Band
The Nashville Teens

The Nashville Teens are a British pop band formed in Weybridge, Surrey in 1962. Little is known of the founding musicians, except that Arthur Sharp began his career in music as the manager of Aerco Records in Woking, Surrey, but the ‘Mark II’ line-up comprised original singers Arthur Sharp and Ray Phillips, with former Cruisers Rock Combo members John Hawken (piano), Mick Dunford (guitar), Pete Harris (bass) and Dave Maine (drums). Additional gu ... itarist Pete Shannon completed the band. Roger Groome replaced Maine shortly afterwards. In 1963, third vocalist Terry Crowe joined briefly; but later that same year Dunford and Groome left, and were replaced by John Allen and Barry Jenkins respectively. (Crowe and Dunford later formed The Plebs with Danny McCulloch, and were re-united with Hawken in Renaissance in 1970.) While playing in Hamburg (as most British bands of the era did), the Teens backed Jerry Lee Lewis for his Jerry Lee Lewis Live at the Star Club album; they later backed Carl Perkins on his hit “Big Bad Blues”, and also played with Bo Diddley. At one such gig, they were spotted by Mickie Most who subsequently produced their June 1964 debut single, a bold interpretation of John D. Loudermilk’s classic “Tobacco Road”, which reached number 6 in the UK singles chart and made it to number 14 in the U.S. The follow-up, another Loudermilk song, “Google Eye”, reached number 10 in the UK in October 1964. See more [+]