On this day, May 22, 1970, Mungo Jerry released "In The Summertime." [View all]

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Mungo Jerry


The band performing in 2013

Background information
Also known as: Mungo Jerry Blues Band
Origin: Ashford, Middlesex, England
Website: mungojerry.com

Mungo Jerry (formerly known as Mungo Jerry Blues Band) are a British rock band, formed by Ray Dorset in Ashford, Middlesex, in 1970. Experiencing their greatest success in the early 1970s, with a changing line-up always fronted by Dorset, the group's biggest hit was "In the Summertime". They had nine charting singles in the UK, including two number ones, five top-20 hits in South Africa, and four in the Top 100 in Canada.

History

Formation and original band: 1970–1971

Mungo Jerry came to prominence in 1970 after their performances at the Hollywood Music Festival at Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, on 23–24 May, which was their first gig under this name, inspired by the poem "Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer" from T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. They performed alongside Black Sabbath, Traffic, Ginger Baker's Air Force, the Grateful Dead (their first performance in the UK) and José Feliciano. Their 23 May show was well received and the organisers asked them to perform again on the following day. The band's first single, "In the Summertime", the first maxi single in the world,[7] released on 22 May, entered the UK charts at No. 13 and the following week went straight to No. 1. Ray Dorset had to ask his boss for time off to do the BBC Show Top of the Pops.


Performance at Kralingen Music Festival, 1970

Ray Dorset and Colin Earl had previously been members of The Good Earth. Bassist Dave Hutchins left to join Bobby Parker's band, and the drummer was dismissed, so Dorset and Earl decided to fulfil the one remaining gig, an Oxford University Christmas Ball in December 1968, as a three-piece with Joe Rush, one of Dorset's colleagues, on double bass. Also on the bill was Miller Anderson, making his debut as a singer and guitarist, and Mick Farren and the Social Deviants. Though booked for only one set, Good Earth were asked to perform another after the bands had finished, playing a selection of American folk/blues/skiffle/jug band music from Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie and others, and some of Dorset's songs.

The trio played more gigs and landed a regular slot at the Master Robert Motel in Osterley, Middlesex, where they soon built up a following, including banjo, guitar and blues harp player Paul King who eventually joined the band, making it a four-piece.

After Rush left, Mike Cole was recruited on double bass, and this line-up recorded the first seventeen Mungo Jerry tracks which made up the first album and maxi-single including "In the Summertime". When they made their national debut at the Hollywood Festival, Rush joined them on stage for some numbers to play washboard. The record topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks.

According to Joseph Murrell's The Book of Golden Discs (1978), "Mungomania" was possibly the most startling and unpredictable pop phenomenon to hit Britain since The Beatles.

Mungo Jerry made their first trip to the United States in September 1970. On their return Mike Cole was fired and replaced by John Godfrey, who played bass on their second UK maxi-single, "Baby Jump", which also topped the UK chart in March 1971. The third UK single, another maxi, "Lady Rose", also released in 1971, was set to become another No. 1 hit, but it was temporarily withdrawn from sale on the order of the Public Prosecutor's Office. This was due to complaints about the inclusion of the traditional song "Have a Whiff on Me" (to which Dorset had added some of his own lyrics) on the grounds that it advocated the use of cocaine. The maxi single was then reissued with "She Rowed" in place of the offending song.

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[7] "Mungo Jerry first to release Maxi-Single". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 7 August 2020.

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In the Summertime


Single by Mungo Jerry
from the album Electronically Tested
B-side: "Mighty Man"
Released: 1970
Studio: Pye, London
Genre: Skiffle
Length: 3:30
Label: Dawn
Songwriter(s): Ray Dorset
Producer(s): Barry Murray

"In the Summertime" is the debut single by British rock band Mungo Jerry, released in 1970. It reached number one in charts around the world, including seven weeks on the UK Singles Chart, two weeks on one of the Canadian charts, and number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US. It became one of the best-selling singles of all-time, eventually selling 30 million copies. Written and composed by the band's lead singer, Ray Dorset, while working in a lab for Timex, the lyrics of the song celebrate the carefree days of summer. The track was included on the second album by the band, Electronically Tested, issued in March 1971.

Composition and recording

Dorset has said that the song only took 10 minutes to write, which he did using a second-hand Fender Stratocaster, while he was taking time off from his regular job, working in a lab for Timex.

The song was recorded in Pye Studio 1 with Barry Murray producing. Initially it was only two minutes long; to make it longer, Murray played the recording twice, slightly remixing the second half, and put the sound of a motorcycle in the middle. In an interview with Gary James, Dorset explained that they couldn't find a recording of a motorcycle, but that "Howard Barrow, the engineer had an old, well, it wasn't old then, a Triumph sports car, which he drove past the studio while Barry Marrit was holding the microphone. So, he got the stereo effects from left to right or right to left, whatever. And that was it."

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Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime ORIGINAL 1970
150M views 13 years ago
This video clip was made in 1970, and is the original Mungo Jerry line up that recorded In The Summertime, this is not to be confused with the version that has been posted by AMIMEDIA.


Mungo Jerry
151K subscribers

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