T. Rex

The London band that began as an acoustic folk duo and ended up pioneering glam rock. Marc Bolan formed Tyrannosaurus Rex in July 1967 with percussionist Steve Peregrin Took and made four records of hushed, mystical psychedelic folk before plugging in, shortening the name, and breaking through with Ride a White Swan at the end of 1970. Electric Warrior, The Slider, and Tanx arrived over the next three years, alongside a run of eleven UK Top 10 singles, four of them No.1s: Hot Love, Get It On, Telegram Sam, and Metal Guru. Bolan put glitter and boogie on the same record, and a generation of British bands took notes.

America was harder to win. Reprise retitled the band's biggest single Bang a Gong (Get It On), and it reached No.10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1972, their only major US hit, while The Slider gave them their best American album showing. After Took's departure, Mickey Finn, bassist Steve Currie, and drummer Bill Legend formed the lineup behind the hits. From 1974 the British audience began to drift, and Bolan pushed the sound toward soul, funk, and disco. He died in a car crash in Barnes, London, on September 16, 1977, two weeks short of his 30th birthday and months after Dandy in the Underworld, and the band ended with him. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted T. Rex in 2020, and English Heritage has since marked the Maida Vale house where Bolan lived during the peak years with a blue plaque.