Whole Wide World (song)

"Whole Wide World" is a song by English rock singer-songwriter Wreckless Eric, who wrote the song in May 1974,^[1] and recorded it in 1977, whilst an original member of the Stiff Records label. Additional musicians on the record were Nick Lowe on guitar and bass, and Steve Goulding on drums.

"Whole Wide World"
1977 UK issue
Single by Wreckless Eric
from the album Wreckless Eric
B-side	"Semaphore Signals"
Released	25 August 1977 (1977-08-25)
Recorded	1977
Genre	Pub rock power pop
Length	3:02
Label	Stiff
Songwriter(s)	Eric Goulden
Producer(s)	Nick Lowe Ian Dury
Wreckless Eric singles chronology
"Whole Wide World" (1977) "Reconnez Cherie" (1978)

The song was never a chart hit single for Eric, though it subsequently became his best-known recording. The only charted versions of "Whole Wide World" are a cover by the Australian band Mental As Anything, who took it to No. 53 on the Australian singles chart in 1995, and another by American alternative rock band Cage the Elephant, who took it to No. 11 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in 2017.

Sung by Wreckless Eric

• 1977 on the compilation album A Bunch of Stiff Records^[2]
• 1978 on the self-titled Wreckless Eric album, track 6^[3]
• 1979 on That Summer film soundtrack
• 1979 on the compilation album The Whole Wide World, track 1^[4]
• 1980 on Big Smash! album, side 3, track 1 (double LP) or CD 2, track 1 (2-CD set)^[5]
• 2001 on Greatest Stiffs album, track 1^[6]
• 2002 on the Me Without You soundtrack, track 14^[7]
• 2006 on Stranger than Fiction soundtrack, track 3^[8]
• 2006 on "Whole Wide World 4 England" single, track 1^[9]

Covers by other artists

• 1977: Elvis Costello and the Attractions on the Stiffs Live Tour. Wreckless Eric later said, "I wasn't a fan of Elvis Costello, particularly."^[10]
• 1978: Italian female pop singer Anna Oxa, on her album Oxanna. Italian translation, titled "Un cielo a metà"
• 1978: Finnish rock band Eppu Normaali had the song translated to Finnish ("Nuori Poika", meaning Young Boy) as a B-side of their single "Jee Jee"
• 1987: The Monkees on their Pool It! reunion album^[11]
• 1988: Dogs on their A Million Ways of Killing Time album,^{[12][deprecated source]} and on their live album Short, Fast & Tight (2001)^[13]
• 1991: Die Toten Hosen on Learning English, Lesson One; vocals by Eric Goulden
• 1995: Mental As Anything on their album Liar Liar Pants on Fire^[14] and as a single
• 1996: The Lightning Seeds as the b-side of their single "Ready or Not".
• 2007: The Proclaimers on the Life with You album^[15]
• 2009: Bahamas on his album Pink Strat^[16]
• 2015: Pangs on debut single b/w "Already Dead"^[17]
• 2017: Cage the Elephant covered the song for their album Unpeeled^[18]
• 2018: Berhana as a single.^[19]
• 2020: Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong covered the song for Amazon Music's Amazon Original series, then later re-posted the cover to Green Day's YouTube channel as part of his "No Fun Mondays" cover series. Wreckless Eric himself gave his approval of the cover in a statement, referring to Armstrong's rendition as "the most punk rock version ever."^[20]