The term "Short Shorts" was the description two teenage boys had given to the cutoff jeans the teenage girls were wearing during the summer of 1957. The two teenage boys that came up with that term were Bob Gaudio of The Royal Teens, Four Seasons and Jersey Boys fame and Tom Austin, Royal Teens' drummer and co-writer of the song "Short Shorts."

On that musically fateful afternoon, Gaudio and Austin were driving up Washington Avenue in Bergenifield, New Jersey in Tom Austin's red and white 1957 Ford Fairlane 500, trying to figure out what to call the latest song they had written for their Rock and Roll band known as The Royal Teens. Just then, two girls came strutting out of Luhmann's (the local teenage sweet shop) wearing cutoff jeans that were cut so short they were almost illegal. Gaudio and Austin both looked at each other and instantly knew that their new song would forever be called "SHORT SHORTS."