Oft-Sampled 1973 Album on Vinyl LP!
"The Incredible Bongo Band was assembled from a variety of unknown session musicians to provide chase music for the 1972 MGM B-movie The Thing with Two Heads. Michael Viner, head of the short-lived MGM subsidiary label Pride, gathered the musicians together and recorded two tracks - 'Bongo Rock' and 'Bongolia.' MGM decided to release these tracks as a double-sided 45, which went on to sell more than one million copies. An LP was hurriedly recorded to follow up on its success.
"Once again, Viner rounded up the session players (whose names have been lost to time - Viner himself cannot recall the lineup), and they recorded the album over a few days in Canada with a variety of players, Viner included, dropping into the sessions.
"The album sold in reasonable quantities at the time, but has since grown to legendary status due to it's appropriation by subsequent generations. It was the drum breakdowns in the band's cover of The Shadows' hit 'Apache' that, when extended with the use of two vinyl copies by New York's DJ Kool Herc, heralded the birth of hip hop. And since then, the track has been sampled by hundred of artists (beginning with the Sugarhill Gang's track of the same name), as has the LP's title track 'Bongo Rock,' the result being that the album has become a cult classic and a collector's item.
"A followup, The Return of the Incredible Bongo Band, appeared in 1974 but failed to capture the energy or success of the debut, despite guest appearances from the likes of Ringo Starr." - Craig Reece, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
Features
- Vinyl LP
- Reflective Mirror Board Jacket
Selections
Side One:
- Let There Be Drums
- Apache
- Bongolia
- Last Bongo in Belgium
Side Two:
- Dueling Bongos
- In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
- Raunchy '73
- Bongo Rock '73
