Marc Bolan and T Rex's 15 greatest songs ever, ranked

11 October 2024, 09:21

T. Rex, thanks to their founder and bandleader Marc Bolan, are widely considered to be the definitive glam rock band. Picture: Getty

By Thomas Curtis-Horsfall

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They were widely considered to be the definitive glam rock band.

As the seventies dawned, T. Rex burst into the charts like a bolt from the blue with glitzy outfits, plenty of tousled hair, and rock 'n' roll riffs that struck a chord with the mainstream.

Starting out as a psychedelic folk outfit Tyrannosaurus Rex, Marc Bolan's sensibilities shifted towards radio-ready pop hooks and an outlandish style which ushered in a new era of rock music.

Throughout the first half of the decade, rock music reigned supreme, and Bolan was at the fore when it came to soundtracking a good time.

As the founder, bandleader, and only consistent member of T. Rex, Marc Bolan scored eleven top ten hit on the UK charts, four of which went straight to number one.

When the era of glam rock came to an end, T. Rex's popularity dropped off too. But Bolan remained a respected and adored figure in music until his untimely death in 1977 at the age of just 30.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, T. Rex have stood the test of time as one of the defining bands of the seventies - even still, their hits are a sure-fire winner if you want to incite a strut or shake some hips on the dance-floor.

That said, we've ranked T. Rex's fifteen greatest songs - read on to see if your favourite makes the list:

'Life Is Strange'

Life Is Strange

For T. Rex's 1973 album Tanx, Marc Bolan embraced a sense of soul and gospel music when it came to lyrics, the result of which was the pensive ballad 'Life Is Strange'.
Perhaps a response to his earlier song 'Life's A Gas', Bolan addresses the impermanence of life, and how things can quickly change.
The song was poignantly used in the 2013 drama Dallas Buyers Club, with transvestite character Rayon battling AIDS and snatching at life's remaining moments, which were soundtracked by artists like T. Rex.
'Teenage Dream'

T. Rex - Teenage Dream (Top of the Pops, 07/02/1974) [TOTP HD]

'Teenage Dream' was the first single billed solely as 'Marc Bolan upon its initial pressing, and also marked the final time he'd work with David Bowie producer Tony Visconti.
The operatic nature of the song sees Bolan at his most musically dramatic, all swirling saxophone, soaring guitar parts, and Bob Dylan-esque intonations in his vocal delivery.
Appearing on the album Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow, the rousing track peaked at number thirteen on the UK charts after its 1974 release.
Bolan himself believed the title was the best lyric he'd ever written, a sentiment which was mirrored by Bowie's former partner Gloria Jones.
'Mambo Sun'

T. Rex - Mambo Sun 1972

Electric Warrior left a legacy as a landmark moment in glam rock, and it kicks off in sauntering fashion with 'Mambo Sun'.
The 1971 album saw T. Rex's full transition into the electric guitar-slinging, sexually-charged icons that shape-shifted the direction of rock music throughout the subsequent decade.
Shoulder-shimmying percussion and muted guitar riffs backed Bolan's hushed vocal delivery, as though he's whispering in your ear, beckoning you to join him on the sensual journey that is Electric Warrior.
'Solid Gold Easy Action'

Solid Gold Easy Action (2012 Remaster)

'Solid Gold Easy Action' didn't feature on a T. Rex album, which that didn't halt its charge to number two in the UK charts in 1972.
The standalone single is renowned for its eerie connotations however, one in which fans believe Bolan predicted his own untimely death.
"Life is the same and it always will be / Easy as picking foxes from a tree" he growls from the get-go, with 'FOX 661L' being the number plate of the car he was driving that was involved in the fatal collision with a tree in 1977.
'Life's A Gas'

T. Rex - Life's A Gas (1971)

"It really doesn't matter at all. Life's a gas, I hope it's gonna last," Bolan sings on 'Life's A Gas', one of the most prominent ballads on 1971's Electric Warrior, and even of his songwriting career.
A clear indicator of the artist's ambitions and aims of achieving fame and fortune in the heralded US, Bolan admitted that it was part of a larger attempt at courting American audiences. Sadly, he missed his shot.
Descending into addiction as his stock rose, T. Rex couldn't sustain their Stateside success and wouldn't reach those peaks again before Bolan's tragic death, though it was a completely different story in Britain with Electric Warrior transforming Bolan into the decade's first bonafide superstar.
Fun fact: he even performed 'Life's A Gas' with national treasure Cilla Black on the BBC in 1973.
'Jeepster'

