Tony Mantor's : Almost Live..... Nashville - Marty Wilde: The Rock & Roll Pioneer Who Helped Shape Music History

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Show NotesRock & roll pioneer Marty Wilde joins Tony Mantor for a remarkable conversation about being at the birth of modern rock music and building a career that has lasted more than six decades.Inspired by the arrival of Bill Haley & His Comets and "Rock Around the Clock," Marty shares how one song changed the course of his life and launched him into the emerging world of rock & roll. From those early days to writing timeless hits and producing music for future generations, his passion for creating has never faded.The conversation explores songwriting, studio creativity, the evolution of recording technology, and why the emotional connection behind a song will always matter more than chart positions.Marty also reflects on writing iconic songs for his daughter Kim Wilde, including the international hit Kids in America, his love of rockabilly music, and his decision to return to his musical roots with a brand-new album.In This EpisodeDiscovering rock & roll through "Rock Around the Clock"The early days of rock music in Great BritainLearning from American rock and blues artistsThe importance of finding your own musical identityProducing music with authenticity instead of perfectionWriting timeless songs that connect emotionallyCreating hits like "Kids in America" and "Cambodia"Why demos sometimes capture the best performancesReturning to classic rockabilly with a fresh modern soundThe creative process behind songwriting and studio productionWhy music remains his greatest inspiration after more than 60 yearsThroughout the conversation, Marty offers thoughtful insights into creativity, longevity, and the pursuit of making music that stands the test of time. His love for songwriting and recording remains as strong today as when he first stepped into the studio.Whether you're a lifelong fan of classic rock & roll or a songwriter looking for inspiration, this episode is filled with stories, wisdom, and a deep appreciation for the power of music.Be sure to follow Almost Live Nashville for more exclusive conversations with the artists, songwriters, and creators who have shaped the soundtrack of our lives. INTRO/OUTRO Music: T. WildMantor Music BMI

My career in the entertainment industry has enabled me to work with a diverse range of talent. Through my years of experience, I've recognized two essential aspects. Industry professionals, whether famous stars, or behind-the-scenes staff, have fascinating stories to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories, which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution of their life stories. This podcast aims to share these narratives, providing information on how they evolved into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to stardom, discuss their struggles and successes, and hear from people who help them achieve their goals. Get ready for intriguing behind-the-scenes stories and insights into the fascinating world of entertainment.

Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Almost Live Nashville. If you haven't already, take a quick second to tap the follow button. It really helps the show reach more people. who love music and entertainment. Thanks for being here. Joining us today is Marty Wilde. He isn't just a part of music history. He helped create it. When rock and roll was still finding his footing, he was right there in the middle of it, helping shape what it would become. What makes this conversation meaningful isn't just his success, it's his perspective in living through it. The highs, the changes, and the evolution of music. Thanks for joining us today.

My pleasure. Let's start this conversation by telling our listeners what you're currently up to? Well, most of the time I spend, I'm either writing songs or I do shows or I've got a new album to plug, which is obviously a new album, which is a rock and roll album, or gone back to what I started to do many, many years ago. And that's it, really. It's an album which I'm very happy with, so normally I'm not very happy with my product. I'm fairly happy with this one. When you think back to your early days in rock and roll, what did it feel like being part of something so new and so misunderstood at the time. I think it was great.

I mean, for me, it was probably the biggest musical journey I'll ever take. I mean, to come from what had gone before, I mean, Great Britain, it was all big band stuff or very old-fashioned orchestras to make that jump, ginormously. And in actual fact, you analyze it, it wasn't something that was technically incredible. It was just a rhythm. It was just a simple, basic rhythm. Right. And the offbeat, which I love,

when the very first time I heard it was, which was in the shape of rock around the clock with Bill Haley. Yeah, right. That kind of, that was the thing that fused me with me to rock and roll. I just loved the rhythm. And I had an amateur group at the time that were playing guitar music, but not rock and roll. And it's called Skiffle, which was like folk music.

