They were sonically crude and raw, almost to the point of sounding dumb (their moniker came from the term Troglodytes); was that calculated? Whether The Troggs' approach was based on sex ("I Can't Control Myself") or isolation (my favorite was "From Home," the B-side of the Fontana Records release of "Wild Thing," which was issued on two different labels in the U.S.), the band staked out territory that hadn't been heard before in rock'n'roll.
The Troggs (I recently heard a young radio DJ pronounce the name like "toads"--it's like "frogs," dude) had their pop side too, including the catchy "With a Girl Like You" (the flipside of Atco's "Wild Thing") and 1968's "Love Is All Around," which introduced strings to the band's repertoire.
Yet it was "Wild Thing" that helped pave the way for a more frantic batch of proto-punk hits on AM radio that were so exciting, like the Music Machine's "Talk Talk" and the Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard," two records that still make my head spin.
"Wild Thing" is rather absurd (it begins with a musical fart, after all), and Presley's ocarina solo amidst the power chords is still goofy. While it's no longer a big favorite of
mine, the song provided one of my most memorable moments of radio listening.
At age eleven, I was so hooked on rock'n'roll radio that I would flee when our family visited other families, run to the car and wear down the battery, taking in the music. It always intrigued me to see the photos of radio jocks on the music guides that the stations put out, listing their top 30 tunes. In those pictures, one saw changing hair styles brought on by the English bands and yet, some DJs, even in 1966, stuck to crew cuts and very conservative looking 'doos.
In one of my typical snotty modes, I suspected a jock at Canada's CKLW (right across the river from Detroit) as being one of those "squares." Wish I could recall his name. It was the weirdest thing I'd heard on the radio at that point, as the announcer played "Wild Thing" and angrily called it "a piece of garbage."
It's doubtful the man ever became a fan of the Ramones, who certainly share stylistic ties to the Troggs. You are obviously the cooler person, Reg Presley--thank you.