{"id":559506,"date":"2026-04-02T03:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/559506\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T03:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:54:11","slug":"60-years-ago-the-troggs-recorded-their-biggest-hit-in-just-one-take-a-garage-rock-anthem-written-in-15-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/559506\/","title":{"rendered":"60 Years Ago, The Troggs Recorded Their Biggest Hit in Just One Take\u2014a Garage Rock Anthem Written in 15 Minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Troggs are arguably one of the most influential<\/a> British Invasion bands not named the Beatles or the Stones. In May 1964, childhood friends Reg Presley (vocals) and drummer Ronnie Bond formed the band in their hometown of Andover, United Kingdom. Bassist Pete Staples and guitarist Chris Britton later joined. On this day (April 1) in 1966, the Troggs recorded their most famous song, \u201cWild Thing\u201d, at Regent Sound Studio in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Troggs Did It the Way It Should\u2019ve Been Done\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1965, Songwriter Chip Taylor\u2014who recently passed at age 86\u2014wrote \u201cWild Thing\u201d in 15 minutes for American rock band The Wild Ones. After their version failed to chart, the song landed with the Troggs. The proto-punk quartet \u201cdid it the way it should\u2019ve been done\u201d, Wild Ones singer Chuck Alden later said.<\/a><\/p>\n

Band manager Larry Page found the song \u201cso weird and unusual that we just had to record it,\u201d Britton recalled<\/a>. So members of the Troggs made their way to London from Andover in a dilapidated J4 van. The vehicle apparently required two people to drive, with the passenger helping turn the steering wheel.<\/p>\n

Arriving at Regent Sound Studio, they recorded both \u201cWild Thing\u201d and \u201cWith A Girl Like You\u201d. With the former requiring just one complete take, they were out of the studio in 20 minutes, Britton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you hear that they went in and did it in one take\u2026 we had rehearsed the boys so we knew exactly what we had,\u201d Page said.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: The Primal Meaning Behind the Band Name The Troggs]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWild Thing\u201d Became a Hit<\/p>\n

At the time of \u201cWild Thing\u2019s\u201d release, the Troggs lead singer Reg Presley hadn\u2019t yet given up his day job as a bricklayer. In fact, that\u2019s where he was when he first heard the song on transistor radio.<\/p>\n

There was a painter, and he was working on the scaffolding behind me, and when \u201cWild Thing\u201d came on his transistor radio, he shouted over to me, not knowing who I was,\u201d Presley recalled. \u201cHe said, \u201cIf that ain\u2019t No 1 next week I\u2019ll eat my brush.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the song ended, the DJ announced \u201cWild Thing\u201d had already jumped from No. 44 to No. 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought: \u2018That bastard could be right,\u2019\u201d said Presley, who died in 2013 at age 71.\u201dI threw my trowel down, and I looked round the shed and said: \u201cShare out me tools, I\u2019m off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Selling more than 1 million copies, \u201cWild Thing\u201d topped the U.S. charts and peaked at No. 2 in the UK.<\/p>\n

Featured image by Chris Walter\/WireImage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Troggs are arguably one of the most influential British Invasion bands not named the Beatles or the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216,2156,248043],"class_list":["post-559506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-rock-music","tag-the-troggs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}