So I said to the boys, said the boys of the band, I said, I've heard this. So I heard his track. I said, rock around the clock. I said, that's it. No more folk music. I said, we're in for rock and roll all the way. That's how it started. So when you made that shift, it was a pretty big change from what you were doing. What did the people around you think at that time? I don't know, really. I suppose they would have worried. I remember the people around me was the guy that employed me. And he was in London, in Rude Lane, Covent Garden. And he said, well,

I asked it for two weeks of money, severance pay, and I wanted, he said, what are you going to do then? So I said, I've got two weeks work in cabaret. What he said, what are you going to sing? I said, well, I'm going to sing rock and roll. And he said, well, if you thought about it, you know, you think you're leaving a good job and all that, all the usual things. And anyway, it works out okay for me. So that's how it starts. Was that the moment you felt this could really be something?

or did you still feel like it was a phase until you could navigate yourself through it and see a little more success? No, I never had any second doubts. Once I had rock and roll and I started to sing it, there were no second doubts. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and exactly where I was going to go.

But like all things, you know, you need good luck. And I had good luck. My manager was Tommy Steele's manager who was the first rock and roll star in Great Britain. You know, I had the manager once. He signed me up, I knew for a fact. I stood a damn good chance. To be honest with you, I didn't even think too much about it.

Yeah. Just breezed ahead and did it. I was just fortunate that it worked out. You were influenced by rock around the clock and early American rock and roll sound. How did you turn that into your own style while still staying true to the roots of what you wanted to do? Well, I don't know, really. I mean, you know, we had to imitate and we had to learn fast because, you know, I said earlier to someone today, People like in America, like Elvis, for example, and a lot of the black artists, they were living it.

They were in it. They were, you know, Beale Street was just around the corner for some of those guys and, you know, the black influence, the church music and all that. We in Great Britain, all we had was just big bands like the Ted Heath Orchestra was a big orchestra, Billy Cotton Band show that came on a set. But they were all big bands. And so, you know, that kind of influence, it took us time. It took a long time. Sure.

I mean, people like the Beatles, that was different. They came later. They had much more time to, you know, integrate with this kind of thing, but I didn't. Right. You know, I had to learn really fast. The thing that that helped me immeasurably was the man that used to sell the records, he had the record shop, and I actually go there to order my latest release. And now I'd move from Frankie Lane and Guy Mitchell to suddenly move to Elvis was a big change.

He said to me one day, I brought Elvis Presley's RCA version of Hound Dog and Don't Be Cruel. He said, have you heard the original of this song, Hound Dog? So I said, no, is there original? He said, yeah, of course there is, yeah, is that there is. And I said, oh, he said, there's a black version. That was the original version, he said. He said, it's Mama Mae Thornton.

I said, I've never heard of her. He said, well, I haven't listened to this. So I listened, and, of course, it was rock and roll, but it was sort of much more bluesy. And, you know, that was it. And from then on in, when I used to go in and buy my records, he'd say, well, you know, he said, we've got some wonderful new records who've just come in. So I would be listening to quite a lot of black music.

So for a white guy in Great Britain in 1950s, you know, 57, quite a lucky step for me to have that influence. You mentioned earlier that you didn't like some of your earlier recordings in the studio. What was it exactly that you didn't like? I didn't like the fact that we couldn't, I wanted to use my own group, my own band. my own musicians, guys that I was playing with. And the record company at that point felt that they wouldn't have been good enough to play on records.

And I suppose maybe it would have taken time, you know, extra time maybe because time was always a factor in those days. You know, maybe they thought, you know, it wouldn't work. But eventually, of course, I got my own way, but it was, you know, way into my career before I could get my own sound. You've had a lot of longevity that many artists just don't get. What do you think allowed you to stay relevant where others just simply faded away? I think you just love of music.

Even to this day, I will move on to listen to the latest top 20 in America. Well, for a guy of 86, who's nearly 87, to do that, is most unusual. That is most unusual. Yeah. But I love music. I just like sounds. I love synthesizers, guitars. I love everything to do with music.

And anything makes a noise. So that's what keeps me on my toes. I just adore music. And I love classical music too, so it's not just confined to pop music. As you grew as an artist, did those other influences like classical and some of the other styles you just mentioned find their way into your music? Did you see that it changed your style a bit, but yet you were still keeping your identity? With me, yeah, to a certain extent, but much more so I couldn't do that so much with my own career.

