Хэнк Мизелл: «Жungle Rock» жұлдызы

American singer

Hank Mizell (November 9, 1923 – December 23, 1992) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is best remembered for his rockabilly single "Jungle Rock" (1958), which was obscure on its original release but reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart in 1976. In the Netherlands, it made it to number 1.

Born William M. Mizell in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States, Mizell moved to Asheville, North Carolina with his adoptive parents. Mizell and Bobo continued playing live until 1962, when they split up. By this time, Mizell was married to Rosemary, with four children (including David Alan, John Mark and William Jr.), and he finally gave up music and became a preacher for the Church of Christ. In 1971, a Dutch bootleg compilation album, Rock 'n' Roll, Vol. 1, reissued "Jungle Rock," erroneously credited to Jim Bobo. The song came to the attention of Charly Records in the UK, who had scored hits with re issued songs by American performers like The Shangri Las. Charly then re released "Jungle Rock" in March 1976, and Number 1 in the Dutch charts. Mizell was 52 years old when he finally made it into pop's history books. When the record was played on BBC TV's flagship pop music show Top of the Pops in April 1976, host Tony Blackburn announced they could not find Mizell, and so the dance group Pan's People dressed in khaki blouses, shorts and pith helmets, danced along to the record with several extras in animal costumes representing the animals mentioned in the song (e. g., "a chimp and a monkey doing the Suzy Q"). Later, Mizell was tracked down in Tennessee, and persuaded to come over to the United Kingdom. Mizell made another recording of the song. This was eventually re released in 1999 on the German Repertoire label on CD (REP 4778 WG), with three bonus tracks.