The Pretty Things may not have shown up on the charts, but their cult proved to be influential: it's been said S.F. Top Ten a year later, but that turned out to be the peak of their commercial success. Their first two singles, "Rosalyn" and "Don't Bring Me Down," charted in 1964, and their eponymous debut LP made the U.K. Taking their name from a Bo Diddley song, the Pretty Things were intentionally ugly: their sound was brutish, their hair longer than any of their contemporaries, their look unkempt. At first, the Pretty Things seemed like rivals to the Rolling Stones, and that was no great leap: guitarist Dick Taylor played bass in the first incarnation of the Stones before teaming with Phil May to form the Pretties in 1963. Their cult was drawn to either their vicious early records, where they sometimes seemed like a meaner version of the Rolling Stones, or to their 1968 psychedelic touchstone S.F. Despite this lack of public recognition, they were never quite ignored, cultivating a passionate following that stuck with them through the decades. Commercially, they were often seen as also-rans, more talked about than listened to, especially in the United States, where many of their most important albums were never released until decades after the fact. Musically, the Pretty Things were one of the toughest and most celebrated bands to rise from the Beat/British Invasion era, and among the very best British R&B bands of the '60s.
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