John Kongos

John Kongos (born 23 July 1946, Johannesburg, South Africa) is a singer-songwriter.

He came to Britain to follow a musical career, and his first album, Confusions About a Goldfish (1970), on the Dawn record label, was unsuccessful. He then moved to Fly Records with whom he had two hit singles – "He's Gonna Step On You Again" (UK No. 4, May 1971; U.S. Billboard Hot 100 No. 70) and "Tokoloshe Man" (UK No. 4, November 1971). His second album Kongos made the Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart, but subsequent singles, "Great White Lady" (1972), "Ride the Lightning" (1973) and "Higher than God's Hand" (1975), did not chart.

"He's Gonna Step On You Again" is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as being the first song to ever use a sample.

The guitar on all the hits was played by session musician Big Jim Sullivan.

Kongos continued to work in the music industry as a record producer, sound engineer, TV jingle and theme music composer, and songwriter, as well as handling the programming of the Fairlight CMI synthesizer on Def Leppard's 1983 album Pyromania.

The album Kongos, plus his remaining singles first issued on Fly, appeared on the CD Tokoloshe Man Plus, released by See For Miles Records in 1988. He gained notoriety with a new musical generation in 1990, when Madchester pioneers Happy Mondays reworked "He's Gonna Step On You Again" into their baggy era defining hit "Step On", which reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart. In the same year they also covered his "Tokoloshe Man", for the compilation album, Rubáiyát.

Discography: