₦airaland Forum

naptu2:
Two legends in conversation

I have written a lot about one of these legends, so I'll focus more on the other legend in this post.

I woke up very early every morning between 1989 and 1993 in order to listen to the breakfast show on Radio Nigeria 1. RN 1 began transmitting at 5:30 every morning and they'd play the National Anthem, the pledge and then they'd have Christian and Islamic prayers. There'd be a brief news bulletin at 6am and then Radioscope woul begin.


Radioscope was hosted (on alternating days) by Manny Onumonu, Zakari Mohammed (Captain ZM) and Evelyn Russell. It was a very interesting show. Manny usually began his shows by playing "Everybody Plays The Fool" by Aron Neville.

It seemed like Manny vanished after 1993, but then he suddenly appeared on the BBC c1998. He hosted Network Africa, the BBC African Service's breakfast show, a few times for around month in 1998 and then he vanished again.

He has now reappeared on Channels TV and he has his own talk show on the station. Here he is, interviewing Bongos Ikuwe.


I have written about Bongos Ikuwe many times on this thread, so I don't need to write much again, except to say that he debunked the popular myth in the second video below.

There is a very weird story that Bongos Ikuwe and Mrs Maryam Babangida were in a relationship before she got married to General Ibrahim Babangida. Rumour mongers claim that his popular song, Maryama, was about Maryam Babangida.

I debunked that crazy rumour on a Nairaland thread a few years ago, but some people kept arguing with me. I provided a link to an interview of Bongos Ikuwe's daughter in which she said that her father only met Maryam Babangida once and that was many years after he wrote Maryama, but someone was still arguing with me, so I challenged him to provide proof that they were ever in a relationship and that's when he stopped arguing.

Of course Manny asked Bongos Ikuwe about the rumour. Mr Ikuwe said that he doesn't like talking about the issue, out of respect for the dead, but (when Manny pressed him) he said that he only met Maryam Babangida once. He then explained the origin of the song.

He said that a British man heard him singing on the radio and called into the station. The man said that he would have loved to be Bongos Ikuwe's promoter but he didn't have any money. However, he made an offer to Bongos Ikuwe. He said that he would cook for him every weekend and invite his British friends over and Bongos would sing for them. He told him that he would have to work very hard because his friends wouldn't want to hear the same songs every weekend, so he would need to write a lot of songs. Maryama was one of the songs that he wrote.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykWPhdSu9UE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv-r_YTwaCA

naptu2:
Manny Onumonu used this song as his signature tune on Radioscope on Radio Nigeria 1. You knew that Manny was the host for the day once you heard this song.


Aaron Neville - Everybody Plays The Fool (1991).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaRGWgkh6cs

Pojomojo:
Sunny Irabo owns Ifm, your number 1 family radio

Lilimax:
I know no one else could make this great compilation except the great naptu2😀😀 It brought back my memory lane of my pre University days

Weldone!

makaveli902:
https://www.nairaland.com/6432085/what-favourite-nigerian-television-commercials/4#99417202

The 1st -5th Defendants' advertising glamorises smoking and its content is intended to entice young people to smoke as it tends to encourage the seeming upscale aspirations of the youth to emulate adulthood, prosperity and the culture of the West. An instance of this was the St. Moritz advertisement of 1998 and 1999 with the Lighthouse Family soundtrack “Ocean Drive”that depicted a successful young man ending his day with a St. Moritz cigarette.

Growing up in an era where cigarette adverts were permitted to air on television and radio, it was a tad difficult to miss those deceptive cuts that told us it was a mark of pristine masculinity to puff on neatly wrapped nicotine.

It was also one of those ads – St. Moritz’s – that introduced me to the music of Lighthouse Family. Ocean Drive’s simple yet inspiring lyrics contradict the reality cigarettes represent, but the minds behind it found it beautiful enough – maybe it’s Tunde Baiyewu’s voice – to rest the soul of the commercial on. Such was the power that the band had in the late 1990s and the early 2000s despite the diverse backgrounds of its members.

