1 in the UK Album Chart[9] and spawned three hit singles: "Kings of the Wild Frontier", which was released in July and reached No.

[11] Initial UK copies of the album featured a different version of "Antmusic" that started with a fade-in, but after the song became a hit the subsequent pressings used the 7" single mix with the familiar drumstick intro.

[14][15] Photographer Peter Ashworth wrote, "On 5 August 1980, prior to his first slot on Top of the Pops, Adam Ant got the band together in a small rehearsal room in Brixton to create a video test.

Two days later a repeat shoot from the video recording, in a blacked-out studio, produced the sleeve image..."[16] The US version of the album dropped "Making History" in favour of two tracks penned by Ant prior to teaming up with Marco Pirroni, "(You're So) Physical" and "Press Darlings".

Reviewing the US edition for The Village Voice in March 1981, Robert Christgau judged the album as a response to British punk rock nihilism: "The music, needless to say, is rock and roll, a clever pop-punk amalgam boasting two drummers, lots of chanting, and numerous B-movie hooks.

[28] In 1992, Nine Inch Nails released a cover version of "Physical (You're So)" on the EP Broken, remade in an industrial rock style with more aggressive guitars and vocals than the original.

The abiding themes are drawn from a stew of popular, historical and contemporary sources to create an immersive tableau of pop-mythology.

The title track evokes Davy Crockett, and media representations thereof, and posits the band and its followers as a new royal family.

All tracks are written by Adam Ant and Marco PirroniOn 20 May 2016, Sony Music/Legacy Recordings issued a lavish four disc super deluxe box set of Kings of the Wild Frontier.