Heath was offered a contract with HMV while the rest of the band were employed as session musicians and paid accordingly.

The label informed the band that their name "Freddie Heath and the Nutters" would be changed to Johnny Kidd & the Pirates.

[2]: 54  Unlike Billy Fury or Marty Wilde, Kidd did not sing in an imitation voice of Elvis Presley, or one of his American contemporaries.

Kidd was told that a self-penned song could be used and together with The Pirates the new number was written in the basement of the Freight Train coffee bar the day prior to recording.

It was Moretti who created the song's signature sound by sliding Brian Gregg's cigarette lighter up and down the fret-board of his guitar.

Kidd donned an eye-patch and carried a cutlass which he would swing around on stage, and high kick in time with the music of the band.

The Pirates' bassist, Nick Simper, was also in the car with Kidd, and sustained cuts and a broken arm.

Before the likes of Paul Revere and the Raiders and Alice Cooper, Kidd and the Pirates and his contemporary Screaming Lord Sutch pioneered the dress-up band aesthetic.

Meanwhile, his hit singles with the Pirates proved highly influential in the birth of the British rock scene.