The inspirations some find to write a song.
There's love. There's heartbreak. There's a party. There's cars, trains, planes, walking, talking, etc., etc., etc.
But very few songs had the kind of subject matter in a hit song than Nick Gilder's "Hot Child In The City." That song had a completely different meaning than your run-of-the-mill hit single. And it was something, Gilder said, he witnessed himself while the Canadian-raised singer was living in Los Angeles.
"I've seen a lot of young girls, 15 and 16 (years old), walking down Hollywood Boulevard with their pimps," Gilder told Rolling Stone magazine in 1978. "Their home environment drove them to distraction so they ran away, only to be trapped by something even worse. It hurts to see that, so I tried writing from the perspective of a lecher -- in the guise of an innocent pop song."
Out popped "Hot Child In The City," Gilder's tale of a girl who on the outside is the desire of most older men, but a troubled girl who shouldn't be out on the streets.
The man who admitted in that same Rolling Stone interview that he was "intrigued by sex" was dubbed "Nabokov of the Jukebox" for the man who wrote the tale of "Lolita." Gilder was born December 21, 1951, in London, England, but moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada when he was a young lad. In the early 1970s, Gilder fronted a glam-band known as Sweeney Todd, a band that for a short time carried a young singer who would rise to fame named Bryan Adams. In 1976, Sweeney Todd went to No. 1 in their country with "Roxy Roller." The song would go on and win the Juno Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) for "Best Selling Single" of the year.
Feeling like he needed to branch out from his band, Gilder, along with guitarist James McCullough, left and signed a record deal in the United States in 1977. Gilder's debut album was "You Know Who You Are" on Chrysalis Records. But even with the addition of the Sweeney Todd song "Roxy Roller" on the album, it didn't fare well in this country, so for the next album, "City Lights," Gilder changed up Stuart Alan Love and brought in a more established producer in Mike Chapman. For the next album, Gilder and McCullough composed all the songs. It is McCullough delivering the heavy guitar solo on "Hot Child In The City." Also on the album was a remake of the Them tune from the 1960s, "Here Comes The Night."
But Chapman and Chrysalis were both convinced and and adamant that the first release from the new album should be "Hot Child In The City." So in the spring of '78, the song was released and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 88 on June 10, 1978. After a pair of 10-notch climbs, the song stalled at No. 68 the week of July 1, 1978. Uh-oh. Maybe radio listeners weren't quite into this new track. But after slow leaps to No. 64 and No. 62 the next couple of weeks, it regained its bullet and climbed 10 more spots to No. 52.
Two weeks later, the song was among eight new entries into the Top 40 of August 5, 1978, coming in at No. 34. The next week, it zoomed up 10 places to No. 24, then a more modest three-notch climb to No. 21. Three weeks later, the song had climbed close to the Top 10 at No. 11. But when "Hot Child In The City" held at No. 11, there was a surreal feeling that this song may not be a Top 10 hit after all.
But on the week of September 23, 1978, that was just nonsense. It kick-started back up and hit the Top 10 when it moved up two places to No. 9. One week later, it was up to No. 7, the on October 7, 1978, the song leaped four places to No. 3. One week later, "Hot Child In The City" had move up one more spot to No. 2 in its 19th week in the Hot 100. The next week, "Hot Child" was still at No. 2 as another song produced by Chapman, Exile's "Kiss You All Over," held at the top for the fourth week. It had also earned a gold record for 1 million copies sold for the single.
Then on the week of October 28, 1978, it happened -- Gilder knocked out Exile from the top spot and with the song getting to the top in its 21st week, "Hot Child In The City" became the slowest-climbing song to ever hit No. 1, ending the two-year run of Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band's disco-flavored "A Fifth Of Beethoven" as the slowest climber to the top at 20 weeks. A year later, Robert John would tie Gilder with a 21-week climb to get to No. 1 with "Sad Eyes." Ultimately, the pair would be passed up in 1982 by Vangelis' theme from "Chariots Of Fire," which took 22 weeks to make it to the top.
And the song that put the spotlight on child pornography had become the biggest hit in America, two weeks after it had climbed to No. 1 on the Canadian chart. Gilder was a superstar as a solo performer. But the man who would win a pair of Juno honors for the song would see his follow-up, that Them remake of "Here Comes The Night," peak at No. 44 in the U.S. Later in 1979, "(You Really) Rock Me" only got as high as No. 57 in this country. Gilder would continue to record and release his own albums throughout the 1980s without another song going to the Top 40.
However, Gilder found some success as a songwriter in 1984. Teamed with Holly Knight, they co-wrote the hit "The Warrior" for the band Scandal featuring lead singer Patty Smyth. It got as high as No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.
After that, though, Gilder moved into making music for movies and television, writing for the movies "Barb Wire," "The Wraith" and "Youngblood" and showing up on TV shows like "That '70s Show," "Nip/Tuck" and "Sex And The City." These days, Gilder is living in British Columbia with his family and has been touring on occasion since the 1990s.
And he will forever be known for the rousing, sleezy rocker that exposed the world of child prostitution through his eyes.
Oh the inspirations artists come up with to be successful!
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