T. Rex (band)

T. Rex were an English rock band, formed in 1967 by singer-songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan. The band initally called Tyrannosaurus Rex, released four folk albums under this banner. In 1970, Bolan began to make a shift from basing his band's sound around an acoustic guitar to basing it around an electric one and shortened their name to T. Rex. "Ride a White Swan" coincided with this change and instantly became a commercial success. From 1970 until 1973, T. Rex encountered in the UK a popularity unseen since the demise of the Beatles, with a run of 11 singles ranked in the British top ten. 1971's Electric Warrior received sustained critical acclaim as a pioneering album of glam rock. It reached the number 1 position in the UK. The follow-up, 1972's The Slider, allowed the band to enter in the top 5 in the USA. At the end of 1973, T. Rex started to have less commercial success but kept on recording one album per year.

In 1977, Bolan died in a car accident a couple of months after releasing their final studio album Dandy in the Underworld. Since then, T. Rex have continued to exert a vast influence on a variety of subsequent artists.