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Reg Presley, Who Sang 'Wild Thing' With The Troggs, Dies

Reg Presley of The Troggs in 1967.
PA Photos /Landov
Reg Presley of The Troggs in 1967.
From the NPR Newscast: A little 'Wild Thing' and Neda Ulaby's report on Reg Presley

Grab a guitar, hit those three chords (A, D, E) and take three minutes to pay your respects:

Reg Presley, who sang Wild Thing with The Troggs in 1966, is dead. He was 71 and had suffered a series of strokes recently.

The band's website says Presley "died peacefully" on Monday, "surrounded by all of his family."

NPR's Neda Ulaby tells our Newscast Desk that:

Presley grew up in a small town called Andover, England, and never moved away. He went to trade school and kept his job as a bricklayer until after Wild Thing's success. The Troggs went on to score seven hits through the 1960s, and Presley toured with the group until just a few years ago.

Off the stage, Presley was not much of a wild thing. He avoided drugs and had been married for 47 years.

The Guardian offers "Reg Presley and the Troggs: the best songs in clips."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.