ROCKING IN THE JUNGLE IN 76

In that disco, pop and ballad world of the UK charts of May 1976, there was one song which didn't seem in the right place.

But it was, so much so, that it became the third best selling single in one particular week.

However, it was an oldie. An 18-year oldie to be precise.

William M Mizell was 53 when his song Jungle Rock made it into pop's history books.

He was born at Dayton Beach in Florida in November 1923, but moved to North Carolina with his adoptive parents. He joined the US Navy and served in the second world war, and when he was discharged, decided to take up singing professionally.

He settled in Montgomery, Alabama, where with an acoustic guitar, he would sing on local radio. One of the presenters nicknamed him Hank after the legendary country singer Hank Williams.

In 1956 Hank Mizell got together with another guitarist and a bass player and managed to get a four nights a week gig at a bar in Chicago.

Two years later he was invited by country singer Gene Parsons to record on bhis new label - Eko Records. Gene had turned his garage into a studio and that was where Hank recorded Jungle Rock and a few other songs.

The sound was an earthy, rock and roll sound with a great bass.

There was a little controversy with the first pressings of the record - they had the composer of the tune as Jim Bobo. The single was re-pressed with Mizell's name in its rightful place.

On the B side was When I'm In our Arms which had Mizell and Bobo singing together.

It failed to become a hit, and was re-issued in August the following year but still failed to make an impression in the US charts, despite a review in Billboard.

Mizell and Bobo continued playing live till 1962, when they split up. Hank was married by this time, with four children. He gave up music and became a preacher.

Then in 1971, a Dutchman by the name of Cees Klop found one of those early Eko pressings of Jungle Rock and included it on a bootleg LP called Rock N Roll Volume One.

Roy Williams, a British DJ, started playing the track in his disco Wild Wax Show. Charly Records, who had re-issued songs by the Shang-ri Las and enjoyed great chart success, released Jungle Rock. It made No.3 in the UK and went all the way to the top of the Dutch charts.

Williams got a silver record for his efforts in breaking the record.

The search was now on for Hank Mizell. He was tracked down to Tennessee and persuaded to come over to England to appear on Top Of The Pops, on which he appeared to mime to his big hit.

Hank was lured back into a recording studio to make an LP, which was re-released in 1999 on the German Repertoire label.

Hank Mizell died two days before Christmas in 1992 in the town of Murfreesboro in Tennessee.