10 Greatest T. Rex Songs Ever

For an all too brief spell, folkie troubadour-turned-glam rock pioneer Marc Bolan and his band T. Rex were the biggest deal in British pop. At the band’s peak the nation found itself gripped by something people honestly referred to as T. Rextasy.

But despite T. Rex’s success paving the way for Ziggy Stardust, the band don’t always get the respect they are due. There are few reasons for this. Firstly, T. Rex excelled at the pop single and even their best albums were essentially a grab bag of short, catchy glam rock songs. Music critics at the time preferred to gush over cohesive, album length statements by the likes of Bowie or Pink Floyd.

Secondly, unlike other top stars of the era - such as Elton John or again Bowie - Bolan and the boys failed to conquer America, where they have never been more than a cult concern. Also, it’s fair to say that after their early success the band went to a fairly steep artistic decline, finding themselves quickly superseded in the public’s affections.

Finally, Bolan died tragically young, on the cusp of an artistic renaissance. Had he lived, you could imagine him rubbing shoulders with New Romantics, stumbling out of pubs with Britpop royalty, or adding guest vocals to tracks by Gorillaz, Mark Ronson or Daft Punk.

Nonetheless, T. Rex made music that was incredibly catchy, funny and sexy. Music that still sounds fantastic decades later.

Ride A White Swan announced the arrival of a new Marc Bolan. Gone was the bleating, Donovan adjacent folky of early incarnation Tyrannosaurus Rex, and in his place emerged the frontman of T. Rex: a charismatic glam pixie dynamo who was too busy being sexy and cool to find time for those old extraneous syllables.

At barely more than two minutes long, T. Rex’s opening salvo was direct and to the point with no extraneous fat on its bones. The backing track consists of just some layered guitar, a short string section and a tambourine. It gave the band their first hit despite having no chorus to speak of.

It was only kept off the UK number one spot by Dad’s Army actor Clive Dunn and his novelty record Granddad. Bolan claimed to have written the song after being spiked with LSD at a magazine launch, which might might explain the sudden change in direction.