only appeared on the B-side of a US promotional 7" of ‘Say You Really Want Me’.
#10: Perfect Girl (Ian Finch Elektrika remix)
‘Perfect girl’ was the second single taken from Kim’s 2006 ‘comeback album’ ‘Never Say Never’. Two remixes were created, one by Groovenut (the duo that was previously involved in a sample-heavy remix of ‘You Came’) and one by Ian Finch (who actually formed Groovenut together with Phill Deacon) on his own. He explained the idea behind his remix of ‘Perfect Girl’ on the Wilde Life website, and published the full length version of his remix at some point, but what ended up on the CD-single for ‘Perfect Girl’ was a 4'30 minute edit of the original mix that was substantially longer: 8'43 minutes. To hear the mix in its full glory is quite a different experience, and so would be well worth an official release.
