Hooked on a Feeling - Rerecorded

This song was written by Mark James, who also wrote Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds." B.J. Thomas was signed to Scepter Records and had some hits with his group The Triumphs before Scepter producer Chips Moman convinced him to leave Texas and come to American Studios in Memphis, where he recorded some of the songs James wrote for his album On My Way. The first single from the album was the James-penned "The Eyes of a New York Woman," which reached #28 in the US. The next single was "Hooked On A Feeling," which was a big hit for Thomas but not nearly as successful as his next one, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head," which stayed at US #1 for four weeks. "Hooked" was produced by Moman with session musicians that included Tommy Cogbill (guitar) Reggie Young (guitar), Mike Leech (bass) and Buddy Emmons (drums).

Drug references were big in 1968, and this song has plenty of them, but the context is love as a drug; Thomas is "high on believin'" and will "just stay addicted" to the girl who can "turn me on." All very innocent.

About those Oooonga Chackas: There's a good chance you've heard this song with the famous jungle chant, and it was most likely the 1974 Blue Swede version, which was featured in the Quentin Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs. The first use of the chant in this song, however, was in the 1971 version by the English singer and pop mogul Jonathan King, who added the Oooonga Chackas which were based on the chant in Johnny Preston's 1959 hit "Running Bear." King's version was a UK hit - the only version of the song to chart there - reaching #23. Blue Swede recorded their own version with more aggressive jungle sounds in 1974, and it was a massive hit, reaching #1 in the US, Holland, Australia, and Canada. Blue Swede was a Swedish band, and they would perform the Jonathan King version in concert, getting the crowd to chant along. It went to #1 in Sweden, and according to a Rolling Stone article from 1974, a few copies made their way to the United States, where a woman in Connecticut played the song in her record store. This led to some local airplay and the song quickly spread, eventually becoming a #1 hit. And what about Jonathan King, who put the chant on the song in 1971? King was a university student in the UK when he recorded his debut hit "Everyone's Gone To The Moon" in 1965, which reached #4 in the UK and #17 in the US. He went on to become a successful singer, songwriter, producer (he produced the first Genesis album, From Genesis to Revelation), broadcaster and record company executive (in 1972 he formed UK Records). In November 2000 he was accused of sex attacks on boys dating back to 1970, and in January 2001, he was charged with seven counts of assault against underage youths and sentenced to seven years in prison.