#25: Real Wild Child by Ivan

City: London, ON
Radio Station: CKSL
Peak Month: October 1958
Peak Position in London ~ #8
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #68
YouTube: “Real Wild Child”
Lyrics: “Real Wild Child”

Jerry “Ivan” Allison was born in 1939 in Hillsboro, Texas. He learned to play drums in his youth. In the mid-50s, Allison met Buddy Holly and the pair created a duo. Holly played guitar and sang, while Allison played the drums. Allison went to a recording studio in Nashville in 1956 for Buddy Holly’s first recording session. However, two single releases on the Decca label for Holly were commercial flops. Allison and Holly met Joe Mauldin in 1957 and they formed a trio they  named The Crickets. The three were capable of writing, playing, producing and recording their own records. They were also skilled at over-dubbing in the studio years before it became a standard feature of studio recording. “That’ll Be The Day” climbed to #1 in the spring of 1957 establishing The Crickets as a part of the vanguard of rock ‘n roll at a time that many music critics predicted its demise and regarded it as a “music fad.” While The Crickets were not acknowledged on the record label credits for “Peggy Sue”, many DJ’s knew that Buddy Holly’s band was playing on the record.

With the release of “That’ll Be The Day” in June of 1957, and “Peggy Sue” by Buddy Holly and The Crickets in September 1957, The Crickets for awhile became the leading rock and roll band in the world. Their hits (with Buddy Holly) between the winter of 1957 and the fall of 1958 included “Oh, Boy!”, “Maybe Baby”, “Rave On”, “Think It Over”, “Early In the Morning” and “It’s So Easy”.

In the fall of 1958, Jerry Allison released a solo effort titled “Real Wild Child”, credited to Ivan.

“Real Wild Child” is about someone who has just finished high school and is about 17 or 18 years old. Freed of the routines and seriousness of studying and exams for school, the singer wants to break loose and test the full capacity of their energy and vitality. And why not, when you have the energy, go out late dancing with your friends and have a ball. The singer has got the message that they’ve got to be a wild one. Others see the wildness, raw energy, in them. And the singer confirms they also think they are wild, in contrast to others who are tame and straight-laced.

“Real Wild Child” was a cover by Ivan of an original tune titled “The Wild One”, written and sung by Johnny O’Keefe from Australia. “The Wild One” was likely a reference to the edginess of Johnny Stabler in the 1953 Marlon Brando film, The Wild One. Brando played the lead character, Johnny Strabler. The Black Rebels Motorcycle Club (BRMC), a gang led by Johnny Strabler, rides into Carbonville, California during a motorcycle race and causes trouble. A member of the gang, Mouse, steals the second-place trophy (the first place one being too large to hide) and presents it to Johnny. Stewards and policemen order them to leave.

The bikers head to Wrightsville, which only has one elderly, conciliatory lawman, Chief Harry Bleeker, to maintain order. The residents are uneasy, but mostly willing to put up with their visitors. When their antics cause Art Kleiner to swerve and crash his car, he demands that something be done, but Harry is reluctant to act, a weakness that is not lost on the interlopers. This accident results in the gang having to stay longer in town, as one member injured himself falling off his motorcycle. Although the young men become more and more boisterous, their custom is enthusiastically welcomed by Harry’s brother Frank who runs the local cafe-bar, employing Harry’s daughter, Kathie, and the elderly Jimmy.

At Frank’s cafe, Johnny meets Kathie and asks her out to a dance being held that night. Kathie politely turns him down, but Johnny’s dark, brooding personality visibly intrigues her. When Mildred, another local girl, asks him, “What are you rebelling against, Johnny?”, he answers “Whaddaya got?” Johnny is attracted to Kathie and decides to stay a while. However, when he learns that she is the policeman’s daughter, he changes his mind. A rival biker gang, the Beetles, arrive and their leader, Chino, bears a grudge against Johnny. Chino reveals the two groups used to be one large gang before Johnny split it up. When Chino takes Johnny’s trophy, the two start fighting and Johnny wins.

Meanwhile, local Charlie Thomas stubbornly tries to drive through, he hits a parked motorcycle and injures Meatball, one of Chino’s bikers. Chino pulls Charlie out and leads both gangs to overturn his car. Harry intervenes and starts arresting Chino and Charlie, but when other townspeople remind Harry that Charlie would cause problems for him in the future, he only takes Chino to the station. Later that night some Beetles members harass the telephone switchboard operator into leaving, thereby disrupting the townspeople’s communication, while the BRMC abducts Charlie and puts him in the same jail cell as Chino, who is too drunk to leave with the gang.

