Music: Jungle Jingle

One night two months ago a 29-year-old lyricist named Bob Hilliard asked Carl Sigman, who sets his words to music, how he would like to write a song about civilization. “Just like that,” said Sigman, “it killed me.”

“In two nights, they thought up everything they didn’t like about Manhattan, and set their catalogue (streetcars, landlords, bright lights, door bells) into a chant. The chorus:

Bongo, bongo, bongo

I don’t want to leave the Congo

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

Bingle, bangle, bungle I’m so happy in the jungle

I refuse to go. . . .*

By last week, eight record versions of this jangling jingle had been turned out, and Civilization was creeping up bestseller lists. It was one of those flash, expendable tunes bound to be a public craze, and then a public nuisance. Hilliard and Sigman have already written another song. Theme: the Thousand Islands. Explained Tunesmith Sigman: “We may not be good songwriters, but we’re fast.”

* By permission, copyright owners Edwin H. Morris & Co., Inc.