Song:Eighteen With A Bullet
Album:Hard To Find 45s on CD Vol. 18: 70s Essentials
British session musician Pete Wingfield scored an international hit in 1975 with Eighteen With A Bullet. You may have heard the song in the 1998 film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Not only was this Wingfield's only chart single but he only recorded one album. However he has had a long career as a session musician, songwriter and producer. He was born May 7, 1948 in Liphook, Hampshire, England. He took piano lessons as a child. As a teen, Wingfield was such a big fan of soul music, he started his own fanzine and then he wrote for the music paper Melody Maker. While attending Sussex University, he formed Pete's Disciples who then became Jellybread. They recorded a couple of unsuccessful albums for Mike Vernon's New Horizon label. Wingfield left the group in 1971 and then got into session work. He played piano on B.B. King in London and played on albums by Memphis Slim and Van Morrison. Wingfield was a member of The Keef Hartley Band and former Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone's band. He then joined the blue eyed soul group The Olympic Runners led by Vernon. They had success on the R&B charts and in England. It was while he was with that band that Wingfield recorded Eighteen With A Bullet which makes me think that it was recorded for The Olympic Runners and maybe Vernon didn't like the song. So Wingfield recorded it for Island Records and it reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 on the British Singles chart. The song is obviously doo wop influenced and the nonsense lyrics use music industry terms. I can only assume the song was written as a gag. The sax solo is by Chris Mercer of the group Gonzalez. Eighteen With A Bullet got a big boost when Guy Ritchie used it in his 1998 film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I'm sure that made Wingfield a lot of money. The soundtrack for that film is available on CD. But I recommend this various artists CD from the oldies label Eric Records. Wingfield never recorded another album. But he has had a long career as a session musician and producer. One of Wingfield's more unusual projects was working with Mel Brooks on the music for his 1982 film To Be Or Not To Be. They wrote Hitler's Rap. When rap music pioneer Sylvia Robinson heard that, she brought Wingfield in to work with The Sugarhill Gang. Wingfield also produced albums by Dexys Midnight Runners, The Proclaimers and The Pasadenas. And he played piano on Paul McCartney's 1999 album Run Devil Run. It doesn't look like Wingfield is still active but there is certainly more to him than Eighteen With A Bullet. Here's a video for Eighteen With A Bullet by Pete Wingfield.
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