Mungo Jerry | |
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Background information | |
Also known as | Mungo Jerry Blues Band |
Origin | Ashford, Middlesex, England |
Genres | |
Years active | 1970–present |
Labels | |
Members | Ray Dorset |
Past members | Colin Earl Paul King Mike Cole John Godfrey Joe Rush Michael Pohl Bob Daisley Byron Contostavlos Paul Raymond Boris Williams Dave Bidwell Dick Middleton Eric Dillon Ian Milne Paul Hancox Sev Lewkowicz Jamei Roberts Tim Green Chris Warnes Jon Pope Peter Sullivan Tim Hubbard John Cook Jon Storey John Brunning |
Website | mungojerry |
Mungo Jerry (formerly known as Mungo Jerry Blues Band) are a British rock band formed by Ray Dorset in Ashford, Middlesex, in 1970. Experiencing their greatest success in the early 1970s, with a changing line-up always fronted by Dorset, the group's biggest hit was "In the Summertime", which sold 30 million copies worldwide and is the biggest-selling single of all-time by a British band. [1] [2] They had nine charting singles in the UK, including two number ones, five top-20 hits in South Africa, [3] [4] and four in the Top 100 in Canada. [5]
Mungo Jerry came to prominence in 1970 after their performances at the Hollywood Music Festival at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, on 23–24 May, which was their first gig under this name, [6] inspired by the poem "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" from T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats . [1] They performed alongside Black Sabbath, Traffic, Ginger Baker's Air Force, the Grateful Dead (their first performance in the UK) and José Feliciano. Their 23 May show was well received and the organisers asked them to perform again on the following day. The band's first single, "In the Summertime", the first maxi single in the world, [7] released on 22 May, entered the UK charts at No. 13 and the following week went straight to No. 1. Ray Dorset had to ask his boss for time off to do the BBC Show Top of the Pops .
Ray Dorset and Colin Earl had previously been members of The Good Earth. [8] Bassist Dave Hutchins left to join Bobby Parker's band, and the drummer was dismissed, so Dorset and Earl decided to fulfil the one remaining gig, an Oxford University Christmas Ball in December 1968, as a three-piece with Joe Rush, one of Dorset's colleagues, on double bass. Also on the bill was Miller Anderson, making his debut as a singer and guitarist, and Mick Farren and the Social Deviants. Though booked for only one set, Good Earth were asked to perform another after the bands had finished, playing a selection of American folk/blues/skiffle/jug band music from Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie and others, and some of Dorset's songs.
The trio played more gigs and landed a regular slot at the Master Robert Motel in Osterley, Middlesex, where they soon built up a following, including banjo, guitar and blues harp player Paul King who eventually joined the band, making it a four-piece.
After Rush left, Mike Cole was recruited on double bass, and this line-up recorded the first seventeen Mungo Jerry tracks which made up the first album and maxi-single including "In the Summertime". When they made their national debut at the Hollywood Festival, Rush joined them on stage for some numbers to play washboard. The record topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks.
According to Joseph Murrell's The Book of Golden Discs (1978), "Mungomania" was possibly the most startling and unpredictable pop phenomenon to hit Britain since The Beatles. [9]
Mungo Jerry made their first trip to the United States in September 1970. On their return Mike Cole was fired and replaced by John Godfrey, who played bass on their second UK maxi-single, "Baby Jump", which also topped the UK chart in March 1971. The third UK single, another maxi, "Lady Rose", also released in 1971, was set to become another No. 1 hit, but it was temporarily withdrawn from sale on the order of the Public Prosecutor's Office. This was due to complaints about the inclusion of the traditional song "Have a Whiff on Me" (to which Dorset had added some of his own lyrics) on the grounds that it advocated the use of cocaine.[ citation needed ] The maxi single was then reissued with "She Rowed" in place of the offending song.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(July 2013) |
Eventually, Dorset found the group's good-time blues and jug band repertoire restricting, and in 1972 he released a solo album, Cold Blue Excursion , with his songs backed by strings and brass and, in one instance, a jazz band. His intention to broaden the group's appeal by recruiting a drummer led to King and Earl trying to sack him, but the management, regarding Dorset as inseparable in the public eye from Mungo Jerry, fired them both instead. Dorset and Godfrey, the bassist, recruited new members and presented a new sound, heard on the fourth album Boot Power. Colin Earl and Paul King went on to form The King Earl Boogie Band and recorded an album at Richard Branson's Manor Studio called Trouble at Mill, produced by Dave Cousins of Strawbs. Their June 1972 single "Plastic Jesus" was banned by the BBC. [10] [11] They played together on and off in the years following and ended up with a band called Skeleton Crew.
