Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs were an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

that issued a few

recordings A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

in the early 1970s. The band was an alias adopted by Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts but signed to a different record label. Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs was created to promote the

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

" Seaside Shuffle". The name was not a reference to any particular band member, but was a pun on the name of the

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

flying

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

pterodactyl Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to 6 ...

. Notable band members were

Jona Lewie Jona Lewie (born John Lewis, 14 March 1947) is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his 1980 UK hits "You'll Always Find Me in the Kitchen at Parties" and " Stop the Cavalry". Career Lewie was born on 14 March ...

(composer/

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

) and

Keef Trouble Keef Trouble (born Keith Trussell, 1949, Greenwich, London) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Career Trouble studied at The Slade School of Fine Art, London, from 1968 to 1972. He is a founding member of British country music, cou ...

(

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Recordings

Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs released three singles in 1972 and 1973: "Seaside Shuffle" (1972), "On a Saturday Night" and "She Left; I Died" (both 1973). "Seaside Shuffle and its B-side "Ball and Chain" were both written by John Lewis (aka Jona Lewie). In 1972, the band released "Seaside Shuffle" with the

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

and

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations * Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

aid of

Jonathan King Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, ...

UK Records UK Records was a music label launched in 1972 by Jonathan King to distribute his own releases and those by some other artists.

label. The song reached number two in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. "On a Saturday Night" did not achieve the same popularity, just making the Top 50. The final single, "She Left; I Died" did not chart. The band did not have another top 10 chart single, consigning it to perennial

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

status. Subsequently, band members returned to performing as Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts, except for Jona Lewie, who pursued a solo career. In 1977 the single "Come Away" was released by 'Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs with Jona Lewie'.

Single discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs British novelty song performers English pop music groups