There are lots of groups that clearly influenced punk rock and garage rock bands the world over. But, The Standells more than any other have earned the moniker of the godfathers of punk rock. It's surprising if you know they started out as a fairly clean cut, beat band in the early sixties, hardly known for pounding out very rebellious music. They were clean cut enough to land one of those corny TV rock gigs on The Munsters where they sang an uninspired, organ driven cover of The Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand".
All that changed in 1966 when they teamed up with Ed Cobb who wrote their biggest hit, the gritty, Stonesy, "Dirty Water", which hit #11 on the charts. The album of the same name featured the song here, "Little Sally Tease" and heralded the beginnings of the Standells punk sound thanks to a number of hard, organ driven songs with distinctive bass lines and fuzzed out guitar. Between 1966 and the end of 1967 the band released four albums, all of which built on their brand of blues laden rock and roll, and solidified their cult status as a primary influence on future rockers of every genre and generation.
