The Peculiar Truth about the Banned Erotic Song

• Early 1972: Phone calls and letters poured into the BBC from irate radio listeners. A recording by unknown musical artists had played on Radio 1 and 2 and drew the ire of respectable citizens. The song was so highly suggestive in its overt eroticism that people flooded the BBC with complaints. When asked what they found objectionable, however, the answer could not be something contained in the lyrics.

• That’s because there were no lyrics. The tune was almost exclusively instrumental. The few words spoken were in Spanish but mostly unintelligible (click here to hear the song).

• What people found offensive - or what many others found erotically appealing - were occasional murmurs, groans, and salacious moans. To most listeners, the song’s vocal passages sounded like a young woman who was in the throes of orgasm.

• The tune’s title didn’t win it any conservative-minded fans, either. It was called Jungle Fever.

• In medical terms, that phrase refers to a severe form of tropical malaria. However, it was also derogatory slang for a mixed race liaison involving one white and one black sex partner. In the UK in the early 70s, such relationships were culturally taboo.

• The song incensed English sensibilities, so the BBC banned it from their radio airwaves.

• The unknown artists were called the Chakachas. One might assume from listening to Jungle Fever that the musicians were either Afro-Caribbeans or Latinos or from some country south of the Equator. Not so.

• They were white men from Belgium.

• The group was formed in the early 1950s by bandleader Gaston Bogaerts. He hailed from Brussels. Bogaerts played conga and other percussion instruments.

• Henri Breyre played guitar, which is featured prominently on Jungle Fever.

• Willy Albimoor was a pianist. He wrote the song under the pseudonym Bill Ador.

• Vic Ingeveldt played saxophone and flute. However, Jungle Fever doesn’t feature either one. He was from Liege.

• The only non-male was the Cuban woman who provided the guttural moans (she was also credited with playing maracas). Her name was Kari Kenton. At one time in her life, she was married to jazz great Tito Puente.

• The band had been together and making recordings for years in Europe before Jungle Fever’s release. Their primary genre was cha-cha music. In 1958, the Chakachas had Belgium’s first ever gold record with the Spanish-sung cha-cha tune Eso Es El Amor (That Is Love).

• Jungle Fever was their only certified international hit, however. It was recorded in 1971 and went out to radio stations across the world in ’72.

• Although the song was racy for the era, no other country besides Britain conspicuously banned it outright. Australian radio quietly let it slip out of rotation, as did AM radio stations in the United States.

• Even so, the record sold over a million copies in the US alone and reached Number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

• Jungle Fever appeared in the soundtrack to the 1997 film Boogie Nights as well as the popular video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

• Hip hop artists have sampled the track, including 2 Live Crew and Public Enemy.

• The Chakachas never again achieved a hit song like Jungle Fever. But they were among Belgium’s most successful recording artists of all time.

• ALSO:

• Bandleader Gaston Bogaerts went on to have an illustrious career in the art world. His paintings hung in two prominent museums in Belgium, including the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. He lived to age 101.