Not many may know the band The Escape Club that formed out of London in the 1980s, but they did the job of beating The Beach Boys to the top of the charts with their most famous pop rock song.
“Wild, Wild West” isn’t to be confused with the Will Smith song the rapper and actor released in 1999 in promotion of the Western comedy film of the same name. The Escape Club released the song in 1988 on their debut studio album, and it was originally over three minutes long.
There’s not much backstory behind the creation of the track, except that bassist Johnnie Christo (a.k.a. John Christoforou) got the idea after listening to a Run-DMC track. When inspiration struck, it took him and Trevor Steel only a few hours to complete “Wild, Wild West.”
“John had heard a Run-DMC track on the TV the previous night and rushed upstairs to put a hip-hop drum beat onto his drum machine. The journey to the drum machine doubled the speed though and when I came round to see him the next morning and started singing over it, it turned into ‘Wild Wild West,'” said Steel to Kickin’ it Old School.
“I think we wrote that song in the space of two hours. It was originally going to be three minutes long and the extended section with the rap was only meant for the 12″ single. We loved it so much full length though that we put the whole thing out.“
Steel explained that the track was a “reflection of the times” when “yuppies” were getting rich quick, and people were fearing the Cold War and AIDS. The track even references Ronald Reagan when hearing “Ronnie.” Its popularity soon led The Escape Club to the top of the charts.
“Not really. We knew it was good but never knew it would catch on to the extent it did,” said Steel, having never expected the song being so well received.
“Wild, Wild West” quickly climbed the charts to No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ranked at No. 3 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. At the time, the song managed to knock out The Beach Boys’ “Kokomo,” which was released as part of the Tom Cruise film Cocktail. Their track became a No.1 hit in the U.S. and was their first original top-20 single in 20 years at the time.
Surprisingly, the Escape Club track made history as one of the only British bands to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but it never managed to enter the U.K. charts. Some can speculate that it was due to the controversy around its music video.
The video was banned from British TV for unknown reasons. Steel commented that, “I think some kids got scared looking at the disfigured legs,” in relation to the music video, including a mirror effect that gave the illusion of disembodied arms and legs. Some claimed the video was banned due to it being allegedly sexist and offensive.
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