The Nashville Teens: "Tobacco Road" / "I Like it Like That" (1964)
The Nashville Teens were neither Tennesseans nor (I think) teenagers ... discuss.
Instead, they were British boys from the small town of Weybridge, Surrey, where they formed in 1962 and promptly joined the Beat generation alongside The Hollies, The Dave Clark Five, The Spencer Davis Group, Gerry and The Pacemakers, and, naturally, The Beatles.
Like many of those contemporaries, The Nashville Teens also made their way to Hamburg, where, as I wrote right here on Vinyl Spinning, just a few months ago, they backed up Jerry Lee Lewis in April of '64 and appeared on his classic Live at the Star Club album.
Well, they must have impressed 'The Killer' because, come May, they were hired to support Carl Perkins when he recorded his hit single "Big Bad Blues," and Chuck Berry when he embarked on his next British tour.
One of those shows was attended by hot-shot music producer Mickie Most (The Animals, Herman's Hermits, Donovan, Suzi Quatro, etc.), who promptly offered to cut a single with the Teens just as soon as he could get them into a studio.
That single turned out to be the now-60-year-old, John D. Loudermilk-penned "Tobacco Road," which mimicked The Animals' raw, visceral authenticity, climbed to No. 6 in the U.K. and No. 14 in the U.S., and briefly turned the Teens into a hot commodity, in their own right.
(Note: no thanks to the tepid, gutless cover of Chris Kenner's "I Like it Like That" found on the B-side, which inexplicably alters the lyrics from "let me show you where it's at" to " ... where I sat" -- WTF?)
Flushed with success, Ray Phillips (vocals), Arthur Sharp (vocals), John Allen (guitar), John Hawken (piano), Pete Shannon Harris (bass), and Barry Jenkins (drums) even made it across The Pond for a few U.S. tour dates.
But The Nashville Teens' talent as a backing band didn't translate to a distinctive style as composers, and after breaching the Top 10 with another Loudermilk song, "Google Eye," and the Top 50 with another handful of singles, their luck ran out.
By 1973, Phillips was the last remaining original member, and though they continue to tour wherever audiences will have them (seems Hungarians absolutely love them!), there's a reason why you haven't heard about The Nashville Teens lately ... or ever!
But I bet you've heard "Tobacco Road."
And while they may not have written it, it was the Teens version, as much as Loudermilk's folksy original, where he recalled growing up in rural North Carolina, that inspired countless covers over the years by the likes of Lou Rawls, Jefferson Airplane, Edgar Winter, Rare Earth, Roy Clark, and David Lee Roth.
More 'Classic '60s Beat Music & Garage Rock: The Beatles' Please Please Me, Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction," The Electric Prunes' "Get Me to the World On Time," The Hombres' "Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out)," The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie," The Litter's Emerge, The Monks' Black Monk Time, The Music Machine's (Turn On) The Music Machine, The Nightcrawlers' "The Little Black Egg," Paul Revere & The Raiders' "Just Like Me," Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs' Best of …, The Sonics’ !!!Here Are The Sonics!!!, Strawberry Alarm Clock's "Incense and Peppermints," The Troggs' "Wild Thing."