I used to do my own arrangements. I used to make the arrangements, although I have no musical knowledge, great, but I have feel and I have ideas. So I used to, you know, take control or try to take control an awful lot of work that I did. But later on, when my daughter's career,

I began Kids in America, for example, the very end of the kids in America, there was just his synthesizers banging away. And I wanted to get a French horn sound. I said to the guy on the synths, so get me up a French horn sound. So they got up a French horn sound and we put that into the very end of the records. Bill things like that played a part.

Those influences did play a part. Eventually, much more with my daughter's career. Now, you just brought up your daughter. You've had such a career that has influenced so many people, the next generation, as they say, and your own family. When you reflect on your legacy, artists you've influenced people, your music has touched. What does that mean to you personally? I don't know, really.

I don't, you know, you don't know, it's probably like you. You know, maybe someone else's you that said, you just don't know. I mean, you're just happy or you just love what you're doing and you do it, you know. Sometimes it doesn't work out. Sometimes it does, you know. Yeah, you just go ahead and do it. I mean, as simple as that. Did you ever find yourself drifting toward what was shifting with the trends?

You had to step back and say, you know, I need to get back to my original sound and my roots. Yeah, I did that just. recently. I've been making for the last, oh my God, certainly the last couple of years, I've been using, just for using click track, click tracks, and adding the bass on or get someone in play bass, bring in the string section, bring in the computer string section later on. I was getting tired of it because it was so computerized. There was nothing, something so unnatural about it in a way, although I've got used to that, prevalent everywhere these days. but I said that to my wife

that I'm getting a bit tired of all this. She said, why don't you sing some rock and roll and do what you were doing originally? So I thought, right, okay. And I'd stay with me. And I thought, well, if I do it, I couldn't go back singing blue suede shoes and all the old rock and roll tracks all over again.

You know, I want to try and get some different kind of writing and fuse that together with the rockabilly and the bass and do the whole thing. And so that's what I did with this latest album of mine. I used a rockabilly, a great rockabilly guitarist called Darryl Hyam. And he's played with Melda May and Jeff Beck and people like that in this country. Yeah. And we worked together almost as a team to do the backings.

And it was terrific. It's got such a lovely life feel about it. Yeah, there's nothing better than someone who really feels the music versus someone just trying to overthink it and make everything so structured. Yes, that's right. I mean, you would have seen that with Glenn Campbell. I mean, he's phenomenal. guitarist, you know, so yeah.

I love his work, by the way. I love always love him. I love his work. Yeah. He was a great singer, a great guitar player, and overall great musician. Oh, yeah, oh yeah. Wasn't he on the beach boys? Yeah. Do some of the beach boys? Absolutely.

Oh, my God. Yeah. Well, you had to be good to play with those, dear, those guys. Yeah, he played with so many people. He had such a great career. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Now, speaking of success and careers, how do you look at success now in your career compared to when you first started? How have you seen that dynamic change? I look at things.

I think I probably look at things the same way as I did many years ago. Nothing was ever good enough. I always wanted more. I was wanting to be better. You know, the next thing would be better. That's always what you are. I guess that's what we all aim for. Yeah.

And I've always felt that way, you know, you obviously want to do the best. And also you want people to like it and to hear it, you know, to be part of it. Well, you know, we're making records. It's an extension of you in the end and you put your heart and soul into it and you just hope it touches someone's emotions out there in that great big public, you know. It does. That's the way I view it. And I still want that.

I want that with people. And I want that to happen if possible. How have the highs of being in the spotlight and the quieter in between moments work together to shape your journey as an artist. To the quiet at times you mean in my career. Not meaning that things slowed down for you, but in your first part of your career when you're in the 20s, things are going 100 miles an hour.

You've got to be here, you've got to be there. Everybody's tugging at you. Then as you get used to it, it seems like it's quieting down a little bit. You get a better sense of what you need to do. How did all those things interact with each other so that you could take and continue to move forward. Well, that's a hard question in a way, I think.

I mean, I've always really been things of, obviously, you learn more as time goes on. You're learning about music and you're learning about so many things, your shortcuts and the natural fact, a lot of things are shortcuts. Yeah. So maybe I've learned shortcuts. And what not to do, what not to do is one of the important things to learn is what not to do. Yes.

