The incredible Bongo Band - Apache (1973)

The incredible Bongo Band - Apache (1973) The Incredible Bongo Band, also known as Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band, was a project started in 1972 by Michael Viner, a record artist manager and executive at MGM Records. Viner was called on to supplement the soundtrack to the virtually anonymous B film The Thing With Two Heads. The “band’s“ output consisted of upbeat, funky, instrumental music. Many tracks were covers of popular songs of the day characterized by the prominence of bongo drums, conga drums, rock drums and brass. The first Incredible Bongo Band album included a cover of “Apache“, an instrumental tune written by Jerry Lordan and originally made popular in the UK by The Shadows, and in North America by Jørgen Ingmann. The group’s version of “Apache“ (produced by Perry Botkin Jr.) was not a hit upon release, and languished in relative obscurity until the late 1970s, when it was adopted by early hip-hop artists, including pioneering DJs Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, for the uncommonly long percussion break in the middle of the song. Subsequently, many of the Incredible Bongo Band’s other releases were sampled by hip-hop producers, and the “Apache“ break also remains a staple of many producers in drum and bass.