About The Incredible Bongo Band
Highly influenced by the work of [[artist:Paul Buff]], [[artist:Art Laboe]] and [[artist:Preston Epps]], The Incredible Bongo Band was a faux group (essentially just a studio project), formed by [[label:38969]] record executive [[artist:276428]] 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"](http://www.discogs.com/Michael-Viners-Incredible-Bongo-Band-Apache/master/263520), originally a worldwide hit in 1960 by [[artist: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 [[artist:Art Laboe]] and [[artist: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 [[artist:Paul Buff]]'s drum-oriented works.
By decade
1970s1 work
Released on
9 copies across 4 records
4 copies 
3 copies 
1 copy