Hot Child in the City (1978) 2/18/21 Nick Gilder

Many people believe that Nick Gilder was a one-hit wonder. These people are most likely American. :-)

Two years before he released his "Great Song of '78" as a solo artist, Nick and his Canadian "glam rock" group Sweeney Todd took a song called "Roxy Roller" to #1 in the Great White North. Strangely, it didn't even chart in the US!

After going solo, Nick released an album called "City Lights" and the single, "Hot Child in the City," went to #1 in Canada AND the US--but not right away. Here's the timeline: The single was released on 6/12/78 It Topped the Canadian Top 40 on 10/14/78 It topped Billboard's Hot 100 on 10/2878. If you do the math, the song took 23 weeks to reach the top in Canada, and 25 weeks in the US! I guess slow and steady wins the race! Once it got to the top, other accolades started coming in: It was certified platinum (selling more than TWO million records), it won two Juno Awards (Canada's Grammy) and a People's Choice Award in the US. Hot Child in the City" seemed upbeat and catchy...but the subject matter was definitely not. Nick was appalled by the amount of child prostitution he discovered in Los Angeles, and to illustrate the problem, he wrote some rather unsettling lyrics Perhaps you'll listen with a different perspective. But it's just one more--and probably the most importantT--reason why "Hot Child in the City" is a "Great Song of the '70s!" Nick Gilder (1978):

Nick Gilder/Sweeney Todd (Roxy Roller) (1976):