About five years ago, I found a copy of this on eBay and promptly bought it: the 45 single of “Don’t You Be Too Long.”
The song shouldn’t sound really that familiar, but the name of the band is sort of a punch line in Queen fan circles: it’s Humpy Bong. Started by Colin Peterson, ex-drummer for the Bee Gees, around 1970, Tim Staffell, the bassist and lead singer of the pre-Queen band Smile (with Roger Taylor and Brian May), joined the group after that band broke up in 1970. Or he jumped ship. Not sure.
Don’t know about Smile? An official CD of the Smile recordings finally came out a couple years ago. They were a power trio a la Cream or the Experience, and were really good, and I’m sure mindblowing for their time. It was just one of these things in the business.
Anyway, Humpy Bong went on Top of the Pops appearance–not sure if Staffell took part in that–and everything and then fizzled out. I would love to see footage of that appearance; alas, YouTub has yet to produce one.
Back when I was trolling for Humpy Bongs, one eBay auction for the a promo single was for $100. I found another copy for 18 pounds (about $33), and and here’s mp3 of A-side and B-side.
The music is pretty good! It’s fun, poppy, very of its time. I digitized it as well as I can with my own equipment. Check it out.
“Don’t Be Too Long” [mp3]
“All Right Till Then” [mp3]
If you download it, drop me a line, and tell me what you think!
hi,
i found your site today.
i’m very curious to listen Humpy bong, just after that i listen Amigo.
best regards
Hey Gianluca! I put the songs back up online-that post was from a previous version of my website. Enjoy!
Hi I found your site when I was looking up what happened to Colin Peterson as I was a Bee Gees fan from the early days. I listened to the tracks and thought they were pretty good but don’t have an MP3 and don’t know how to download them to my computer, but thanks anyway
Just right-click on those links that say “mp3″ and you should be fine! Thanks for visiting.
I’ve always been a fan of Tim Staffell’s music, including Smile and especially those two fantastic prog records he did with Morgan. I started looking for Humpy Bong right after finding out about its existence, and finally, after years of searching, I scored a copy of this single on eBay for fairly cheap. boy, was I delighted! “don’t you be too long” is such a relaxing little pop number, totally worth the wait. glad to see both sides up here on MP3 for those who gave up looking for the physical copy
Hello Daniel
I stumbled upon your thing on the Humpy Bong single quite by accident. Being such an odd name, it caught my eye. I played 5 string banjo on “Don’t You Be Too Long” Since it was such a long time ago I can’t remember a lot about the session, but remember working with Colin Peterson. I’ve also got it in my mind that Brian May played guitar on that, but could be wrong. I did meet Brian several times in those days through my long time friend Fritz Fryer. Brian and I did spend a lot time talking
as we had both made our own instruments. Do you know the lineup on that single? Would love to know. Just had a listen to the record…not bad.
Best wishes Keith Nelson