Songfacts®:

• In this song, The Mills Brothers are hot for an exotic beauty from the Congo - they've got a bad case of Jungle Fever. It's a jazz/swing tune with four-part harmonies from the group, four brothers from Ohio who were one of the most popular Black singing groups of the 1930s and 1940s.
• Released in 1935, this is the first song called "Jungle Fever" that we know of. In the '50s and '60s, white artists like Charlie Feathers, The Tornados and Dick Dale purloined the title, sometimes using it do describe the rhythms in the songs. In 1972 the first (and only) hit song called "Jungle Fever" was released, and it's a strange one. Created by six white guys from Belgium, it was credited to The Chakachas, a group that didn't exist outside the studio. They had a New York group called Bario present themselves as The Chakachas and promote the song in America, where it went to #8. The only vocals on the song are suggestive moaning that's heard throughout.
• The song was written by Walter Donaldson and Howard Dietz, two of the top songwriters of the era. Donaldson also wrote "Makin' Whoopie" and "My Blue Heaven"; Dietz' compositions include "You And The Night And The Music" and "That's Entertainment."