Preston Epps was born in Mangum, Oklahoma. He attended grade school in Tulsa and moved as a teenager to Oakland, where he attended junior high and high school.
It was while he was stationed in Okinawa during the Korean War that he learned how to play percussion instruments, including the bongos. After leaving the service he settled in Southern California, working as a waiter, club manager, and at a gas station. At night, he played in Hollywood coffeehouses.
Epps became fascinated with the drums in the early ’50s when he visited a San Francisco jazz spot called Bop City. He started as a percussionist but took to the bongos after he saw an African group perform in the City of Hope and they gave him his first drum. Epps was the main percussionist on “Earth Angel,” first recorded by the Penguins in 1954.
It was while he was playing at one of these coffeehouses that he was spotted by Art Laboe, a local deejay on Los Angeles KPOP. Laboe sined Epps to his of Original Sound Records.
He and Barney Kessel, Rene Hall, Earl Palmer, Red Callender and Ernie Freeman recorded “Bongo Rock” at Sunset Sound in Hollywood in April 1959. It became the first hit for Laboe’s Original Sound label, spending 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, getting as high as No. 14 and going gold. . Laboe released a second single, "Bongo, Bongo, Bongo," in 1960 that reached #78 the following year.
It was there in 1959 he would record his hit "Bongo Rock." The tune became a hit in the U.S., reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 that year. The follow-up, "Bongo Bongo Bongo", reached #78 the following year. Original Sound released a full-length LP in 1960, which reached #35 on the Billboard 200. However, further bongo-themed singles, including "Bongo in the Congo", "Bongo Rocket", "Bootlace Bongo", "Bongo Boogie", "Flamenco Bongo", "Mr. Bongo", and "Bongo Shuffle", did not result in any further success.
Try as he might, Preston never had another top hit. His first two albums "Bongo, Bongo, Bongo"(1960) and "Bongola" (1961) did well and his follow up to "Bongo Rock" "Bongo, Bongo, Bongo" was a minor hit (#78, 1960). However, the public lost interest and his career ended.
Far left clockwise: Alan Freed, Preston Epps, Jackie Wilson and
Ray Charles
He also played calypso music for Maya Angelou, and that led him to tour and perform with such artists as Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson, Little Richard, Johnny Otis, and Sam Cooke. He also appeared as a headliner in Las Vegas.
Epps reappeared in 1969 as a bongo player in the film Girl in Gold Boots. He continued on as a session musician in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1973, the Incredible Bongo Band recorded "Bongo Rock" and released it as a single.
In the early 70s, Epps toured and recorded with Johnny Otis.
Epps continued playing in clubs in Southern California into the 1990s. He died of natural causes in Los Angeles on May 9, 2019 at age 88.