T. Rex - Jeepster (1971)

With the idea for 'Jeepster', Marc Bolan acknowledged that he "lifted it from a Howlin' Wolf song", with blues artists often using car metaphors to disguise any sexual references in their lyrics.
"I don't sing the old rock 'n' roll songs myself. I prefer to change the words and make new songs out of them. That's all 'Jeepster' is," he explained.
Bolan's excitement oozes through the studio recording - the stomping and rattling during the song's intro is actually him enthusiastically jumping up and down whilst performing, adding to the fidgeting fun that embodies 'Jeepster'.
It song's rockabilly glam propelled 'Jeepster' all the way to number two in the UK charts after its 1971 release.
'I Love To Boogie'

Marc Bolan I Love to Boogie Live 1976

As the seventies tailed on, T. Rex was on a low ebb. Yet 'I Love To Boogie' emphasised a turn in creative fortunes - with the 1977 album Dandy In The Underworld, Marc Bolan was back on track.
Launched at London's premier punk rock club The Roxy, T. Rex was accepted by the next generation of music fans - including punk originators The Damned who supported them on tour - having been out of fashion for several years with the decline of glam rock's popularity.
Sadly, his band's revitalisation wouldn't last long, as he tragically died the following year.
Rock 'n' roller 'I Love To Boogie' was T. Rex's final top 20 hit whilst Bolan was alive, and has since become one of their most beloved songs.
'Metal Guru'

T. Rex - Metal Guru (1972)

Marc Bolan was obsessed with cars, an obsession which would ironically relate to his death in 1977. Strangely enough though, he never learned to drive himself.
But the motor head made his fascination with the vehicle clear with songs like 'Metal Guru', which details his preoccupation but with a mystic edge.
"'Metal Guru' is a festival of life song. I believe in a god, but I have no religion, and I thought God would be all alone without a telephone," he said at the time of its 1972 release, which featured on the album The Slider and reached number one in the UK charts.
Producer Tony Visconti was a bit more straightforward about the song's meaning, saying in a 2022 interview: "It was about a Cadillac. There are so many damn cars in his stuff, he could have been a car salesman."
'Ride A White Swan'

T. Rex - Ride A White Swan - 2nd version (1971)

'Ride A White Swan' is widely regarded as the first T. Rex song in spirit (definitively in name), one that ushered in the age of glam rock during the early seventies.
Before that, Bolan went under the pseudonym Tyrannosaurus Rex, playing largely psychedelic folk music, even headlining the inaugural Glastonbury Festival in 1970.
Even Marc wasn't adorned with the characteristic glam garbs at the time, given the song sparked the glam rock mania that consumed the UK charts for the next few years.
Nevertheless, 'Ride A White Swan' was T. Rex's first track to break the charts, peaking at number two in 1971.
'Telegram Sam'

Telegram Sam (Official Music Video)

T. Rex brought the phrase "main man" into popular culture with 1972 hit 'Telegram Sam', which was written about a close personal and professional friend.
His manager Tony Secunda is the main man in question, with Bolan coining the nickname 'Telegram Sam' especially for him. His assistant "jungle-faced Jake" Sid Walker and "Bobby" Bob Dylan also get a mention.
Later on the 1977 'Dandy In The Underworld Tour', he even gave good pal David Bowie a namedrop too, changing the lyrics "3D vision and the California blues" to "third vision and the David Bowie blues", hinting at the Ziggy Stardust icon's depressive tendencies.
There was little to be depressed about in terms of the song's success however, as 'Telegram Sam' reached the top spot of the UK charts as the first single from 1972 album The Slider.
'Hot Love'

T. Rex - Hot Love (1971) HD 0815007

'Hot Love' was when T. Rex announced themselves as an era-defining band.
A standalone single release, 'Hot Love' achieved what Bolan hadn't to date - topping the UK charts, and in turn, launching them into the hearts and minds of bedazzled fans around the country.
Donning glittery make-up and draped in satin clothing (at the behest of his stylist Chelita Secunda) during their first two performances of the song on Top Of The Pops, Bolan unwittingly triggered the nation's infatuation with glam rock.
Equally parts sexy and sweet, 'Hot Love' ensured Marc Bolan became rock music's newest poster boy.
'20th Century Boy'

T.Rex - 20th Century Boy (Full Version) [HD]

T. Rex were responsible for a swathe of glam rock's greatest guitar riffs, and '20th Century Boy' is up there with the most debauched of them.
Recorded during a burst of creativity in Tokyo, Japan at Toshiba Recording Studios, Bolan poured every ounce of swagger he possessed into his vocal delivery and instrumentation.
The lyrics were inspired by famous cultural figures of the time, notably boxing legend Muhammad Ali, as "sting like a bee" was re-used from one of his seminal speeches in 1969.
'20th Century Boy' became one of the band's heavyweight songs, peaking at number three in the UK charts having been released as a standalone single in 1973.
'Cosmic Dancer'

T Rex - Cosmic Dancer - live Concert Wembley - 18th March 1972.3gp

Despite not being released as a single, 'Cosmic Dancer' became an immediate fan favourite, and is one of T. Rex's most enduring songs.
The mystic ballad delves into the theme of reincarnation (as Bolan himself revealed ahead of the live version on the Acoustic Warrior album), eluding to Hinduism and the pre-destined path of creation and destruction.
"I danced myself right out the womb" he gently warbles at the beginning, later singing "I danced myself into the tomb", completing the cycle, and committing to the carefree expression of dance all the while.
A song about living life to its fullest from birth to death, 'Cosmic Dancer' has resonated with fans throughout each generation since - it was given a new lease of life itself having been expertly used during the intro to 2001 drama Billy Elliott.
'Get It On'

Bang a Gong Get It On - T. Rex | The Midnight Special

'Get It On' was T. Rex times in the spotlight over in the US, as it reached the top ten of the US Billboard charts for the very first time.
Bolan's slinky delivery is sex personified, and the song's title is pretty on the nose. Despite the song evidently being about consummating one's affection for another physically, lyrics like "hubcap diamond star halo" or a "cloak full of eagles" weren't exactly sexually explicit enough to rile up the censors.
Released under the title 'Bang A Gong (Get It On)' in the US, it made the band a mere one-hit-wonder in America, which producer Tony Visconti blamed on Bolan himself.
"When he came over, he would play 'Get It On' with a 20-minute guitar solo, like he was Jimi Hendrix," he confessed in a recent interview. "The kids wanted to hear basic rock 'n' roll. His attendance at shows dropped immediately."
The UK gobbled it up however, as 'Get It On' became T. Rex's second consecutive number one single.
Fun fact: The Turtles' Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman provided backup vocals on the recording, under the pseudonym Flo & Eddie.
'Children Of The Revolution'

T.Rex - Children Of The Revolution - Official HD Promo Video

If there's a motif from Marc Bolan's lyrics that has stood the test of time and taken on a life unto itself, it's the title of T. Rex's 1972 single 'Children Of The Revolution'.
The phrase has often been repurposed as a call to arms for the youth and their voices not being suppressed, with Bolan himself inspired by the transition from the optimism of the late sixties to the disillusionment at the start of the seventies.
The Beatles' legendary drummer Ringo Starr praised Bolan's songwriting talent when inducting him to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020: "People knew him as a great musician, a songwriter, a guitarist, but he was also a poet."
"He was always telling me that he was the number one-selling poet in Britain. In fact, his poetry was as important to him as his music. He had great style and was really unlike anyone else I have ever met."
On 'Children Of The Revolution', Ringo contributed drums and Elton John played piano, when Marc Bolan was fully assimilated into the ranks of the rock Gods.
To add some context to how popular T. Rex were during this period, 'Children Of The Revolution' was considered a flop as it missed out on the number one spot of the UK charts.
In many ways, the track was the beginning of the end of T. Rex's reign of the pop charts' upper echelons, but it was Marc Bolan's victory lap on a time when glam rock ruled supreme.