Mungo Jerry's hits continued through to 1976 with "Open Up" (Top Twenty in Europe); "Alright, Alright, Alright" (a rewrite of an old French hit for Jacques Dutronc, and again a major hit worldwide reaching the Top 3 in the UK); "Wild Love"; "Long-Legged Woman Dressed in Black", "Hello Nadine" (European hit and Top Five in Canada), and "It's a Secret" (European hit). "You Don't Have to Be in the Army to Fight in the War" gave Mungo Jerry another hit. [1]
In 1975, Earl returned to play keyboards, drummer Peter Sullivan joined and percussion player Joe Rush, part-time member of the band in earlier days, also came back for a while. The group's line-up continued to change. Among those who have played with them are bassist Bob Daisley, drummers Dave Bidwell, Paul Hancox and Boris Williams, guitarist Dick Middleton, keyboard player Sev Lewkowicz, and keyboard/accordion player Steve Jones. They have remained popular throughout Europe. Mungo Jerry were the first western band to have live television gigs in all countries behind the Iron Curtain.[ citation needed ]
In 1980, another Dorset song, "Feels Like I'm in Love", originally written for Elvis Presley, and recorded by the band as a B side of a single, became a British number one hit for Kelly Marie. They remained successful with overseas hits like "On a Night Like This", "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (a reggae version of the Bob Dylan song) and "Sunshine Reggae" (British version by Mungo Jerry & Horizon). [8]
In 1983, Dorset was part of the blues super-group Katmandu, which recorded A Case for the Blues, with guitarist Peter Green, formerly of Fleetwood Mac, and keyboard player Vincent Crane, formerly of Atomic Rooster and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
The Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1966. The band is led by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals. The group had a string of mid- to late-1970s hit singles that are staples of classic rock radio, as well as several earlier psychedelic rock albums. Miller left his first band to move to San Francisco and form the Steve Miller Blues Band. Shortly after Harvey Kornspan negotiated the band's contract with Capitol Records in 1967, the band shortened its name to the Steve Miller Band. In February 1968, the band recorded its debut album, Children of the Future. It went on to produce the albums Sailor, Brave New World, Your Saving Grace, Number 5, The Joker, Fly Like an Eagle, and Book of Dreams, among others. The band's album Greatest Hits 1974–78, released in 1978, has sold over 13 million copies. In 2016, Steve Miller was inducted as a solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
"Summertime Blues" is a song co-written and recorded by American rock artist Eddie Cochran. It was written by Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart. Originally a single B-side, it was released in August 1958 and peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 29, 1958, and number 18 on the UK Singles Chart. It has been covered by many artists, including being a number-one hit for country music artist Alan Jackson, and scoring notable hits in versions by Blue Cheer, the Who and Brian Setzer, the last of whom recorded his version for the 1987 film La Bamba, in which he portrayed Cochran.
Love Sculpture were a Welsh blues rock band that was active from 1966 to 1970, led by Dave Edmunds, with bassist John David and drummer Rob "Congo" Jones.
Raymond Edward Dorset is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, and founder of Mungo Jerry.
"In the Summertime" is the debut single by British rock band Mungo Jerry, released in 1970. It reached number one in charts around the world, including seven weeks on the UK Singles Chart, two weeks at number one on the Canadian charts, and number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US. It became one of the best-selling singles of all-time, and is the biggest-selling single of all-time by a British band, eventually selling 30 million copies. Written and composed by the band's lead singer, Ray Dorset, while working in a lab for Timex, the lyrics of the song celebrate the carefree days of summer. The track was included on the second album by the band, Electronically Tested, issued in March 1971.
