Matthew Wilder
Encyclopedia
Matthew Wilder is an American
musician
, composer
and record producer
, best known for his 1983 Top 5 hit
, "Break My Stride
".
Wilder was one-half of the Greenwich Village
folk
group Matthew & Peter in the 1970s. In 1978 he moved to Los Angeles
, California
, and sang for television commercials, and as a backing vocalist
for Rickie Lee Jones
and Bette Midler
.
Wilder's debut album, I Don't Speak the Language (1983), reached #49 on the Billboard 200
chart
, fueled by "Break My Stride
", which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100
chart. Wilder had some continued success with the single "The Kid's American", which reached #33 in 1984, but the single failed to match the success of "Break My Stride". Wilder's second album
, Bouncin' Off the Walls (1984), failed to gain much momentum — even with an innovative music video
for the single "Bouncin' Off the Walls", with only the title track making the charts (#52), and was subsequently deemed a commercial failure.
Despite the collapse of his solo career, Wilder continued his career in the music industry as a songwriter
and as a record producer
for such acts as No Doubt
(the hit album Tragic Kingdom
), 702
, Christina Aguilera
, Kelly Clarkson
, Miley Cyrus
on her Hannah Montana
song "G.N.O. (Girls Night Out)", The Belle Brigade
, King Charles, Joanna Pacitti
and many others.
Matthew Wilder lent his singing voice
to the character of Ling and was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score
(along with David Zippel
and Jerry Goldsmith
) for his work on the Disney
film Mulan
(1998). He has also done production work on Australia
n singer-songwriter
Mig Ayesa
's self-titled album
released in April 2007 and has helped with production on Hayden Panettiere
's album.
For theatre
, Wilder has once again paired with Zippel to provide the music and lyrics for Princesses, a musical comedy update of Frances Hodgson Burnett
's novel A Little Princess
. The production ran at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle but has yet to open on Broadway
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, best known for his 1983 Top 5 hit
Hit record
A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
, "Break My Stride
Break My Stride
"Break My Stride" was a major hit single for Matthew Wilder in 1983 and 1984. Wilder co-wrote the reggae/New Wave song, which was his biggest hit, becoming a multiformat success in the U.S., charting on the Pop, Black, Dance and Adult Contemporary charts....
".
Wilder was one-half of the Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
folk
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
group Matthew & Peter in the 1970s. In 1978 he moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and sang for television commercials, and as a backing vocalist
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
for Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
and Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
.
Wilder's debut album, I Don't Speak the Language (1983), reached #49 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
, fueled by "Break My Stride
Break My Stride
"Break My Stride" was a major hit single for Matthew Wilder in 1983 and 1984. Wilder co-wrote the reggae/New Wave song, which was his biggest hit, becoming a multiformat success in the U.S., charting on the Pop, Black, Dance and Adult Contemporary charts....
", which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart. Wilder had some continued success with the single "The Kid's American", which reached #33 in 1984, but the single failed to match the success of "Break My Stride". Wilder's second album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Bouncin' Off the Walls (1984), failed to gain much momentum — even with an innovative music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for the single "Bouncin' Off the Walls", with only the title track making the charts (#52), and was subsequently deemed a commercial failure.
Despite the collapse of his solo career, Wilder continued his career in the music industry as a songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and as a record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
for such acts as No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
(the hit album Tragic Kingdom
Tragic Kingdom
Tragic Kingdom is the third studio album by the American third wave ska band No Doubt. It was released on October 10, 1995, on Trauma Records, a division of Interscope Records. The album was produced by Matthew Wilder, mixed by Paul Palmer, and recorded in 11 studios in the Greater Los Angeles Area...
), 702
702 (band)
702 , named after the area code of their hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, is an American platinum-selling R&B trio. Originally a quartet, the group became a trio, which includes sisters Irish , and LeMisha 'Misha' Grinstead, and lead singer Kameelah 'Meelah' Williams...
, Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993–1994...
, Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American pop rock singer-songwriter and actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.In 2003,...
, Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American actress and pop singer-songwriter. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana....
on her Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana
Hannah Montana is an American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on the Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real...
song "G.N.O. (Girls Night Out)", The Belle Brigade
The Belle Brigade
The Belle Brigade is an American vocal and instrumental duo consisting of siblings Barbara Gruska on guitar, drums, and vocals, and her younger brother Ethan Gruska on guitar, piano, and vocals. The duo released its first album, The Belle Brigade, in 2011 to positive critical...
