The Bongos

The Bongos are a power pop band from Hoboken, New Jersey, primarily active in the 1980s. With their unique musical style, they were major progenitors of the Hoboken pop scene, college radio favorites, and made the leap to national recognition with the advent of MTV. Their breakthrough song "Numbers With Wings" garnered the group a major cult following and was nominated at the first MTV Video Music Award presentations. The Bongos grew out of a band called, "a", which had included the three original Bongos and Glenn Morrow, who later formed The Individuals and helped found Bar/None Records. "a" was the first band to play Maxwell's, a rock and roll club in Hoboken.

The group was led by Richard Barone on vocals and guitar and included Rob Norris, formerly of The Zantees on bass and Frank Giannini on drums. James Mastro, later of The Health & Happiness Show, joined the band as a guitarist after the release of their first LP. The group played extensively in Hoboken and New York City and toured the U.K. and Europe before touring in the U.S. The Bongos emerged from Hoboken, and Manhattan's new wave and no wave venues such as Tier 3 and the Mudd Club, with a guitar-driven pop that belied a strong influence of the avant-garde. Well-reviewed shows at Hurrah, Danceteria, and later The Ritz established them as particularly effective live performers. What set them apart from other such groups of the era were their sudden guitar outbursts or saxophone improvisations that echoed the work of Lou Reed, Ornette Coleman, or Captain Beefheart within the context of a pure, melodic pop song. In addition, unlike many of their peers, the group explored unabashedly sensuous dance rhythms that made their recordings dance-floor favorites. 

While in London performing at The Rainbow Theatre, Dingwall's, and trendy Cabaret Futura, The Bongos recorded their early singles and their well-received debut EP 'Time and the River' for UK-based Fetish Records. Cover designs for their Fetish releases were created by acclaimed graphic artist Neville Brody. Their debut U.S. album, 'Drums Along The Hudson', compiled from the band's British singles, was released in 1982 to widely favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. While Trouser Press suggested that the group "may trade a certain amount of substance for easy appeal," it added that "there's no better musical equivalent of whipped cream anywhere." Writing in the Village Voice, Robert Christgau dryly commented that "for all their jumpy originality [the songs are] still slight, and Richard Barone's lyrics are so oblique you have to wonder what his angle is." In 2007 however, Jim DeRegotis wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times: "The initial impression of naivete is offset by deceptively simple lyrics that actually hint at deep, dark mysteries and unfathomed mystical enigmas." The group's cover of T. Rex's "Mambo Sun" reached No. 22 on the Billboard Dance Chart. A thriving Hoboken pop scene emerged, triggered by The Bongos and Maxwell's, which gained national media attention, and drew many bands and fans to the city. An August 1, 1982 article in the New York Times Real Estate section hinted at the scene's popularity as an influence on increasing rents and property values.

In 1983, the group was signed to RCA Records, which subsequently released the album, 'Numbers With Wings'. New York Times' critic Robert Palmer —himself a former Hoboken-based musician with The Insect Trust— marked this as the beginning of The Bongos' creative decline, lamenting the "slick, overproduced records which vitiated the raw vitality the group had originally displayed." Regardless, the album spawned a popular and inventive MTV video of the title song (nominated for 'Best Direction' on the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards, and the song itself remained at the number one spot on the College Music Journal (CMJ) chart for six consecutive weeks). The album also included the tribal, dance-floor hit "Barbarella." A hectic tour schedule of over 300 shows a year sustained support at radio and MTV. Their Brazilian-influenced follow-up album, 'Beat Hotel', along with relentless touring (now with a further-expanded lineup including percussionist Steve Scales from the Talking Heads), raised The Bongos' profile further and continued to increase their devoted cult following. It was in the midst of recording 'The Phantom Train' album in Compass Point, Bahamas for Island Records that the band split up in 1987, with each member pursuing solo interests. The album was to remain unfinished and unreleased until 2013. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]