Reg Presley

Reginald Maurice Ball (12 June 1941 – 4 February 2013), known professionally as Reg Presley, was an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer with the 1960s rock and roll band The Troggs, whose hits included "Wild Thing" and "With a Girl Like You" (the reached number one in the US and the UK respectively). Ball wrote the song "Love Is All Around", which featured in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Career

Presley, whose stage name was given to him in 1965 by the New Musical Express journalist and publicist Keith Altham, was born in Andover, Hampshire. He joined the building trade on leaving school and became a bricklayer. He kept at this occupation until "Wild Thing" entered the UK Singles Chart in 1966. It reached No. 2 in the U.K., and No. 1 in the US, selling five million copies.

Presley wrote the hits "With a Girl Like You", "I Can't Control Myself" and "Love Is All Around". Wet Wet Wet's 1994 cover of the latter song stayed at No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for fifteen weeks. Presley used his royalties from that cover to fund research subjects such as alien spacecraft, lost civilisations, alchemy, and crop circles, and outlined his findings in the book Wild Things They Don't Tell Us, published in October 2002.

Can the Can

"Can the Can" is the second solo single by Suzi Quatro and her first to reach number one in the UK, spending a single week at the top of the chart in June 1973. It also reached number one on the European and Australian charts in whose market Quatro achieved her most consistent success throughout her career as a recording artist. The single belatedly became a hit in the US peaking at number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. It was re-released as a B-side single in 1984 but didn't chart. The single hit the charts again in 1987 in the UK at number 87, it also appeared on her 1995 album What Goes Around.

This single made Quatro the first female bass guitar player to become a major rock star and so broke a barrier to women's participation in rock music.

Background

This, Quatro's second solo single, was released after she moved from the United States to Britain. In the United States she had already released two singles with all-female band The Pleasure Seekers. Her first solo single, "Rolling Stone", was recorded with session players. "Rolling Stone" only achieved popularity in Portugal, where it went to number one.

Suzi Quatro (album)

Suzi Quatro is the debut solo studio album by the American rock singer-songwriter and bass guitarist Suzi Quatro. It was originally released in late 1973, by the record label Rak. The album was titled Can the Can in Australia.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave the album a "B" and wrote that "nothing in her own songwriting equals the one-riff rock of the two Chapman-Chinn singles, especially "48 Crash," and the last time I got off on someone dressed entirely in leather was before John Kay started repeating himself." In a retrospective review for AllMusic Dave Thompson gave the album four and half stars and wrote that "Suzi Quatro remains one of the most nakedly sexual albums of the entire glam rock epoch -- and one of the hottest debuts of the decade."

Track listing

All tracks composed by Suzi Quatro and Len Tuckey; except where indicated

Side one