, King Charles, Joanna Pacitti
Joanna Pacitti
Joanna Pacitti is an American singer and lead vocalist in the band City State.-Theater:In 1996, at age 12, Pacitti was chosen to star in the 20th anniversary revival of the musical Annie after entering a contest sponsored by the department store Macy's...
and many others.
Matthew Wilder lent his singing voice
Human voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Its frequency ranges from about 60 to 7000 Hz. The human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary...
to the character of Ling and was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Music Score
Academy Award for Original Music Score
The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
(along with David Zippel
David Zippel
David Joel Zippel is an American musical theatre lyricist.-Biography:Zippel was born in Easton, Pennsylvania. He is a 1976 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. While there, he wrote a "bizarre political musical" called Rotunda...
and Jerry Goldsmith
Jerry Goldsmith
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
) for his work on the Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
film Mulan
Mulan
Mulan is a 1998 American animated film directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, with story by Robert D. San Souci and screenplay by Rita Hsiao, Philip LaZebnik, Chris Sanders, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, and Raymond Singer. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney...
(1998). He has also done production work on Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
Mig Ayesa
Mig Ayesa
Miguel Alfonso Ramon Legarda "MiG" Ayesa is an Australian rock vocalist.-Biography:Born in Manila, Philippines and raised in Sydney, Australia, and has three-fourths-Spanish maternal ancestry and fourth-Ilonggo paternal and maternal ancestries. His Spanish ancestry came from Preysler lineage...
's self-titled album
MiG (album)
MiG is MiG Ayesa's debut self-titled solo album, first released in April 2007. It is made up of rock covers with orchestral arrangements, including an arrangement of "Baby, I Love Your Way" which original artist, Peter Frampton, played the acoustic guitar in...
released in April 2007 and has helped with production on Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Panettiere
Hayden Leslie Panettiere is an American actress and singer, best known as cheerleader Claire Bennet on the NBC television series Heroes. She began her acting career by playing Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live , and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light , before starring at age 10 as Sheryl Yoast in...
's album.
For theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, Wilder has once again paired with Zippel to provide the music and lyrics for Princesses, a musical comedy update of Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular The Secret Garden , A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.Born Frances Eliza Hodgson, she lived in Cheetham Hill, Manchester...
's novel A Little Princess
A Little Princess
A Little Princess is a 1905 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is a revised and expanded version of Burnett's 1888 serialized novel entitled Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's Boarding School, which was published in St. Nicholas Magazine.According to Burnett, she...
. The production ran at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle but has yet to open on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
.
Albums
- Under the Arch (1972, with Matthew & Peter)
- I Don't Speak the LanguageI Don't Speak the LanguageI Don't Speak the Language is an album by Matthew Wilder. It was released in 1983 on Private-I/Epic, and is notable for the hit single "Break My Stride".-Track listing:# "Break My Stride" 3:00...
(1983) - Bouncin' Off the WallsBouncin' Off the WallsBouncin' Off the Walls is the second full-length LP released by New Wave/singer-songwriter Matthew Wilder. It was released in 1984 on Epic Records, and was produced by the team of Rick Chudacoff and Peter Bunetta, who would go on to help Michael Bolton on his breakthrough album.-Track Listing:All...
(1984) - I Don't Speak the Language/Bouncin' off the WallsI Don't Speak the Language/Bouncin' Off the WallsI Don't Speak The Language/Bouncin' Off The Walls is a combination album of the two LPs I Don't Speak the Language and Bouncin' Off the Walls by Matthew Wilder.- Track listing :1. Break My Stride2. Kid's American, The...
(1999)
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications Music recording sales certification Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,... (sales threshold) |
Album | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US AC |
US Dance |
US R&B Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,... |
UK UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
|||||
| 1983 | "Break My Stride Break My Stride "Break My Stride" was a major hit single for Matthew Wilder in 1983 and 1984. Wilder co-wrote the reggae/New Wave song, which was his biggest hit, becoming a multiformat success in the U.S., charting on the Pop, Black, Dance and Adult Contemporary charts.... " |
5 | 4 | 17 | 76 | 4 |
|
I Don't Speak the Language | |
| "I Don't Speak the Language" | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| 1984 | "World of the Rich and Famous" | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "The Kid's American" | 33 | — | — | — | 93 | ||||
| 1985 | "Ladder of Lovers" | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Bouncin' Off the Walls" | 52 | — | — | — | — | Bouncing Off the Walls | |||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | |||||||||