Later, as both gangs wreck the town and intimidate the inhabitants, some bikers led by Gringo chase and surround Kathie, but Johnny rescues her and takes her on a long ride in the countryside. Frightened at first, Kathie comes to see that Johnny is genuinely attracted to her and means her no harm. When she opens up to him and asks to go with him, he rejects her. Crying, she runs away. Johnny drives off to search for her. Art sees and misinterprets this as an attack. The townspeople have had enough. Johnny’s supposed assault on Kathie is the last straw. Vigilantes led by Charlie chase and catch Johnny and beat him mercilessly, but he escapes on his motorcycle when Harry confronts the mob. The mob give chase, but Johnny is hit by a thrown tire iron and falls. His riderless motorcycle strikes and kills Jimmy.

Sheriff Stew Singer arrives with his deputies and restores order. Johnny is initially arrested for Jimmy’s death, with Kathie pleading on his behalf. Seeing this, Art and Frank step forward and testify that Johnny was not responsible for the tragedy, with Johnny being unable to thank them. The motorcyclists are ordered to leave the county, albeit paying for all damage. However, Johnny returns alone to Wrightsville, and re-visits the cafe to say goodbye to Kathie one final time. He first tries to hide his humiliation and acts as though he’s leaving after getting a cup of coffee, but then he returns, genuinely smiles, and gives her the stolen trophy as a memory gift, and as a sign that he will end up with that violent lifestyle.

North American society has had a perennial anxiety about young people who don’t conform and tame their raw energy. Dozens of Hollywood movies have conveyed messages about the dangers of untamed wild youth, often with outcomes leading to juvenile delinquency and crime. Here are a few of the best of the genre: the 1954 film Blackboard Jungle  about “teenage terror in the schools and big city modern savagery.” 1955 James Dean classic, Rebel Without A Cause, the 1958 film High School Confidential about “young savages from nice families,” the 1983 film The Outsiders and others.

“Real Wild Child” peaked at #5 in Buffalo, #6 in Albany (NY), and Manchester (NH), and #8 in London (ON), and Troy (NY).

In 1967, “Real Wild Child” was re-issued and shot to #9 in Raleigh (NC) and #15 in Salt Lake City. “Real Wild Child” has been covered by Joan Jett, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Chipmunks, The Bell Notes, blues singer Albert Lee, The Original Brothers and Helmood Blues and English heavy metal band The Jaguars and others. It was most successfully covered in 1987 by Iggy Pop. His version topped the pop charts in New Zealand, climbed to #10 in the UK, #11 in Australia, and #16 in Ireland.

“Real Wild Child” has been featured in the films Crocodile Dundee II, Adventures in Babysitting, Problem Child and its sequel Problem Child 2.

Buddy Holly released a few more singles into the new year of 1959, including “True Love Ways”. He died in a small plane accident in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 3, 1959. It was iconically referred to as “The Day the Music Died” in Don McLean’s 1972 number-one hit “American Pie”. Soon after Holly died, three of the The Crickets, Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin – and recently added Sonny Curtis – began backing the Everly Brothers in concert and in the studio.

Over the years, the Crickets (including Jerry Allison) appeared in motion pictures and numerous documentaries, as well as top television shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, Sunday Night At The London Palladium, American Bandstand, The David Letterman Show, CNN, America’s Talking, Westwood One Radio syndicated specials, and a two-hour Nashville Network special shown worldwide. They had a few minor hits in the early 60s.

Jerry “Ivan” Allison became one of the most sought after drummers and as a session musician played on recordings with Bobby Vee, Johnny Burnette, Eddie Cochran, Johnny Rivers, Waylon Jennings, Paul McCartney and many others. His drumming style can be heard on Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” and The Everly Brothers’ “Till I Kissed You”. Phil Everly once spoke of Allison as “the most creative drummer in rock and roll.” On Rolling Stone magazine’s “Book Of Lists” J.I. Allison is rated as one of the top three drummers in rock and roll history. Allison also wrote, or co-wrote, “That’ll Be The Day”, “Peggy Sue” and “More Than I Can say”. In 2013 J.I. Allison House opened in Lubbock, Texas, in tribute to his legacy of music-making. He died at the age of 82 in 2022.

February 10, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Jon Blistein, “Jerry Allison, Drummer and Songwriter for Buddy Holly and The Crickets, Dead at 82,” Rolling Stone, August 22, 2022.

Gary James, “Interview with Jerry Allison,” Classic Bands.com.
The Crickets bios, The Crickets.com.
The Wild One, Columbia Pictures, 1953.
Blackboard Jungle, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1955.
Rebel Without A Cause, Warner Brothers, 1955.
High School Confidential, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1958.
The Outsiders, Warner Brothers, 1983.
Repo Man, Universal Pictures, 1984.
Barnaby Smith, The Wild One by Johnny O’Keefe – Australia’s First Rock’n’Roll Hit, Guardian, UK, September 30, 2014.

CKSL 1410-AM London (ON) Top Ten | October 11, 1958