"Jungle Boogie" is a
funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...
song recorded by
Kool & the Gang
Kool & the Gang is an American R&B/soul/funk band formed in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1964 by brothers Robert "Kool" Bell and Ronald Bell, with Dennis "Dee Tee" Thomas, Robert "Spike" Mickens, Charles Smith, George Brown, and Ricky West. T ...
for their 1973 album ''
Wild and Peaceful''.
It reached number four as a single, and became very popular in nightclubs.
''Billboard'' ranked it as the
number 12 song for 1974, despite there being as many as 36 No. 1 singles that year.
Background
The song's spoken main vocal was performed by the band's roadie Don Boyce. An instrumental version of the tune with an
overdub
Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more av ...
bed flute part and additional percussion instruments, titled "Jungle Jazz", appeared on the album ''
Spirit of the Boogie''. The song is noted for the
Tarzan yell
The Tarzan yell or Tarzan's jungle call is the distinctive, ululating yell of the character Tarzan as portrayed by actor Johnny Weissmuller in the films based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs starting with ''Tarzan the Ape Man'' ( ...
heard at the song's end and the grunting, panting and
scatting
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice as an instrument rather than a speaking medium. ...
heard throughout.
Track listing
De-Lite Records
De-Lite Records, whose formal name was De-Lite Recorded Sound Corporation, was a record label specializing in R&B music from 1969 to 1985; Island Records now manages the De-Lite catalog.
History
De-Lite Records was founded in 1967 by Fred Vigori ...
- DE-559:
Certifications
Chart performance
References
{{authority control
Kool & the Gang songs
1973 songs
Funk songs
Mercury Records singles
Songs written by Ronald Bell (musician)
Songs written by Claydes Charles Smith
Songs written by Robert "Kool" Bell
Songs about dancing
1973 debut singles
Screamin' Jay Hawkins songs