Born in Natick, Massachusetts, singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jonathan Richman began playing music and writing his own songs in the mid-60s. While in Boston, Richman formed the Modern Lovers, a proto-punk garage rock band. The album Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers was released in May 1976, three months before the earlier The Modern Lovers sessions were finally released known as their eponymous self-titled debut studio album.