The Zakary Thaks were an American

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...

band from

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "''Body of Christ"'') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio ...

, United States, which formed in the mid-1960s.

History

The band developed out of The Riptides, a teen surf group which included Chris Gerniottis (vocals), Pete Stinson (lead guitar), Wayne Harrison (bass), Shelby Jordan (rhythm guitar), and Rex Gregory (drums). The group then became The Marauders, adding lead guitarist John Lopez and David Fore on drums with Gerniottis at vocals, Gregory at bass, and Stinson on rhythm guitar. In 1966, they replaced Fore with drummer, Stan Moore, and became The Zakary Thaks – the name being a mutated version of one seen in a magazine. Harrison and Fore went on to play with the Liberty Bell and the Bubble Puppy respectively. Influenced by blues guitarists as well as British and American groups of the period, the band soon gained local popularity. Their first record, for the local J-Beck label, combined an original composition, " Bad Girl", with a

Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhythm ...

song, "I Need You". Released in mid-1966, it became a regional hit and was picked up nationally by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it ...

. Its success won the band a spot supporting their heroes

The Yardbirds The Yardbirds are an English rock band, formed in London in 1963. The band's core lineup featured vocalist and harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist and later bassist Chris Dreja and bassist/producer Paul Samwe ...

. A second single, "Face To Face" was less successful, but the band continued to tour, supporting acts including

Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ach ...

and the

13th Floor Elevators The 13th Floor Elevators was an American rock band from Austin, Texas, United States, formed by guitarist and vocalist Roky Erickson, electric jug player Tommy Hall, and guitarist Stacy Sutherland. The band was together from 1965 to 1969, ...

. Later singles showed the band taking a more pop-focused approach. By 1968, Gerniottis had left the band for a while to join another group, the Liberty Bell, but returned later. However, the band did not repeat its early success, splitting up in the early 1970s. In 1979, "Bad Girl" was included on the Volume 2 of the Pebbles anthology of mid-1960s garage bands, and has maintained its renown among collectors of the genre. The song was also included on disc four of the 1998 four-disc '' Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968'' box set. A compilation of the band's singles was issued in May 2001. In 2015, a compilation called '' It's the End: The Definitive Collection'' was released and contained all of the group's

master recordings Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via meth ...

from all six singles for the first time. Drummer Stan Moore died in 2000. In 2004 and 2005, remaining members of the band reformed to perform at festivals. Bassist Rex Gregory died on January 18, 2008. Lead guitarist John Lopez died on February 23, 2022.

Singles discography

References

{{Authority control Protopunk groups Garage rock groups from Texas Psychedelic rock music groups from Texas Musical groups established in 1966 1966 establishments in Texas