RC Succession are perhaps Japan's longest-running active band, although it has gone through many changes over the years. The origins of the group's name remain obscure, but according to some it is a mispronunciation of an in-joke among the band members. The group first started as a Tokyo-based folk trio in 1966 when leader Kiyoshiro Imawano was still in junior high school and playing in a Ventures copy band. The group is hard to classify, but in early years their sound was mostly R&B fashioned music played acoustically.