The Incredible Bongo Band ~ Bongo Rock 1972 Extended Meow Mix

I have been digging through the vaults here looking for something to catch my eye and the Incredible Bongo Band single of 1972 named "Bongo Rock" did the trick. I have this old K-Tel album I got when I was 12 in 1972.

The clarity of the instrumentation is essential to this wonderful dance update of the original Preston Epps penned and released as a single in 1959 and got to #14 on the R&B charts.

Fast forward to 1972 when producer Michael Viner was putting together a soundtrack for the film "The Thing With Two Heads". It was the film that Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark parodied as "The Head With Two Things". It's a cheap laugh, but what can I say. I will take whatever comes my way.

Michael was born February 27, 1944 in Washington, DC and attended grade school in sunny Palos Verdes, California. Viner was already working in the mailroom of 20th Century Fox summers while in high school and gave him an in to the entertainment industry. He was accepted to Harvard and studied Foreign Service. He supported and worked on Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign which was horrendously cut short June 6, 1968 when RFK was assassinated.

He turned his attentions to the movie business and was given his own label to manage from MGM Records called "Pride". In 1970 he produced a gag album named "The Best Of Marcel Marceao". Each side of vinyl had 19 minutes of silence ending with one minute of polite applause. The name on the album was a mangling of the name of French mime Marcel Marceau who NEVER spoke or made noise doing his bits. You had to be there to know what happened.

Any way, he worked with producer legend Mike Curb and then put together a studio band for his first LP "Incredible Bongo Band" in 1972 and had great success with the first single off the album "Apache" which was a cover of the 1961 original by "Jorgen Ingmann & His Guitar" that had peaked at #2. The single has had a much longer life than that, the breakbeats in "Apache" have been co-opted into Hip Hop.

However, the cover of "Bongo Rock" did not fare as well peaking at #73 in 1972. In any case, I thought you should know about this one. There was a K-Tel album called "Fantastic" 22 hits like Stories-Brother Louie, Elton John- Crocodile Rock, and this song was sandwiched in between Vicki Lawrence-The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" and followed by Barry White-I'm Gonna Love You A Little Bit More Baby". Ah, those were wonderful days. The single sounded a little abrupt so I padded it out a bit and found some fun loops and threw those in there. It is just such a whimsical anomaly of a song and I really love it.

PS If you need a good laugh, check out Lancelot Link Secret Chimp ... here is the link https://youtu.be/D3ctZI9_oyo I almost peed myself with the crazy ass idea of anthropomorphized chimpanzees replete with make up, wigs, facial hair and amazing costumes. It is beyond side splitting and the voice over actors are just over the top, it's fascinating and hilarious more now. As a kid, I did not realize the complete comic insanity of the Lancelot Link concept at the time, but since I rolled around the basement floor, I have a new appreciation for this kind of crazy.