And so many of them do it. you know, they just do it. I mean, I try to, I mean, song-wise, you know, I tried titles to me are very important. And I learned that from the, you're trying to think what I did learn it from, but titles, the most important thing. And then the subject matter and, you know,

people like Paul Simon, you know, I learned from Paul from years back when he first started. I used to listen to Paul. And that, he shaped my career. And also, I think, yeah, I think I still have that kind of, I want to get things done. I don't want to things hang. around. Do you want to spend months and months, you know, like some A&R people can do. I like to

get things done, get things done, move on from that. Right. I know that some people go in a remix, remix. You've got to watch out for that. You know, you really have. You can make some terrible mistakes by remix and remix. And sometimes, very often, when I've been doing demos and things, The demo was really probably better than the record in a way. The energy on the feel of it. Yeah, I've seen that. When you look at your music, what's one of the songs that you're most proud of?

Oh, two songs. Jasmine was a ballad I wrote, another track for Kim's career, which was Cambodia. And Cambodia was a massive European. It wouldn't have hit in America because, you know, Vietnam and that whole bit It wasn't, wasn't, wouldn't too much of it. I think left a nasty taste in their mouth, so it wasn't going to be here there.

It wasn't, obviously, in France. France had connections with Cambodia. But the lyric content was, it was a pop song. It was very poppy, instantly commercial. It's been a hit several times with different people and, you know, still earning a load of money now. And it's still one of the most popular European songs. But the song itself, the lyric I had in my head was about a guy that was. flying a clandestine operations in an aircraft.

You know, he was flying, I presume it was for the American government or I imagine someone like the CIA going across to Cambodia and eventually getting killed. So it's really weird to mix those two. So that song I particularly and Jesamine I like because Cambodia to me meant something. And so did Jesamine, because Jessamine was just an emotional song, a little simple song, but a lot of truth in it.

Over the years, there are always going to be those people that will give you their opinions. They will tell you what they think. Out of all that, you have to sift through what's good for you, what's not good for you. What's some of the best advice you probably ever received, whether you used it or not? Wow. In a human sense, in a personal sense, my wife says, don't tolerate fools. Because I used to, you know, people would come up to you and they say, I would just like to say, and they would be rabbiting on and rabbiting on.

And because I didn't want to be rude, I used to stand there and listen. And my wife observed my trend to do this in my life. Yeah. And she said, don't tolerate fools. And also, I don't know, I think I've also learned with songs, the most important thing,

it's not always how big it's sold or it sells. It's what's in it. What's fundamental thing in it? Yeah. Well, you know, you make sometimes, you might have made a record that they didn't sell as big, but it was just as good and probably better than some of the other things. That often happens, you know.

It does. So I've learned to have, I'm trying, I'm still trying to learn to have patience with that thing. It's like this album, this album that I've made. It may not be the biggest seller. I don't know yet because it's not released yet. And with a single, I'm not sure about the single, how big a hit it will be. But I know it's one of the best things I could have done. I've learned that over the years.

Have patience. With this album you're doing, what are some of the things that you're, really liking about what you're creating. And when did it all come together for you so you can sit back and say, you know, I like this. Well, I had this idea about a sound with rock and roll. And I wanted to go back. I wanted to do Dave Edmonds. I did it with Girls Talk, the Elvis Costello track. Yeah. And I liked the way suddenly an Elvis Costello song, which was very different in some ways, the way the original version by Elvis Costello, Dave Edmonds made it into rock and roll. And I thought, well, wow, wow, you know, if you can do that, if you can have that kind of rock and roll feel about it,

something in the future that you're doing, then do it. And I've tried on this album to do it. We tried it. One of the tracks, we can't stand losing you by Sting. Yeah. We took that song, some of the people that are Sting fans, I know one particular Sting fan who said he can't take it at all. Because I changed the chord sequence slightly.

