When Chip Taylor originally demoed this basic three-chord song in 1965, he didn’t take it too seriously. The way the song stops and starts up again was inspired by Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.”

When that session ended 45 minutes early and the musicians shuffled out, The Troggs quickly set up and blew through “Wild Thing” and what would be their next hit, “With A Girl Like You,” in about 20 minutes. For their second single, their producer/manager Larry Page had them choose between “Wild Thing” and The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind.” They went with “Wild,” recording the song using studio time booked for an orchestra session Page was running. That group was best known for their outrageous hairstyles. Over the next few years, The Troggs moved away from this Neanderthal sound and had a big hit in 1968 the much more evolved “Love Is All Around.”Ī New York group called Jordan Christopher & The Wild Ones were the first to record this, but their version flopped. The style of music exemplified in this song became known as “Caveman Rock.” The Troggs is short for “troglodyte” (meaning “cave dweller”), which helped bolster this image. Taylor is the brother of actor Jon Voight and the uncle of Angelina Jolie. He also wrote “Angel Of The Morning,” which was a hit for Merrilee Rush in 1968.

Taylor used a lot of this money to gamble – for years he bet about $10,000 a day and was kicked out of every casino in Las Vegas for card counting. This was written by a songwriter named Chip Taylor, who has made tons of money from it because it has been recorded by many artists and is constantly being used in movies and TV shows. It could be said that it was one of the first punk songs. The song is as raw as you could get at the time. They had other good songs but nothing that had this much influence. This is the Troggs claim to the fame in the history of Rock and Roll. If you were in a garage band in the sixties…or now you probably have played this song. The song peaked at #1 in the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK in 1966. In the late seventies, I bought this single when I heard Hendrix cover it…such a simple guitar riff but very effective.

I’ve covered all of the Troggs hits except their international smash Wild Thing.

Wild thing you make my heart sing band