for teens. He was a featured principal model in ads for Nissan cars, Jun clothing, AnnAnn, Non-no, and GT Jeans. In 1971, he released an LP of his own compositions titled Merrill 1 for the Denon/Columbia record label produced by Mickey Curtis. Tiny Tim, at the peak of his fame, covered an Alan Merrill composition from the album, a song titled "Movies", in 1972 on Scepter Records. He then formed the band Vodka Collins, which became a prominent glam rock act. The band included notable Japanese musicians Hiroshi "Monsieur" Kamayatsu and Hiroshi Oguchi. Vodka Collins recorded an LP in 1973 titled Tokyo – New York, on the Toshiba-EMI label The band are best known for recording and releasing the first popular glam rock songs in Japanese, including the double A-sided single "Sands Of Time" and "Automatic Pilot", released June 1973. UK In 1974, in London, Merrill formed the band Arrows (as lead singer and bass guitarist), with drummer Paul Varley and guitarist Jake Hooker. Peter Meaden was the Arrows' first manager, but later they signed with Mickie Most's RAK Records. In March 1974, the Arrows were in the top 10 in the UK charts with the song "Touch Too Much". The Arrows became a popular band with teens, and once again Merrill had slid back into the teen market he had fought hard to get out of in Japan. The Arrows had another hit single with "My Last Night With You" which reached the UK top 30 in 1975, but the band's single releases were few. Recorded at Morgan studio in London 1974 Merrill played bass guitar on drummer Cozy Powell's chart hit single "The Man In Black" and the B-side "After Dark" produced by Mickie Most on RAK records. The recording hit a peak position of No. 18 on the British charts. With the Arrows, Merrill sang three chart hit records as the band's lead singer, all produced by Mickie Most, "Touch Too Much" (No. 8 UK charts) "Toughen Up" (No. 51 UK charts) and "My Last Night With You" (No. 25 UK charts). They made one more single that would be an important one. "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" (1975), a song that started out as a B-side to the 45 rpm Arrows single "Broken Down Heart". The song "I Love Rock 'N Roll" was composed by Alan Merrill but with a co-writer credit going to Arrows bandmate