Song · Wreckless Eric
“Whole Wide World” by Wreckless Eric
From the album Wreckless Eric (1978)
“Whole Wide World” by Wreckless Eric appears on 6 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1977 and 2026. It was first released in 1978 on the album Wreckless Eric. Its best result is #47 on the John Peel's Forgotten Fifty of 1977. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #47 alternative song of 1977, #6,781 alternative song of all time and #47 of the '70s.
Eric Goulden, the man behind the Wreckless Eric name, wrote "Whole Wide World" back in May 1974 and finally got it on tape in 1977, as one of the first acts on the Stiff Records roster. Nick Lowe handled guitar and bass on the session and Steve Goulding sat in on drums, and the result is about as stripped-down as pop gets: a nervy, wide-eyed thing that sounds as if it was bashed out before anybody could talk them out of it.
It never did the business as a single, yet it went on to become the recording everybody knows him for, and it turns up on his 1978 album Wreckless Eric.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | 47 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Forgotten Fifty of 1977 | 61 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1247 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2002 | 1698 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2009 | 884 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Desert Island Songs (2009) | 885 |
| 2022 | 565 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2026 | 912 | KXT | KXT 917 Song Countdown | 917 |
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