"Civilization" is an American

traditional pop Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standard ...

song. It was written by

Bob Hilliard Bob Hilliard (born Hilliard Goldsmith; January 28, 1918 – February 1, 1971) was an American lyricist. He wrote the words for the songs: "Alice in Wonderland", "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", " Any Day Now", " Dear Hearts and Gentle ...

and Carl Sigman, published in 1947 and later included in the 1947

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

musical '' Angel in the Wings'', sung by

Elaine Stritch Elaine Stritch (February 2, 1925 – July 17, 2014) was an American actress, best known for her work on Broadway and later, television. She made her professional stage debut in 1944 and appeared in numerous stage plays, musicals, feature films a ...

. The song is sometimes also known as "Bongo, Bongo, Bongo (I Don't Want to Leave the Congo)", from its first line of the chorus. The sheet music gives the title as "Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)".

Content

The song is a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

modern society Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the "Age of Reason ...

sung from the perspective of a native person whose village is visited by a "civilized person" and other "civilized" people whom the native refers to as "educated savages". These visitors are trying to "civilize" the tribe. However, the native rejects them, and after listing the major flaws of civilization, ultimately decides that he will stay in Congo, where he lives.

Recordings

At least five recorded versions made the '' Billboard'' charts: by

The Andrews Sisters The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (January ...

and Danny Kaye, by

Louis Prima Louis Leo Prima (December 7, 1910 – August 24, 1978) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and trumpeter. While rooted in New Orleans jazz, swing music, and jump blues, Prima touched on various genres throughout his career: he forme ...

, by "Smilin'" Jack Smith, by

Ray McKinley Ray McKinley (June 18, 1910 – May 7, 1995) was an American jazz drummer, singer, and bandleader. He played drums and later led the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra in Europe. He also led the new Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1956. ...

, and by

Woody Herman Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...

. The Andrews Sisters and Danny Kaye recording was made September 27, 1947, and released by Decca Records as catalog number 23940. The record first reached the ''Billboard'' magazine charts on November 14, 1947, and lasted 10 weeks on the chart, peaking at No. 3. The Louis Prima recording made July 24, 1947,

RCA Victor Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Ari ...

catalog number 20-2400, first reached the ''Billboard'' magazine charts on November 7, 1947, and lasted eight weeks, peaking at No. 8. The Jack Smith recording released by Capitol Records as catalog number 465 reached the ''Billboard'' magazine charts on December 26, 1947, and lasted two weeks on the chart, peaking at No. 14. The Ray McKinley recording,

Majestic Records Majestic Records was a mid-20th century record label based in New York City, incorporated in 1945 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Majestic Radio & Television. The label enjoyed its greatest commercial success in the 1940s until expansion and supp ...

catalog number 7274, first reached the ''Billboard'' charts on December 26, 1947, at No. 14, lasting one week. The Woody Herman recording, Columbia Records catalog number 37885, reached the ''Billboard'' magazine charts the same week at No. 15, also lasting one week.

1947 charting versions

Note that all five versions were on the chart during the week of December 26, 1947.

Other versions

A recording by

Joe Loss Sir Joshua Alexander "Joe" Loss (22 June 1909 – 6 June 1990) was a British dance band leader and musician who founded his own eponymous orchestra. Life Loss was born in Spitalfields, London, the youngest of four children. His parents, Isr ...

and his Orchestra with vocal by Elizabeth Batey was made in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on March 11, 1948. It was released by

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

on the

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russ ...

label BD 6007.

Dyan Cannon Dyan Cannon (born Samille Diane Friesen; January 4, 1937) is an American actress, director, screenwriter, producer, and editor. Her accolades include a Saturn Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Academy Award nominations, and a star on the Holly ...

performed the song on ''

The Muppet Show ''The Muppet Show'' is a sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and featuring the Muppets. The series originated as two pilot episodes produced by Henson for ABC in 1974 and 1975. While neither episode was moved forward as a s ...

