MICHAEL VINER'S INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND
''"BONGO ROCK"''
1973
33:48
**********
01 - Apache 04:53 (Jerry Lordan)
02 - Let There Be Drum 02:41 (Richard Podolor, Sandy Nelson)
03 - Bongolia 02:15 (Perry Botkin Jr.)
04 - Last Bongo In Belgium 06:55 (Michael Viner, Perry Botkin Jr.)
05 - Dueling Bongos 02:58 (Michael Viner, Perry Botkin Jr.)
06 - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida 07:43 (Doug Ingle)
07 - Raunchy '73 03:24 (Bill Justis, Sid Manker)
08 - Bongo Rock 02:39 (Arthur Egnoian, Preston Epps)
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Drums – Jim Gordon
Horn – Steve Douglas
Keyboards – Michael Omartian
Percussion – King Errisson
**********
REVIEW/AMG
Jeff Tamarkin
There's a fun story behind this album, retold in detail in the liner notes. In 1972, Michael Viner was an executive at MGM Records. Asked to put together some music for the soundtrack of an upcoming B-movie horror film, The Thing with Two Heads, he called on songwriter Perry Botkin, Jr., and the two of them whipped up a pair of songs called "Bongo Rock" and "Bongolia." By the middle of 1973, the songs, attributed to the Incredible Bongo Band, began to take off, both in Canada and on the U.S. R&B and pop charts, so Viner and Botkin took the concept to the next obvious level and cut an album, also titled Bongo Rock. Successful enough to scrape into the bottom of the Billboard album chart, the pair put together The Return of the Incredible Bongo Band in 1974 before fizzling out. There are some other pertinent details worth knowing, for example, that Jim Gordon, of Derek & the Dominos fame, was one of the key drummers on the project, and that Ringo Starr supposedly stopped in to bang out a few beats. But some of the best stuff happened long after the demise of the IBB, when early hip-hop DJs such as Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash, and then the Sugarhill Gang, Massive Attack and others, discovered the Incredible Bongo Band's recordings and began using samples from them. What started as a tossed-off filler session for a crummy flick took on a life of its own. This CD reissue contains not all, but most of the tracks from the two original albums, plus two remixes, "Apache (Grand Master Flash Remix)" and "Last Bongo in Belgium (Breakers Mix)." Interesting as it is to hear how the bongo-centric beats were toyed with by the hip-hoppers, the original recordings stand up on their own as classically kitschy cheese-rock. Bongos aren't the only sound heard, naturally, and fans of both lounge-rock and that crisp, reverby guitar sound prominent in old spy movies and Ventures records will dig what the IBB were all about. Their version of "Apache," the classic '60s instrumental made famous by the Shadows, is the equal of any other, and while that can't be said of their takes on "Satisfaction," "Raunchy," "Wipeout" or even "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," these studio musicians -- most of whom the creators of the IBB don't recall but which may or may not have included some heavyweights -- sure had a good time stepping out on their nights off.
**********
ABOUT INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND/WIKIPEDIA
The Incredible Bongo Band, also known as Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, was a project started in 1972 by Michael Viner, a record artist manager and executive at MGM Records. Viner was called on to supplement the soundtrack to the B-film The Thing With Two Heads. The band's output consisted of upbeat, funky, instrumental music. Many tracks were covers of popular songs of the day characterized by the prominence of bongo drums, conga drums, rock drums and brass.
History
The band released two albums, 1973's Bongo Rock and 1974's Return of the Incredible Bongo Band. The instrumental "Bongo Rock", co-written by Art Laboe and Preston Epps and released by Epps as a Top 40 hit in 1959, was covered by the Incredible Bongo Band (shown as "Bongo Rock '73" on the album), and became a minor US hit for them in 1973, and a substantial hit in Canada (#20).
Michael Viner would make use of MGM recording facilities in down-time, recruiting whichever studio musicians were on-hand. This apparently included many well-known blow-ins, all uncredited. Important contributions were made by Jim Gordon on drums and King Errisson on bongos. Ringo Starr is rumoured to have played on some tracks. The "down-time" sessions carried on for some time, until upper management finally quelled the vanity project.
Other musicians involved in the sessions, per Sample This, the movie include:
Mike Melvoin - keyboards
Joe Sample - piano
Robbie King - organ
Mike Deasy - guitar
Dean Parks - guitar
David T. Walker - guitar
Bobbye Hall - percussion
Ed Greene - drums
Kat Hendrikse - drums
Wilton Felder - bass
Jerry Scheff - bass
Steve Douglas - saxophone
This was never an actual band. When product was finally released, a fake band was assembled and photographed. Those photos were seen on some album artwork, and in publicity.
The first Incredible Bongo Band album included a cover of "Apache", an instrumental tune written by Jerry Lordan and originally made popular in the UK by The Shadows, and in North America by Jørgen Ingmann. The group's version of "Apache" (produced by Perry Botkin Jr.) was not a hit upon release, and languished in relative obscurity until the late 1970s, when it was adopted by early hip-hop artists, including pioneering deejays Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, for the uncommonly long percussion break in the middle of the song. Subsequently, many of the Incredible Bongo Band's other releases were sampled by hip-hop producers, and the "Apache" break also remains a staple of many producers in drum and bass. The song received popular attention again in 2001 when it was featured in an ad for an Acura SUV. In 2008, music critic Will Hermes did an article on "Apache" and the Incredible Bongo Band for the New York Times.
As well, the band's cover of "Let There Be Drums," which was made famous by Sandy Nelson and also performed by the Ventures, was used as the theme song for the long-running television show "Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling" during the 1980s. It made #66 in Canada in December 1973.
"Last Bongo in Belgium" has been sampled in the songs "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" performed by the Beastie Boys, "Angel" performed by Massive Attack and "Song of Life" performed by Leftfield.
"Let There Be Drums" was used in Ken Burns' Baseball: The 10th Inning, the follow-up to Burns' '94 PBS documentary.
"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was used as the main loop in the song Hip Hop Is Dead performed by Nas.
The 2013 documentary Sample This, directed by Dan Forrer and narrated by Gene Simmons, recounts the story of the Incredible Bongo Band and its recording of "Apache".
Covers
A group formed by musician Shawn Lee with the parallel name "Shawn Lee's Incredible Tabla Band" released a cover album with Ubiquity Records in 2011; Tabla Rock, based on the album Bongo Rock. Lee took on the entire Bongo Band debut album, and also two tracks from their second album. Lee's album covers the music on tabla instead of bongo, presenting it in an Indian-funk style.
Bongo Rock was also featured in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
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''"BONGO ROCK"''
1973
33:48
**********
01 - Apache 04:53 (Jerry Lordan)
02 - Let There Be Drum 02:41 (Richard Podolor, Sandy Nelson)
03 - Bongolia 02:15 (Perry Botkin Jr.)
04 - Last Bongo In Belgium 06:55 (Michael Viner, Perry Botkin Jr.)
05 - Dueling Bongos 02:58 (Michael Viner, Perry Botkin Jr.)
06 - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida 07:43 (Doug Ingle)
07 - Raunchy '73 03:24 (Bill Justis, Sid Manker)
08 - Bongo Rock 02:39 (Arthur Egnoian, Preston Epps)
**********
Drums – Jim Gordon
Horn – Steve Douglas
Keyboards – Michael Omartian
Percussion – King Errisson
**********
REVIEW/AMG
Jeff Tamarkin
There's a fun story behind this album, retold in detail in the liner notes. In 1972, Michael Viner was an executive at MGM Records. Asked to put together some music for the soundtrack of an upcoming B-movie horror film, The Thing with Two Heads, he called on songwriter Perry Botkin, Jr., and the two of them whipped up a pair of songs called "Bongo Rock" and "Bongolia." By the middle of 1973, the songs, attributed to the Incredible Bongo Band, began to take off, both in Canada and on the U.S. R&B and pop charts, so Viner and Botkin took the concept to the next obvious level and cut an album, also titled Bongo Rock. Successful enough to scrape into the bottom of the Billboard album chart, the pair put together The Return of the Incredible Bongo Band in 1974 before fizzling out. There are some other pertinent details worth knowing, for example, that Jim Gordon, of Derek & the Dominos fame, was one of the key drummers on the project, and that Ringo Starr supposedly stopped in to bang out a few beats. But some of the best stuff happened long after the demise of the IBB, when early hip-hop DJs such as Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash, and then the Sugarhill Gang, Massive Attack and others, discovered the Incredible Bongo Band's recordings and began using samples from them. What started as a tossed-off filler session for a crummy flick took on a life of its own. This CD reissue contains not all, but most of the tracks from the two original albums, plus two remixes, "Apache (Grand Master Flash Remix)" and "Last Bongo in Belgium (Breakers Mix)." Interesting as it is to hear how the bongo-centric beats were toyed with by the hip-hoppers, the original recordings stand up on their own as classically kitschy cheese-rock. Bongos aren't the only sound heard, naturally, and fans of both lounge-rock and that crisp, reverby guitar sound prominent in old spy movies and Ventures records will dig what the IBB were all about. Their version of "Apache," the classic '60s instrumental made famous by the Shadows, is the equal of any other, and while that can't be said of their takes on "Satisfaction," "Raunchy," "Wipeout" or even "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," these studio musicians -- most of whom the creators of the IBB don't recall but which may or may not have included some heavyweights -- sure had a good time stepping out on their nights off.
**********
ABOUT INCREDIBLE BONGO BAND/WIKIPEDIA
The Incredible Bongo Band, also known as Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band, was a project started in 1972 by Michael Viner, a record artist manager and executive at MGM Records. Viner was called on to supplement the soundtrack to the B-film The Thing With Two Heads. The band's output consisted of upbeat, funky, instrumental music. Many tracks were covers of popular songs of the day characterized by the prominence of bongo drums, conga drums, rock drums and brass.
History
The band released two albums, 1973's Bongo Rock and 1974's Return of the Incredible Bongo Band. The instrumental "Bongo Rock", co-written by Art Laboe and Preston Epps and released by Epps as a Top 40 hit in 1959, was covered by the Incredible Bongo Band (shown as "Bongo Rock '73" on the album), and became a minor US hit for them in 1973, and a substantial hit in Canada (#20).
Michael Viner would make use of MGM recording facilities in down-time, recruiting whichever studio musicians were on-hand. This apparently included many well-known blow-ins, all uncredited. Important contributions were made by Jim Gordon on drums and King Errisson on bongos. Ringo Starr is rumoured to have played on some tracks. The "down-time" sessions carried on for some time, until upper management finally quelled the vanity project.
Other musicians involved in the sessions, per Sample This, the movie include:
Mike Melvoin - keyboards
Joe Sample - piano
Robbie King - organ
Mike Deasy - guitar
Dean Parks - guitar
David T. Walker - guitar
Bobbye Hall - percussion
Ed Greene - drums
Kat Hendrikse - drums
Wilton Felder - bass
Jerry Scheff - bass
Steve Douglas - saxophone
This was never an actual band. When product was finally released, a fake band was assembled and photographed. Those photos were seen on some album artwork, and in publicity.
The first Incredible Bongo Band album included a cover of "Apache", an instrumental tune written by Jerry Lordan and originally made popular in the UK by The Shadows, and in North America by Jørgen Ingmann. The group's version of "Apache" (produced by Perry Botkin Jr.) was not a hit upon release, and languished in relative obscurity until the late 1970s, when it was adopted by early hip-hop artists, including pioneering deejays Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, for the uncommonly long percussion break in the middle of the song. Subsequently, many of the Incredible Bongo Band's other releases were sampled by hip-hop producers, and the "Apache" break also remains a staple of many producers in drum and bass. The song received popular attention again in 2001 when it was featured in an ad for an Acura SUV. In 2008, music critic Will Hermes did an article on "Apache" and the Incredible Bongo Band for the New York Times.
As well, the band's cover of "Let There Be Drums," which was made famous by Sandy Nelson and also performed by the Ventures, was used as the theme song for the long-running television show "Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling" during the 1980s. It made #66 in Canada in December 1973.
"Last Bongo in Belgium" has been sampled in the songs "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" performed by the Beastie Boys, "Angel" performed by Massive Attack and "Song of Life" performed by Leftfield.
"Let There Be Drums" was used in Ken Burns' Baseball: The 10th Inning, the follow-up to Burns' '94 PBS documentary.
"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was used as the main loop in the song Hip Hop Is Dead performed by Nas.
The 2013 documentary Sample This, directed by Dan Forrer and narrated by Gene Simmons, recounts the story of the Incredible Bongo Band and its recording of "Apache".
Covers
A group formed by musician Shawn Lee with the parallel name "Shawn Lee's Incredible Tabla Band" released a cover album with Ubiquity Records in 2011; Tabla Rock, based on the album Bongo Rock. Lee took on the entire Bongo Band debut album, and also two tracks from their second album. Lee's album covers the music on tabla instead of bongo, presenting it in an Indian-funk style.
Bongo Rock was also featured in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
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