Terry Dactyl and The Dinosaurs was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 novelty band

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

, that issued a few recordings

Sound recording and reproduction

Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...

 in the early 1970s. The band name was especially created for Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts

Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts

Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts, formed in 1968, is now an occasionally performing British pub and club blues band. Band members Jona Lewie, Graham Hine, Keith Trussell, and John Randall are perhaps better known for their record Seaside Shuffle which reached #2 in the UK charts in 1972 under the...

 to promote the hit

Hit record

A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...

 single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 "Seaside Shuffle"; band members being Jona Lewie

Jona Lewie

Jona Lewie is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.-Career:Jona Lewie joined his first group, The Johnston City Jazz Band, while still at school in 1963, and by 1968 had become a blues & boogie singer and piano player...

 (vocals/accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

); Keef Trouble

Keef Trouble

Keef Trouble is an English composer, singer and musician.-Keef Trouble: Career:Trouble studied at The Slade School of Fine Art, London, from 1968 to 1972...

 (percussion); Graham Hine (guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

); John Randall (drums), plus in recording: Peter Gibson, Jim Pitts, Malcolm Starr and Mike May. The name Terry Dactyl is not a references to any particular band member.

Recordings

The three Terry Dactyl and the Dinosaurs' single record releases were "Seaside Shuffle", "On a Saturday Night", and "She Left; I Died".
In 1972, the band's record label Sonet

Sonet Records

Sonet Records is a jazz record label operating as an imprint of Universal Music Sweden. It was founded in Sweden in 1956.Sonet Records was established by Sven Lindholm and Gunnar Bergström, who managed the label into the 1980s. Dag Haeggqvist, the owner of Gazell Records, became an executive of the...

 released "Seaside Shuffle" with the marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 and distribution aid of Jonathan King

Jonathan King

Jonathan King is an English singer, songwriter, impresario and record producer. He is also the author of three novels, Bible Two and The Booker Prize Winner , and Beware the Monkey Man , and an autobiography, 65 My Life So Far .King first came to prominence as an...

's UK label. The song reached #2 in the UK singles chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

. "On a Saturday Night" didn't achieve the same popularity, just making the Top 50. The final single, "She Left; I Died" did not chart. After this last release the band split up, consigning it to perennial one-hit wonder

One-hit wonder

A one-hit wonder is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.-Characteristics:...

 status. Subsequently, band members returned to perform as Brett Marvin and the Thunderbolts except Jona Lewie, who developed a solo career.

Single discography

• "Seaside Shuffle" b/w "Ball And Chain" (1972) - UK Records
  UK Records
  UK Records was launched in 1972 by Jonathan King to distribute his own releases and some other artists. The abbreviation UK stands for "United King". The label was distributed at first by Decca Records and, after 1976, by PolyGram...
  
   - UK
  UK Singles Chart
  The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
  
  #2
• "On A Saturday Night" b/w "Going Round The World" (1973) - UK Records - UK #45
• "She Left; I Died" b/w "Too Self Centred" (1973)