Kim Wilde: All The Top 40 Hits

(Up-dated March 2025) Kim Wilde, as Kim Smith, was born on 18th November 1960 in Chiswick, Middlesex, England. She was born into a musical family. Kim’s father, Reginald Leonard Smith, found fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s as Marty Wilde, and her mother, Joyce Baker sang in the popular vocal trio The Vernon Girls.Released in January 1981, Kim’s debut single Kids In America got her career as a singer off to a flying start. The hits kept on coming, and in 1983 Kim won a prestigious BRIT Award, for Best British Female Solo Artist. Five years later, Kim played 33 dates supporting Michael Jackson, on the European leg of his mega-successful Bad Tour.Between March 1996 and February 1997, Kim co-starred as Mrs Walker in London’s West End production of the The Who’s rock musical, Tommy, staged at the Shaftesbury Theatre. Here she met co-star Hal Fowler, and the couple married on 1st September 1996.For the purposes of this book, to qualify as a Top 40 hit, a single or album must have entered the Top 40 chart in at least one of the featured countries. The Top 40 hits are detailed chronologically, according to the date they first entered the chart in one or more of the featured countries. Each Top 40 single and album is illustrated and the catalogue numbers and release dates are detailed for the UK, followed by the chart runs in each country.The main listings are followed by ‘The Almost Top 40 Albums’, which gives an honourable mention to albums that peaked between no.41-50 in one or more countries, but which failed to enter the Top 40 in any. There is also a points-based list of the Top 25 singles and Top 15 albums, plus a fascinating Trivia section, which looks at the most successful singles and albums and in each of the featured countries.