‘Man, Dig That Crazy Chick!’
The Royal Teens’ Co-Founder Tom Austin on Their Hit ‘Short Shorts’
Published in
9 min readDec 23, 2022
It was 1956. Drummer Tom Austin and keyboardist Bob Gaudio were talented New Jersey teenagers who recruited guitarist Billy Dalton and saxophonist Billy Crandall to form a band, the Royals.
Austin and Gaudio teamed to write “Short Shorts,” a number three hit in 1958. Tours, TV…
