The Troggs
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The Troggs, a successful English rock band of the 1960s, had a number of hits in Britain and America. The Troggs are from the town of Andover in southern England.
Trogg is short for troglodyte.
Band members included:
- Reg Presley (real name, Reginald Ball) - Vocals
- Chris Britton - guitar
- Pete Staples - bass guitar
- Ronnie Bond (real name, Ronald Bullis) - Drums
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. 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 are widely seen as a highly influential band whose sound was one inspiration for garage rock and punk rock.
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 was widely circulated in the music underground, and is believed to be the inspiration for some of the dialog in the 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".)
The Troggs still exist and still play gigs. Their original drummer Ronnie Bond died in 1992.
External links
- Troggs Website (http://www.my-generation.org.uk/troggs.htm)