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.