Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)

Album: Angel in the Wings (1947)
Charted: 1
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The songwriters Bob Hilliard and Carl Sigman wrote this for a special musical show at the legendary New York nightspot The Copacabana. When The Copa turned down the song, Hilliard and Sigman used it in a Broadway stage revue called Angel in the Wings, which ran for 308 performances at the Coronet Theater from 1947-48. In the show, it was performed by Elaine Stritch. Louis Prima had a Top 10 hit with the song, but it was the comic actor Danny Kaye, with the Andrews Sisters, who took it to the top of the charts with a winning call and-response rendition.
  • In The Carl Sigman Songbook, Sigman's son Michael calls this song, "a humorous satire of modern society. Telling what today we'd call the politically incorrect tale of the happy native who doesn't want anything to do with the 'advantages' of modern life, its famous refrain goes, 'Bongo, bongo, bongo I don't want to leave the congo/Oh no no no no no/Bingle, bangle, bungle I'm so happy in the jungle/I refuse to go.'"

Comments: 2

  • Patricia W. Gray from Orrington, MaineI would dearly love to have the chords to this song.
  • Sam from Seattle, WaThis song appears in the video game Fallout 3. It is played on the radio station Galaxy News Radio periodically
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Cheerleaders In Music Videos

Cheerleaders In Music VideosSong Writing

It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.

Shaun Morgan of Seether

Shaun Morgan of SeetherSongwriter Interviews

Shaun breaks down the Seether songs, including the one about his brother, the one about Ozzy, and the one that may or may not be about his ex-girlfriend Amy Lee.

Real or Spinal Tap

Real or Spinal TapMusic Quiz

They sang about pink torpedoes and rocking you tonight tonight, but some real lyrics are just as ridiculous. See if you can tell which lyrics are real and which are Spinal Tap in this lyrics quiz.

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

Ian Anderson of Jethro TullSongwriter Interviews

The flautist frontman talks about touring with Led Zeppelin, his contribution to "Hotel California", and how he may have done the first MTV Unplugged.

Stan Ridgway

Stan RidgwaySongwriter Interviews

Go beyond the Wall of Voodoo with this cinematic songwriter.

Dar Williams

Dar WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

A popular contemporary folk singer, Williams still remembers the sticky note that changed her life in college.