Fact #162403
When:
Short story:
Tyrannosaurus Rex release their debut single, Debora, in the UK on Regal-Zonophone Records. (The group features Marc Bolan and will later evolve into T. Rex.)
Full article:
Marc Bolan (Tyrannosaurus Rex) : In one week we had four record companies that said, 'Hey, we want to sign you up and make you a star'.
Apple were interested, so I obviously I said, 'Oh yeah!' But it didn't feel very good. It felt a bit lame and untogether. And Tony Visconti, who was working for Denny Cordell then, came down and was really excited. Regal Zonophone had just started with Procol Harum and The Move and Joe Cocker, all upcoming big acts. And I went up to their office and they were the only people to let me do an album.
I said, 'I don't want to do a single, I want to do an album', and in those days everybody did singles and not albums. Pink Floyd was about the only lead band to have an album out at that time.
We did the album and fortunately, it was a big album, which surprised everyone, most of all us. But we worked for about six months doing it.
The first album cost 400 quid, and Debora cost thirty quid. We did it straight off in an hour. But we were mentally in tune together at that point. But we did release Deborah as a single, and that was the biggest buzz of all. That was our first single.
They pressed seven hundred copies and sold them the first day, which is not really a lot now, but I thought "seven hundred people". It's a lot when you think that only four people knew who you are. That record got to about thirty in the charts, which threw everybody. We had a lucky year that first year. We were very much in vogue with the feeling. The first two singles were successful and the first two albums were very big.
(Source : not known)
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Apple were interested, so I obviously I said, 'Oh yeah!' But it didn't feel very good. It felt a bit lame and untogether. And Tony Visconti, who was working for Denny Cordell then, came down and was really excited. Regal Zonophone had just started with Procol Harum and The Move and Joe Cocker, all upcoming big acts. And I went up to their office and they were the only people to let me do an album.
I said, 'I don't want to do a single, I want to do an album', and in those days everybody did singles and not albums. Pink Floyd was about the only lead band to have an album out at that time.
We did the album and fortunately, it was a big album, which surprised everyone, most of all us. But we worked for about six months doing it.
The first album cost 400 quid, and Debora cost thirty quid. We did it straight off in an hour. But we were mentally in tune together at that point. But we did release Deborah as a single, and that was the biggest buzz of all. That was our first single.
They pressed seven hundred copies and sold them the first day, which is not really a lot now, but I thought "seven hundred people". It's a lot when you think that only four people knew who you are. That record got to about thirty in the charts, which threw everybody. We had a lucky year that first year. We were very much in vogue with the feeling. The first two singles were successful and the first two albums were very big.
(Source : not known)