The Troggs
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The Troggs were a successful English rock band of the 1960s, who had a number of hits in Britain and America, including their most famous song, "Wild Thing". The Troggs were from the town of Andover in southern England. The band's name comes from shortening the word troglodyte - meaning "cave dweller".
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Band members
- Reg Presley - born Reginald Maurice Ball on 12 June, 1941, in Andover, Hampshire - Vocals
- Chris Britton - born on 21 June, 1945 in Watford, Hertfordshire - Guitar
- Pete Staples - born Peter Lawrence Staples on 3 May, 1944 in Andover, Hampshire - Bass Guitar
- Ronnie Bond - born Ronald James Bullis on 4 May, 1943 in Andover, Hampshire. Died on 13 November, 1992 - Drums
Biography
The Troggs were signed by the manager of The Kinks in 1966 and recorded on Larry Page's Page One Records. Their most famous hit was the single "Wild Thing" (written by Chip Taylor), which reached #1 in the United States in June 1966. Its combination of a simple heavy guitar riff and flirtatious lyrics helped it to quickly become a garage rock standard.
They also had a number of other hits, including "With a Girl Like You" (a UK #1 in July 1966, U.S. #25), "I Can't Control Myself" (a UK #2 in September 1966), "Anyway That You Want Me" (UK #10 in December 1966), "Night of the Long Grass" (UK #17 in May 1967), and "Love Is All Around" (UK #5 in October 1967 and US #7 in February 1968). In the early 1970s, in an attempt to re-create their 1960s successes, the Troggs re-united with Larry Page, now running Penny Farthing Records, but the resulting cover version of the Beach Boys hit Good Vibrations did not capture the public's imagination.
The Troggs still exist and still play gigs. Their original drummer Ronnie Bond died in 1992.
Legacy and influence
The Troggs are widely seen as a highly influential band whose sound was one inspiration for garage rock and punk rock.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience famously covered "Wild Thing" during their appearance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, introducing it as the British "national anthem", and climaxing with the burning of his guitar.
In 1994, "Love is All Around" was covered by Scottish band Wet Wet Wet, whose version of the song spent 15 weeks at number one in the UK. An in-studio tape of Reg Presley's running commentary on a recording session, filled with in-fighting and swearing (known as "The Troggs Tapes") was widely circulated in the music underground, and is believed to be the inspiration for some of the dialog in the comedy film "This Is Spinal Tap." (Some of this dialogue was sampled by the California punk band The Dwarves on their recording of a cover version of a Troggs song, "Strange Movies".)
"Love is All Around" was also covered from the film Love Actually and released late in 2003 performed by actor Bill Nighy and the band Radiohead.