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Walt Disney sought to make his version of The Jungle Book a lot more upbeat than the Rudyard Kipling-penned source material, the original Bill Peet script, and the initial score composed by Terry Gilkyson (whose song "The Bare Necessities" ultimately made it into the final film). The Sherman brothers were tasked with coming up with "crazy ways to have fun with ."
Working with concept art of what the monkeys would look like, Richard Sherman said he and his brother aimed for a jazz sound, with a Dixieland-like melody. He added that "when we first got an idea for 'I Wan'na Be Like You', we said an ape swings from a tree, and he's the king of apes. We'll make him 'the king of the swingers'. That's the idea, we'll make him a jazz man." After suggesting that Louis Prima could play the part of King Louie, Walt Disney Records president Jimmy Johnson and music director Tutti Camarata asked the Sherman brothers to fly to Las Vegas and perform the song for Prima. Once Prima was invited to do the song, he mockingly responded to the Shermans with "You want to make a monkey out of me? You got me!"
The instrumentals were originally recorded by Prima - who also played the trumpet - and his band, Sam Butera & The Witnesses, but the music was replaced by one written by the film's composer, George Bruns, and orchestrated by Walter Sheets. The "scat dialogue" between Baloo and King Louie was the result of two recording sessions. Louis Prima recorded first, with the intent that Baloo - played in his recording by Butera - would simply repeat what Louie scatted, but Phil Harris decided not to imitate Prima's recording and made up his own. The song was released the same date as the motion picture itself.
Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen released a single of "I Wanna Be like You" (without an apostrophe in the title) in 1968 and it also featured on their 1969 album King of the Swingers.
Pinky and Perky recorded a version for their Film Parade album in 1970 and also released the song as a single.
On 5 April 1994 Phish performed a truly Phish-styled version at The Metropolis Concert Hall in Montreal, Quebec. Phish covered the song eight other times that year.
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy did a cover of the song on the Swingers soundtrack, even though the song does not appear in the film. The band later released the song on their 1999 album This Beautiful Life.
The Jungle Book 2, released in 2003, featured the band Smash Mouth playing the song during the end credits of the film; the song also appeared on the film's soundtrack. In the Australian version, Nikki Webster covers the song, which is also featured on her Best of album. King Louie is one of the characters that doesn't appear in the second film.
The 2005 album En Vivo by Gabriel Ríos contains a cover of the song.
In 2007, a pop rock cover was recorded by the Jonas Brothers for Disneymania 5. That same year, for the 40th anniversary of the film, Dutch musical group XYP covered it as well in a swing-pop style.
On 23 October 2010, X Factor contestant Katie Waissel pleased the judges with her surprise selection of the song.
In 2011, Serbian-Montenegrin duo Flamingosi covered the song with new lyrics in Serbian as "Nebojša" on their album Seti se našeg zaveta. Their cover samples the 2007 cover by XYP.
Craig David sang a cover of the song for an award ceremony in the UK; the video is on YouTube.
In November 2013, The Overtones recorded a cover of the song as a mix with "The Bare Necessities" for their album Saturday Night at the Movies.
J-pop band Little Glee Monster recorded a Japanese cover of the song titled 'Kimi no yō ni naritai` (君のようになりたい).
The Fun Songs version is performed in a 1994 Disney Sing-Along Songs home video: Let's Go to the Circus. In it, Toby Scott Ganger imagines what it would be like if he and his friends were all monkeys in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus show.
"I Wan'na Be like You" was covered by British recording artist Robbie Williams featuring British recording artist Olly Murs for his tenth studio album Swings Both Ways (2013). Production of their rendition was handled by Guy Chambers. However, in the liner notes Robbie Williams incorrectly attributes the original to Phil Harris, and says how much he admires Harris (p. 4 of notes in Deluxe Edition).
In 1978, a live-action sketch titled The Wonderful World of Ernie from Morecambe and Wise parodied the song by doing a full reenactment of the scene with sets and costumes and lip-synching to the original recording (including the characters' spoken dialogue in the middle of the song). The sketch starred Danny Rolnick as Mowgli, Derek Griffiths as Bagheera, Eric Morecambe as Baloo and Ernie Wise as King Louie.
In 2008, the song was used in an anti-smoking public information film from the NHS. It shows children copying everything their parents did (for example, boys putting shaving cream on their faces, girls dressing up in their mothers' best clothes and both genders washing the car), and the song is playing throughout the advertisement, but it slows down and stops when a girl puts a crayon to her mouth in imitation of her mother smoking. The advertisement ends with a female voice-over saying: "If you smoke, your children are more likely to smoke, too. Smoking. Don't keep it in the family".
The Robbie Williams/Olly Murs collaborative cover appears in season 3, episode 9 of the TV drama Stella.
In 2015, "I Wanna Be like You" was featured in season 1, episode 7 of the TV drama Aquarius.
The song was used in a popular TikTok trend during the year 2019.
In 2022 it was used on The Voice of Germany by Sid Bader, where he received an all turn.
References
Hischak, Thomas S.; Robinson, Mark A. (2009). The Disney Song Encyclopedia. Scarecrow Press. p. 89. ISBN9780810869387.
Michael., Barrier, J. (2007). The animated man: a life of Walt Disney. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 276. ISBN9780520941663. OCLC148004284.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Tim., Hollis (2006). Mouse tracks : the story of Walt Disney Records. Ehrbar, Greg. (1st ed.). Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 89–90. ISBN1578068487. OCLC61309354.