Mm-hmm. And, well, a lot, actually. And we took it away from being reggae to with this, with this big. But it works. It absolutely works. Where the Sting thinks that, I don't know. So that was the of making the album. We did a few of the old-fashioned rock and roll tracks,

but that was just really just to bring everybody in to, you know, all the old timers as well together. A new kind of approach to some of the tracks. I was on this track, Let's Rock This Place has got it. It has, yeah, it's got rock and roll, feel about it, but it also it's got a sort of, not modern, but it's got a different edge to it. And that's what I wanted to bring to rock and roll.

Now, how has it felt being back in the studio again, working on this latest project of yours? The studio, of course, is a lot different than doing live performances. So how's it felt to be back in the studio creating this project that is turning out so well in your mind? I love the studio work. I adore studio work. Yeah. I can't do it all the time because I don't know if you're the same as me. I only sometimes a break in between numbers.

You know, in other words, you know, I'll go in the studio like a... on Monday, then listen on Wednesday, then go back on Friday. Yeah. I just love being in the studio. I love creating things, and the sounds fascinate me. And I think you've got to be very open with sounds. I look around here, and I've got a banjo. I've got a four-string bass,

fretless bass, which I love. I love the fretless sound. Yeah. It took me a long time being an ignoramus to realize that it was being used. I remember the first time I ever heard it was in a Paul Simon track. Mrs. Robinson. I think they use it on Mrs. Robinson. Yeah.

And that was the first time. Do do, do, do. That's a great sound. Anyway, I've got one of those, and I've got a banjo. I've got a ukulele. I've got mandolin. I love the mandolin sound. Yeah.

If you can use those different instruments sometimes, well, they're not different, but, you know, if you use a mixture, sometimes, get that banjo notation-wise. Yeah. Suddenly you've got a whole new sound. You know, you've got something that no one else is using or thought of using. Absolutely. Well, you know.

Yeah. Now, you just brought something up that I think is absolutely spot on, taking a little time in between so that you can come back to the studio with fresh ears. Yeah. Have you had this happen, and I'm sure you have, maybe even on this latest project. You listen to something, you work all day on it, you walk away from the studio going, yeah, this sounds really good. Then, all of a sudden, you come back a couple of days later, and you go, oh, I got to change this.

Yeah. When you do that, do you follow through with the changes, or do you? you just say, you know, maybe I'm over-analyzing this. No, I never think of over-analyzing. I just do it. Yeah, me too. Oh, good, man. Yeah, well, I think it's probably a natural thing we all do.

But, you know, sometimes I'll listen, I think, hold on a minute. That bass is just not quite, isn't quite right. The tone isn't right. Yeah. Or the string sound, you know, the synth strings. Because I work with a guy who's a classical writer. He's a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. He makes a load of computer work, but he works in,

writing classical music for some of the big companies that can't afford the big orchestras. And, of course, I use him. And, of course, you know, some of the things he shows me. You know, I just opened my mouth open. You know, you've worked with geniuses like that. Right. You know, and I imagine it was a bit like working with Brian Wilson or even Glenn Campbell, you know, going Campbell, you know, that kind of talent.

Yeah. I've used him throughout for the last 20, 30 years, 40 years. And he's just brilliant. He's the technical knowledge. He's got so much that I haven't got. You know, I say to him, analyze, you know, think of this, what do you think? And then we work together for the arrangement, normally for the final arrangement. And I think sometimes, sometimes I think we can over,

overreach ourselves, we just try too damn hard to get a mix when it was there, as we say earlier on, it was there all the time, you know, it was there all the time. Yeah, exactly. What would you like to tell the fans and some of those that are just connecting with you on what they can expect from your new CD? Then I'd like a follow-up of if someone, finds your music 10, 15 years from now, what do you hope that they get from it? Well, I hope with this new album that a lot of the Rockabilly Boys, and there's many, many, many of them around the world. There is. That they listen to some of these tracks and say, yeah, maybe I'd like to work with contemporary writers. I want to keep my Rockabilly sound. Sure. And I want to keep that energy.

But I want to work with maybe contests. I would like that. And I'd like, I don't know. I think I just want people to remember some of my songs like jesamine and like kids in America because that was just a sort of a sign, you know, it was something that happened in the 80s and it was the style of the 80s that. So I just hope that they hear it like I listen to, I listen to classical music and some people don't listen very much of classical music. I listen to quite a lot and I keep discovering new classical composers. Yeah.

