Showcase was
Marty Wilde's second LP, released in the spring of 1960, and consisting mostly of his covers of American pop/rock songs, accompanied by his one huge original hit, "Bad Boy." He does a lot better with the rock numbers than he does with pop-style songs like "No One Knows" and "Teenage Tears" -- indeed, tracks like "The Fire of Love," "Endless Sleep," and even softer rock songs like "A Teenager in Love," "Donna," "My Heart and I," "Sea of Love," and "It's Been Nice" make this record a killer account of
Wilde's range and power. "Bad Boy" tops off the package, a dark, brooding,
Gene Vincent-like record and song (authored by
Wilde) that makes this one of the better rock & roll long-players of its era in England, if not up to the standard of
Billy Fury's
The Sound of Fury then still eminently listenable. The sound isn't quite as unified as on
Wilde's prior LP, owing to the fact that the 12 songs are drawn from across three years of recording, but his voice is consistently rewarding.