Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Chakachas - Jungle Fever


I'm still feeling a little funky over here so In the great tradition of Chaino i give you The Chakachas & Jungle Fever...

The Chakachas were a Belgian based group of Latin soul studio musicians. Also known as 'Les Chakachas' or 'Los Chakachas', they were formed by band leader Gaston Bogaert, ex-Los Juano Boengs and The Continentals, percussion (conga and tumba); Tito Puente's singer wife Kari Kenton, vocals and maracas; Vic Ingeveldt (a Dutchman from Liege), saxophone; Charlie Lots, trumpet; Christian Marc, piano; Henri Breyre, guitar and backing vocals; and Bill Raymond, bass guitar. All were native to Schaarbeek (a district of Brussels), or nearby Charleroi, Willebroek and Liege.

They started out in the late 1950s, and had a Belgian #1 in 1958 with "Eso es el amor", which was sung in Spanish. In 1959 they recorded "Rebecca" (a.k.a. "Rebekka") which featured in the film The Battle of Algiers. In 1962, they crept into the UK Singles Chart for the first time with "Twist Twist", which reached #48. Although they issued numerous recordings, they are best remembered as a one-hit wonder for their hit disco single "Jungle Fever" from 1972, which sold over one million copies in the United States, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in March 1972. It also reached #8 in the US Billboard Hot 100. In the UK it fared less well: despite some airplay soon after release it was later banned by the BBC, which took exception to the song's moaning and heavy breathing. It peaked at #29.

The Chakachas - Jungle Fever

2 comments:

Brian Marshall said...

You didn't let the song finish! Just because the song fades a bit doesn't mean it's finished. There's one more blast of the riff at the very end of the record. The song runs 4:22 minutes and your MP3 cuts off at 3:48.

Great record, though. I remember when this was a hit. I had a copy myself and played it to death. Very sexual record as well especially with all that heavy breathing.

Devil Dick said...

man u are so correct. I didn't realize i did that until you said something. Going to fix that right now!!!