Incredible Bongo Band - Bongo Rock
If you’re a regular radio listener, there’s a chance you might have heard a track on this 1973 album.
However, I’m certain you’ve heard Apache, the instrumental track released by The Shadows which reached number one in the charts in July 1960. Aided by an echo chamber, the sound was fairly revolutionary for the time.
It was in 1973 when Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band did a version that it was to be used as extensively in hip hop as it was. The sessions were brought about by Viner, an executive and artist manager at MGM Records.
When “The Thing With Two Heads” was being made by MGM a chase scene was required, along with music for the sequence. Soundtracks being Viner’s remit, he and a friend (Perry Botkin, Jr.) went into a studio to record the track. The then invented Bongo Band was a “lark” according to the pair, but the music took on a life of its own. The tracks Bongo Rock and Bongolia were released on a 7″ and to everyone’s surprise went on to sell over 2 million copies.
With the success of the singles an album was recorded in Canada, in less than a week. Viner chose the material, and said of Apache;
“I just liked it and felt that it could have been a little more rhythmatic than it was, and thought it could have used more percussion.”
The album contains a mix of original compositions, such as Bongolia, and cover versions, including (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones.
The bands version of Apache is used by many radio DJ’s as instrumental music which runs under them talking for a length of time between records. I think I first heard the Incredible Bongo Band’s version being used by John Foster on BBC Radio Cleveland, and I recall Clare Grogan using it on BBC 6 Music. Indeed, last night I heard the Grand Master Flash Remix being used on the radio.
Apache has been sampled many times since 1973 by hip-hop artists, and I’m sure I heard a new release just a few weeks ago which utilises part of the now famous release.
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