Oh mehn. Drove me back to Garage days when I used to sell St. Moritz at Shao Motorpark. There was a barber called Uncle Jendor who used to play Ocean Drive! That was 1996. E don tey💀. Be like say I don old o 😂

naptu2:
Well, there was a Nigerian in the band, in fact two (but they were not there at the same time), so I suppose you could say that it was kind of like a Nigerian band.

naptu2:
It's because of this song (on Classic FM at the moment) that I once thought that Osibisa was a Nigerian band.

"Hello little children, happy little children, how are you this morning"

naptu2:
This was played so often on RN2, that it became a part of the station. I think that the instrumental version was the signature tune of a show on the station. There was a time when I thought that it was an exclusively Nigerian song.


Osibisa - Happy Children (1973).

naptu2:
This was the theme song for a lot of children's programmes on Nigerian TV and radio back in the day.

(Now I'm tempted to post one of Santana's songs, even though he is not African. That song was the other song that was often used as a theme song for children's shows on Nigerian TV and radio).

Listen to that bass by Mike Odumosu!


Were they singing in Yoruba?

This was another worldwide hit.



Osibisa - Happy Children (1973).



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ops2x2Eht0

ManOfSon:
Don't ever sleep on Benson Idonije. I believe he presented an evergreen music show on Radio Nigeria 2 around 1988-1989. I used to love that show back then. It was much later I learnt he was one of the early managers of Fela the Abami Eda himself. I guess that says a lot about Mr. Idonije.

JOemmy:
How where you able to put all these together?

IslamIsIdiotic:
Seems to be a miscommunication somewhere. Your post only spoke about the 1990 version of the song. No mention of the 1960 original.....🤔

MD45:
Many thanks for this classic hit.

Please do you remember one East or Sourtern Africa hit song sang by a female artist that they always played backed then on RN2….. please I need that song as I have been searching for it too!!

naptu2:
This song was a world wide hit. Radio Nigeria 2 used to play a pop/electro version of this song on Saturday mornings.

Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata (1967).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBJVVhn7iuo

naptu2:
This is one of my favourite childhood songs. Someone created an instrumental and electronic version in the 1980s and it created one of those situations where I love both the original and the cover version.


This is a live performance in the US. Harry Belafonte invited her to the US in the early 1960s and the Apartheid Government immediately revoked her citizenship. She became a stateless person, but many African countries (including Tanzania) immediately granted her citizenship. If I remember correctly, she also got a United Nations passport.


This is one of her two most famous songs (in my opinion it is her most famous, more famous than the "Click Song" ).


Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata (live on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNeP3hrm__k

I'm off to look for the cover version. I don't even know the name of the person that did it but it was regularly played in the mornings on Radio Nigeria in the 1980s.

divinebarz:
I habe forgotten one Sunday program on Raypower by Ambrose Somide and Baba gboin.

chachanga:
Nice round up but let me remind you of Felix Femi Fashina among the OGBC Greats.

He was quite good too.

Well done

IslamIsIdiotic:
Actually, the original version of that song was by Brian Hyland and it came out in the year1960. He was 17 years old when he released Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini in 1960. Funny enough he's alive and still performing at the age of 80☺️


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge9Ou3-YyqU


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICkWjdQuK7Q

naptu2:
Quiz on Willy Brunch (Radio Nigeria 2) c1990.

Can you sing the chorus of this song (or at least tell us what they are saying)?

The responses were hilarious.

The answer is actually

It was an itsy bitsy,
Teeny weeny,
Yellow polkadot bikini,
That she wore for the first time today.

An itsy bitsy,
Teeny weeny,
Yellow polkadot bikini
And in the water she wanted to stay

It's almost impossible to find the 1990 version of this song. I found it, but it's a little bit faster than it should be (it's the original video, but it's been sped up).


Bombalurina - Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weeny, Yellow Polkadot Bikini (1990)

naptu2:
I'VE FOUND IT! I'VE FOUND IT! I'VE FOUND IT!


Your Willing Willy (Willy Egbe) always started his show (Willy Brunch on RN2) with this amazing song.


Herb Alpert - Coco-loco (1982)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rbfmsX7zv0