And I get such a thrill. There was a series which was on our television in Great Britain called Victoria. Okay. And it was about Queen Victoria. It was a wonderful series. The music for that, it was just called Victoria. I discovered it by obviously while I was watching a program. When I got into listen to the music that was written, I was just gobsmacked.

I love it so much. I hope somebody one day might get here one of my tracks and say, I can see where his head was and I really, you know what I'm saying. Yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. Like you said earlier, there is nothing better than having that song that you just love how it turned out, no matter what it does on sales, charts, or anything. Yeah, it is. I mean, it's creating art, isn't it, in a way. Yeah. I'm not meaning to sound arrogant, but it is creating an art, and, you know, it's an art form. It is. You know, it's a bit like the cover of the EP that you're making or the album. That's just important as well. That's an art form. And so is the music.

Yeah. It is the design that you put into it, you know. Yeah. And what you brought up was an integral part of what that artwork was when it was on that album and it was vinyl. That was the album cover. And now that we're streaming, we've lost a lot of that. Yeah, I agree.

I agree. AIFness and changing things as well. It is. People are using that now. I'll tell what I did see. One of my friends is just come back from Paris and he went to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. And he's got a picture of it there. It took with his phone and it's very, very good lens. And I marveled at it. You know, I just absolutely marveled at it. Yeah. The look and I could see now what,

you know, although I wasn't there in Paris, he said it was amazing. You know, people just stood there transfixed, you know, looking at this wonderful piece of art, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It was lovely. Yeah, there are definitely a lot of things that were behind the scenes that are totally lost now. The one good thing, though, you go in the studio, you put your heart and soul into it, and then when you're mixing it, you mix it so that you fall in love with it, and you're still putting out the same music and the integrity that you always have. Absolutely. The thing is when it's same for you, you sound exactly the same as me.

You do your best, you do your level best to make it great. And also, you know, there's that great inspiration you get from people like, I don't know, I say it again, from people like Glenn, from the beach boys, those, whoever you're working with that kind of talent. Yeah. They inspire, you know, you know you've got to do the very best for them, you know. They do. So much of Glenn Campbell's work I love and I love some of the Jimmy Webb orchestrations.

Yeah. Quite amazing, quite stunning and still sound great to this very day. Yeah, music is the world language and it can take you back five minutes, five days or 50 years ago. Music is just a great thing. Yeah, well, I mean, I say to everyone, you know, I have no really. I'm not an atheist, but I don't have a religion at all. I just want music. Music is my sole inspiration, my whole life.

Right. Obviously, family of means like that, but it's at a personal level. Yeah. I don't have a religion, but I have music. I'm happier with that. Thank you. You've had a great career, done a lot of great things. You should be really proud of everything you have accomplished

and what you are still doing today. Well, I mean, I don't give it a great deal of thought. And the only thing I was, there was one song. We have a chart here called The Heritage Charts. I'm familiar with that. Yeah. And I had, it was about three years ago now. And I wrote a song called Two Eyes Streaming.

And it went to number one, much to my great surprise. Yeah. It went to number one. I was so proud of that, the fact that I could have written a hit way way back, which I did. My first hit was back in 1950, I think just around about early 59. And then to be able to do that when I was. I was 82 years of age, I was proud of that. As you should be.

That's the only time I ever got conceited. Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that. You have to take pride in everything that you've done. You deserve that little pat on the back for what you're doing, what you're continuing to do. You're putting a lot of hard work into it and a lot of effort, and it takes that in order to make great music. Yeah, there is, Tony. Absolutely right.

You're right. Well, this has been a pleasure. I really appreciate you taking the time. to join us today. Oh, it's been my pleasure, Tony. And it's lovely to be talking to someone who's doing and working exactly the same as I work by the sound of it, which is, you know, when we work on sounds and all the things, you've been all through the highs and lows that I have.

It's like, yeah, it's just like we're working together, so we're working together on a track. It's lovely to talk to you. We both speak the same language, I think, in many, many ways. Thank you, Tony. It's been my pleasure. Thanks again. Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed the show.

This has been a Tony Mantor production. For more information, contact media at plateau music.com.