Then and Now is a 2004 greatest hits compilation album by The Who released internationally by Polydor Records and by Geffen Records in the United States. It features 18 Who classics and two new tracks—"Real Good Looking Boy" and "Old Red Wine"—which were the first Who originals since "Dig" from Pete Townshend's 1989 album The Iron Man. "Real Good Looking Boy" is a tribute to Elvis Presley, and "Old Red Wine" is a tribute to former band member John Entwistle, who died in 2002. The album was re-released in 2007 and replaced "Old Red Wine" with "It's Not Enough" from the 2006 album Endless Wire and "Summertime Blues" was replaced by "Baba O'Riley".
Electronically Tested is the second album by the British rock band Mungo Jerry, released in March 1971.
Cold Blue Excursion was a solo album recorded by Ray Dorset, leader of Mungo Jerry. The majority of the group's songs at the time were good-time blues, skiffle and rock’n’roll, and these songs on the solo album, written by him during the previous seven years, were designed to show his versatility as a songwriter away from the confines of the basic Mungo sound. The two photos of Dorset inside the gatefold sleeve — one of him sitting in a woodland clearing playing an acoustic guitar, the other of him onstage delivering an impassioned vocal performance with an electric guitar around his neck — summed the album up as well as the quotes from Woody Guthrie printed inside along the track list —"A song was just a song to me...In my own mind, a song is just a song..."
Juicy Lucy was a British blues rock band officially formed on 1 October 1969. After the demise of The Misunderstood, Juicy Lucy was formed by US-born steel guitarist Glenn Ross Campbell, and prolific Blackburn saxophonist Chris Mercer. The group later recruited vocalist Ray Owen, guitarist Neil Hubbard, bassist Keith Ellis, and drummer Pete Dobson.
Roomful of Blues is an American jump blues and swing revival big band based in Rhode Island. With a recording career that spans over 50 years, they have toured worldwide and recorded many albums. Roomful of Blues, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, "Swagger, sway and swing with energy and precision". Since 1967, the group’s blend of swing, rock and roll, jump blues, boogie-woogie and soul has earned it five Grammy Award nominations and many other accolades, including seven Blues Music Awards. Billboard called the band "a tour de force of horn-fried blues…Roomful is so tight and so right." The Down Beat International Critics Poll has twice selected Roomful of Blues as Best Blues Band.
Paul Malcolm King, is an English musician who was a member of Mungo Jerry between 1970 and 1972. He contributed occasional lead vocals, and played acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonica, kazoo and jug. His songs on the first Mungo Jerry album and on the early maxi-singles were generally more folksy and lighter in style than those of group leader Ray Dorset, and he was frustrated when his own songs were constantly rejected for subsequent albums.
The Mixtures were an Australian rock band that formed in Melbourne in 1965.
"Long Legged Woman Dressed in Black" is a popular song and hit single by the British group Mungo Jerry, first released in 1974. It also became the title track of a compilation album by the group, released later in 1974.
A Case for the Blues is a blues album by Katmandu, a British band made up of successful musicians from differing musical backgrounds, including Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, Ray Dorset of Mungo Jerry and Vincent Crane of Atomic Rooster. Released in 1985, this was the only album by the band.
"Lady Rose" is a song by British group Mungo Jerry, released as a single in 1971.
"You Don't Have to Be in the Army to Fight in the War" is a popular song and hit single by the British group Mungo Jerry, first released in 1971.
Katmandu were a short-lived British blues band, formed in 1983, featuring Peter Green, Ray Dorset, Len Surtees and Vincent Crane. After releasing one album, the group split the following year.
"Alright, Alright, Alright" is a popular song and hit single by the British group Mungo Jerry, first released in 1973.
"Open Up" is a song and hit single by the British group Mungo Jerry, first released in 1972.
Mungo Jerry is the debut album by Mungo Jerry, released in 1970. The initial British release featured lettering on the front of the sleeve and a group photo inside which appeared to be three-dimensional when viewed through a pair of 3D red and green lenses included in the packaging. It reached No. 14 in the British charts that summer. Some foreign versions include the track "In the Summertime".
My dad and our manager [Byron Contostavlos] ... was in a band called Mungo Jerry, he played the bass.