The Royal Teens

The Royal Teens, best remembered for the catchy 1958 novelty hit "Short Shorts", were formed in 1956 in Bergen County, NJ, as The Royal Tones. One of the founding members was Bob Gaudio, later a prolific songwriter and founding member of The Four Seasons, another famous group of Jersey boys. Besides Gaudio, the original members included drummer Thomas Austin, bass player Billy Dalton and sax player Bill Crandall. The group started out as a back-up band for black R&B singers. Gaudio and Austin had an instrumental dance number they had written as a warm-up tune for their stage act. They came up with the catchphrase "Who wears short shorts?" for a lyric and added a few basically nonsensical refrains. The song was noticed by an exec at ABC-Paramount Records and the group, now christened The Royal Teens, was signed. "Short Shorts" was recorded and released and quickly shot to #3 on the US charts, due in no small part to Crandall's driving sax (the song was later famously used in a series of TV commercials for Nair hair-removal cream). Crandall and Dalton soon left the group, though, to be replaced by Larry Quagliano and future Blood Sweat & Tears founder Al Kooper. Former Three Friends lead singer Joe Villa was also brought into the group. They had one minor hit for ABC before moving to Capitol Records, where they scored another minor hit. By 1960 the group was pretty much defunct, although some members continued using the name with various lineups until 1965, recording for several minor labels (All New, Mighty) and a few semi-major ones (Blue Jay, Swan), but The Royal Teens' time had passed and there were no more hits.