Incredible Bongo Band | |
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Also known as | Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band |
Genres | Funk |
Years active | 1972–74 |
Labels |
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Past members | Michael Viner |
Website | Mr Bongo Records |
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, producer, MGM Records executive and Curb Records founder Mike Curb and arranger Perry Botkin, Jr. [1] [2] Viner was called on to supplement the soundtrack to the B-film The Thing With Two Heads . [3] 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.
Bongo Rock was featured in Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [4]
The band released two albums, 1973's Bongo Rock , and 1974's Return of the Incredible Bongo Band. [1] 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). [5]
Michael Viner would make use of MGM recording facilities in down-time, recruiting whichever studio musicians were on-hand. Important contributions were made by Jim Gordon on drums, [1] and Bobby Hall and King Erisson on percussion. [6] [7]
The first Incredible Bongo Band album included a cover of "Apache", an instrumental tune written by Jerry Lordan and originally made popular in the UK by the Shadows, and in the United States and Canada by Jørgen Ingmann. Their version took inspiration from The Arrows "Apache 65". [8] They recorded the song at Can-Base Studios in Vancouver to take advantage of Canadian content laws, which had helped promote their previous hit, "Bongo Rock." [9] 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 deejay Kool Herc, 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 wrote an article on "Apache" and the Incredible Bongo Band for the New York Times [10] and had an entire documentary devoted to it called Sample This: The Birth of Hip Hop. [11] In 2018, Apache was used as the soundtrack to a fight scene in Black Lightning .
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. [12]
"Last Bongo in Belgium" has been notably 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 two different songs by Nas: "Thief's Theme" and "Hip Hop Is Dead".
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". [13] [14] [15]
"Bongolia" a track from the Bongo Rock album, was used in Edgar Wright's 2017 film Baby Driver . [16]
A cover group was formed by musician Shawn Lee, with the parallel name "Shawn Lee's Incredible Tabla Band". They released a cover album with Ubiquity Records in 2011. The album was entitled Tabla Rock, based on the album Bongo Rock. On Tabla Rock, Lee covered the entire Bongo Band debut album, as well as two tracks from their second album. Lee's album covers the music on tabla instead of bongo, presenting it in an Indian-funk style. [17]
Year | Album | Chart positions | Record label | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [18] | US R&B [18] | |||||
1973 | Bongo Rock | 197 | 58 | Pride Records | ||
1974 | The Return of the Incredible Bongo Band | — | — | |||
"—" denotes the album failed to chart |
Year | Single | Peak chart positions | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
US Pop [18] | US R&B [18] | US Adult [19] | CAN | ||
1973 | "Bongo Rock '73" | 57 | 42 | 35 | 20 [20] |
"Let There Be Drums" | ― | 90 | ― | 66 [21] | |
1974 | "Kiburi" | ― | 96 | ― | ― |
"Ohkey Dokey" | ― | ― | ― | 44 [22] | |
"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" / "Apache" | ― | ― | ― | ― | |
"—" denotes singles that did not chart. |
Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes instrumental performance and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental music in rock can be found in practically every subgenre of the style. Instrumental rock was most popular from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, with artists such as Bill Doggett Combo, The Fireballs, The Shadows, The Ventures, Johnny and the Hurricanes and The Spotnicks. Surf music had many instrumental songs. Many instrumental hits had roots from the R&B genre. The Allman Brothers Band feature several instrumentals. Jeff Beck also recorded two instrumental albums in the 1970s. Progressive rock and art rock performers of the late 1960s and early 1970s did many virtuosic instrumental performances.
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Perry Botkin Jr. was an American composer, producer, arranger, and musician. The tune "Nadia's Theme", composed by Botkin and Barry De Vorzon, peaked at No. 6 in Canada and No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976 and became the theme song for the long-running television soap opera The Young and the Restless. He was also a major contributor to Incredible Bongo Band, one of the most influential groups of all-time for its Bongo Rock album which is one of the most sampled from records, making it a major influence in the origins of Hip hop.
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"Bongo Rock" is a rock and roll instrumental written and recorded by Preston Epps. Released as a single in 1959, it charted #14 Pop in the United States and #4 in Canada. In 1973 the Incredible Bongo Band recorded a cover version of "Bongo Rock" under the title "Bongo Rock '73" which became a minor hit. The Incredible Bongo Band version of the tune gained significant popularity in early hip hop circles as a breakbeat. Pioneering DJ Kool Herc used it frequently in his sets. It was issued in the Ultimate Breaks and Beats compilation series and has been extensively sampled by pop and hip hop producers.
Bongo Rock is the debut studio album by Incredible Bongo Band, released in 1973. It peaked at number 197 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart. It includes the band's version of the Jerry Lordan-written song "Apache".