The structure is simple, the guitar riffs basic, the lyrics at best inane, but the Troggs’ Wild Thing remains a garage rock classic more than 45 years after its release made The Troggs and lead singer Reg Presley international stars.
Presley, whose raunchy, suggestive voice powers this paean to teenage lust, died Monday after a year-long struggle with lung cancer that had forced him and the band into reluctant retirement, his agent Keith Altham announced on Facebook late Monday night. He was 71.
“My dear old pal Reg Presley of The Troggs died today,” he said, calling Presley “one very real person in a sometimes very unreal world.” He said the singer had suffered a number of strokes recently and died at his home in Andover (70 miles west of London) surrounded by his family and friends.
The Troggs, part of the British invasion spurred by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, perfected a simple, hard-driving approach to the three-minute rock song that was miles away from the lyrical art-rock of the Beatles or the poetic songs of Bob Dylan.
This was rock music at its “boy meets girl” basics, with a caveman’s approach to romance — and it created such a powerful image that Presley and the band played these songs to appreciative (if smaller) audiences until illness intervened.
Wild Thing was written by accomplished American songwriter Chip Taylor, whose real name is James Voight. He turned to his brother, the actor Jon Voight, for an assessment.
Jon Voight said in 2007 that he fell on the floor laughing when he first heard Wild Thing.
“I came up saying ‘It’s a hit! They won’t be able to get it off their tongues.’ It was such a fun song.”
However, the original recording by Jordan Christopher & The Wild Ones in 1965 was quickly forgotten. It took the Troggs’ cover, released the following year, to make it a classic.
The song was picked up not only by semi-skilled garage bands the world over — the lead guitar lines were easily copied — but also by masters like Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen.