Nerves, The

Singer/songwriter Jack Lee formed The Nerves with fellow San Francisco street musicians Peter Case and Paul Collins. He had moved to LA, but the Sunset Strip was now a shadow of its former self, and the band were something of a West Coast anomaly with their short hair, suits and skinny ties.

But The Nerves nailed their colours to the 1960s just as punk was beginning to attract some small attention, and the group’s stripped-down approach actually had a lot in common with punk.

They rented an LA basement on the corner of The Sunset Strip and put on a series of shows under the ‘Hollywood Punk Place’ banner, with bands like The Weirdos, The Germs, The Zippers, The Dils, The Screamers, and The Zeros.

Embroiled in the punk scene, they might have been – and sporting a look that prefigured the new wave skinny-tie cliche – but in reality, they stood apart from such fashion concerns.

After releasing a self-titled EP full of three-part harmonies and post-Beatles melodies in 1976, The Nerves grew apart.

Part of their strength and appeal was that all three were guitarists and songwriters (although Paul Collins and Peter Case agreed to play drums and bass, respectively). Later, this would become a source of discord.

They split in 1978, with Case and Collins briefly joining forces under the name The Breakaways.

It was in the summer of 1978 – when Jack Lee had hit rock bottom – that his phone rang and a voice said, “This is Deborah Harry. I’m in a band called Blondie, and we really like your song Hanging On The Telephone, and we want to record it on our album”.

He had written and acetated the song back in 1974, inspired by an illustration in Alan Aldridge’s book, The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics.

He now had mixed feelings about its inclusion on Blondie’s Parallel Lines: grateful for the financial fillip and disappointed that it was not the version by The Nerves, which hit big all around the world.

Peter Case went on to bigger things with The Plimsouls, creating memorable pop anthems like A Million Miles Away, while Paul Collins stepped out from behind the drums to head up his own successful power pop band, The Beat.

In 2012, Case and Collins invited Lee to join them on a reunion tour, paying tribute to the music of The Nerves, Breakaways, Plimsouls and Beat. He declined.

Jack Lee died from colon cancer in Santa Monica, California, on 26 May 2023, aged 71

Jack Lee 
Vocals, guitar
Peter Case 
Bass, vocals
Paul Collins 
Drums, vocals