'' along with several

Muppet The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are ...

jungle animals. Although

sang it on Broadway, she did not record it until the 1977 album ''Make Mine Manhattan: Great Revues Revisited''. It was included in her 2002 one woman stage show Elaine Stritch at Liberty. In 1967, a version of the song was included on

Disneyland Records Walt Disney Records is an American record label of the Disney Music Group. The label releases soundtrack albums from The Walt Disney Company's motion picture studios, television series, theme parks, and traditional studio albums produced by its r ...

"Songs From 'The Jungle Book' And Other Jungle Favorites" (STER1304). The song was translated into Finnish titled as "Bingo bango bongo" by Tapio Lahtinen. It was recorded by both

Henry Theel Henry Per-Erik Theel (November 14, 1917, Helsinki - December 19, 1989, Helsinki), also known by his pseudonym Heikki Hovi, was one of the most prominent Finnish singers during the 1940s and the 1950s, though he continued to perform until the late ...

and Olavi Virta in 1948.

Lasse Mårtenson Lars Anders Fredrik "Lasse" Mårtenson (24 September 1934 – 14 May 2016) was a Finnish singer, composer, actor, and theater conductor. Mårtenson was born in Helsinki. He performed at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964 with the song " Laisko ...

(1963), Hullujussi (1974), How Many Sisters (1983), and Lissun Baari (1997) have also released their versions in Finnish. An Italian version translated by Alberto Curci was made popular in Italy sung by

Nilla Pizzi Nilla Pizzi, stage name of Adionilla Pizzi (; 16 April 1919 – 12 March 2011), was an Italian singer and actress. Born in Sant'Agata Bolognese, she was particularly famous in Italy during the 1950s and 1960s. She won the first edition of the ...

and Luciano Benevene in 1947, and also sung by Sophia Loren in the 1954 movie '' Too Bad She's Bad''. It was again brought to popularity in 1985 when Renzo Arbore used it in a popular TV show ('' Quelli della notte''), and as a single release by comedy actor

Christian De Sica Christian De Sica (; born 5 January 1951) is an Italian actor and film director. Life De Sica was born in Rome the second son of Italian director Vittorio De Sica and Spanish actress María Mercader. His first cousin once removed was Ramón ...

in 1994.

Other appearances

* The 1950 ''

Screen Songs ''Screen Songs'', formerly known as KoKo Song Car-Tunes, are a series of animated cartoons produced at the Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures between 1929 and 1938. Paramount brought back the sing-along cartoons in 1945, n ...

'' animated short ''Jingle Jangle Jungle'' features a lion inviting the audience to sing along to the song to explain why he doesn't want to join a circus. * "Civilization", performed by Danny Kaye and the Andrews Sisters, is featured on the in-game Galaxy News Radio in the 2008

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

Fallout 3 ''Fallout 3'' is a 2008 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The third major installment in the ''Fallout'' series, it is the first game to be developed by Bethesda after acquiring ...

'', which takes place in a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...

, retro-futurist United States in the year 2277 in the ruins of

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

''Fallout'' FAQ
at bethsoft.com The song is also included on Diamond City Radio in ''

Fallout 4 ''Fallout 4'' is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fourth main game in the ''Fallout'' series and was released worldwide on November 10, 2015, for PlayStation 4, ...

'', the fifth major installment of the ''Fallout'' series, which takes place in the post-apocalyptic ruins of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

in the year 2287, as well as in ''

Fallout 76 ''Fallout 76'' is a 2018 online action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is an installment in the ''Fallout'' series and a prequel to previous entries. ''Fallout 76'' is Bethesda ...

'' on Appalachia Radio. * Louis Prima's recording of "Civilization" is heard playing on the radio in Adrian Lyne's 1997 film '' Lolita''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Civilization (Song) 1947 songs Satirical songs Songs with lyrics by Bob Hilliard Songs written by Carl Sigman Novelty songs The Andrews Sisters songs Works about missionaries