Incredible Bongo Band

Formed by MGM A&R Michael Viner in 1972 to supplement the soundtrack to the virtually anonymous B film 'The Thing With Two Heads', the 'IBB' went from loose studio collective to an instrumental pop covers consortium, interpreting classics of the day in their own inimitable percussive fashion.

'Bongo Rock' or 'The Story Of The Incredible Bongo Band' features the two original Bongo Band albums in their entirety (`Bongo Rock` and `The Return of the Incredible Bongo Band`) "The Incredible Bongo Band`s cover of track `Apache` originally made famous by The Shadows, is simply legendary in the world of dance music. Not only arguably one of the most sampled tracks of all time and a staple for Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash as they invented the art of DJing at the Bronx block parties of the `70s, it has become an all-time hip hop and breakers anthem and is revered as the original break of all original breaks with the rhythms of this LP coining the term Breakbeat.

B-Movie soundtracks, The Beatles, drummers gone bad, Frank Zappa, Kool Herc... The album has a remarkable story behind it, detailed in Angus Batey's extensive sleeve notes.

Apache has been sampled by: Missy Elliot, Coldcut, Will Smith, Goldie, Jurassic 5, Moby, Run DMC, Sugarhill Gang, Beastie Boys and Massive Attack and many many more… A must in every record collection.

The track Bongolia features Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Traffic drummer Jim Gordon (pictured to the right on the drums) and is featured in the video below:




Above: The Shadows original version of Apache