The year was 1965, four years before Midnight Cowboy made Voight an A-lister. And he wasn’t listening to a record or to the radio but to the song’s 25-year-old composer, who, armed with an acoustic ...

The whole premise of the Troggs’ 1966 hit “Wild Thing” is about this socially disaffected guy, benumbed to sympathy, empathy, and even his own ego — utterly skeptical of any personal joy, a real ...

“He said, ‘Did you like it?’ And I said, ‘I think it’s the greatest! People won’t be able to stop singing it! I’m telling ya, this is great!” Voight’s assessment proved accurate a year later when the ...