Hank Mizell

Born in Florida, Mizell moved to North Carolina with his adoptive parents. He joined the United States Navy and served in the Second World War. After being discharged, he decided to take up singing professionally. Settling in Montgomery, Alabama, he sang on local radio, where one of the presenters nicknamed him 'Hank', after the legendary country singer Hank Williams. In 1956 Mizell got together with another guitarist and a bass player, and managed to get a four nights a week residency at a bar in Chicago. Two years later he was invited by country singer Gene Parsons to record on his new label - Eko Records. Parsons had turned his garage into a recording studio, and that was where Hank recorded "Jungle Rock" and a few other songs. There was some controversy with the first pressing, as it listed Jim Bobo as the sole composer of the tune. The single was re-pressed with Mizell's name as co-writer. It failed to become a hit, and was re-issued in August 1957, but still failed to make an impression in the U.S. charts, despite a review in Billboard magazine. Mizell and Bobo continued playing live until 1962, when they split up. Mizell was married by this time to Rosemary, with four children (including David Alan, John Mark and William Jr.), and he finally gave up music and became a preacher for the Church of Christ. In 1971, one of those early Eko pressings of "Jungle Rock" was included on a bootleg recording. It came to the attention of Charly Records in the UK, who had re-issued songs by the The Shangri-Las and enjoyed great chart success. They then re-released "Jungle Rock" in March 1976, and it duly made Number 3 in the UK Singles Chart, and Number 1 in the Dutch charts. Mizell was 53 years old when he finally made it into pop's history books. Mizell was tracked down in Tennessee, and persuaded to come over to England. He appeared on BBC TV’s flagship pop music show - Top of the Pops, and Mizell mimed along to his big hit. He was lured back into a recording studio to make an LP. This was eventually re-released in 1999 on the German Repertoire label.