Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band

Bongo Rock
Genre:
Rock, Funk / Soul
Style:
Surf, Funk, Disco
Year:
1973
Tracklist
Let There Be Drums 2:38
Apache 4:54
Bongolia 2:14
Last Bongo In Belgium 6:55
Dueling Bongos 2:56
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida 7:42
Raunchy '73 3:23
Bongo Rock '73 2:35

The Return Of The Incredible Bongo Band

Genre:

Funk / Soul

Style:

Funk

Year:

1974

Tracklist

Kiburi 2:15

When The Bed Breaks Down, I'll Meet You In The Spring 2:29

Sing, Sing, Sing 4:09

Pipeline 3:45

Wipeout 4:25

Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley, Your Tie's Caught In Your Zipper 2:39

Topsy Part I

Topsy Part II

Topsy Part III 6:04

Sharp Nine 3:11

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 3:56

Got The Sun In The Morning And The Daughter At Night 1:56

Ohkey Dokey 2:45

HERE

The Incredible Bongo Band

Profile:

Highly influenced by the work of Paul Buff, Art Laboe and Preston Epps, The Incredible Bongo Band was a faux group (essentially just a studio project), formed by Pride record executive Michael Viner to create theme music for the film "The Thing With Two Heads". Following the success of the project, Viner then used MGM studio downtime to record funk-influenced covers of hits, using pick-up musicians. Although the "group" never existed as a true band, a team of individuals was assembled for a publicity photo. The group's best known work is probably their percussion-centric cover of "Apache", originally a worldwide hit in 1960 by The Shadows. It was later sampled heavily by hip hop artists (and, over a decade later, drum 'n' bass artists) to become one of the most popular sampled percussion breaks of all time. 

The Art Laboe and Preston Epps instrumental "Bongo Rock" was also covered by Viner's pick-up outfit as "Bongo Rock '73" (a minor US chart hit), along with a cover of "Let There Be Drums", much influenced by the "surf-style" treatments of Paul Buff's drum-oriented works.