Incredible Bongo Band

Unlikely godfathers of hip-hop, the Incredible Bongo Band was a revolving-door group of studio musicians led by bongo player Michael Viner (who by day worked as an executive at the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22MGM%22">MGM</a> label and ran its short-lived Pride subsidiary), <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22MGM%22">MGM</a> executive <a href="spotify:artist:3K03NMtKNyd0jemLuLYcLf">Mike Curb</a> and arranger Perry Botkin, Jr. Percussion was supplied by Bobby Hall, Jim Gordon, and King Erisson. Viner had worked on Bobby Kennedy's ill-fated presidential campaign before entering the music industry as a talent scout and A&R man in Los Angeles. By the early '70s, he was successful enough to start his pet side project, the Incredible Bongo Band, taking unused studio time to record percussion-heavy instrumentals and pop covers with African and Latin influences. He placed two songs on the soundtrack of the 1972 B-movie The Thing with Two Heads, released on Pride, and the following year issued the first Incredible Bongo Band full-length, Bongo Rock, which reportedly featured a guest spot by <a href="spotify:artist:6DbJi8AcN5ANdtvJcwBSw8">Ringo Starr</a>. Viner's funked-up version of the Arrows' "Apache 65" went on to become one of hip-hop's earliest breakbeat staples, as first-generation hip-hop DJs Kool Herc and <a href="spotify:artist:1JfnADNz5yYEq3hrzlZHLk">Grandmaster Flash</a> came to rely on its percussion breaks to get block parties moving. "Apache 65" went on to provide the basis for <a href="spotify:artist:7zliF6Q946WznVk3ZMYhZX">the Sugarhill Gang</a>'s hit of the same name, and stands as one of the most sampled tracks in hip-hop history. The single "Bongo Rock" charted in the lower reaches of both the pop and R&B lists, and eventually assumed a status similar to "Apache 65" in the hip-hop world (though with lesser magnitude). Viner assembled a follow-up album, The Return of the Incredible Bongo Band, in 1974, but the band came to a halt not long after; Viner was getting overly ambitious (a planned session with <a href="spotify:artist:5yxyJsFanEAuwSM5kOuZKc">the London Symphony Orchestra</a> fell through), and mainstay drummer Jim Gordon fell prey to severe mental difficulties, all of which spelled the end of the road. The British <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Strut%22">Strut</a> label later reissued both of the group's albums on a two-fer titled Bongo Rock: The Story of the Incredible Bongo Band. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi