Mondo Bongo was the Boomtown Rats' fourth album. This is the band's last album to be recorded as six-piece band, as the guitarist Gerry Cott left the band shortly after the album's release.
It included the hit singles: "Banana Republic", which had reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart in November 1980 and "The Elephants Graveyard (Guilty)" which made No. 26 in January 1981.
Reception
The album received mixed reviews in the press, with American critics being generally more positive than their British counterparts. New Musical Express put down the record as "hollow pop, quaking under a plethora of poorly integrated rip-offs", while Sounds called it "self-indulgent" and lacking in depth or emotion. Rolling Stone, however, praised it as "an intoxicating mixture of pop and punk", and Trouser Press called it "an enormously enjoyable LP, with hardly a dry patch on it".
;Additional musicians
- Dr. Dave McHale - saxophone
- T.V. - backing vocals, recorder, occasional drunken bass, guitar
- Tom Winter - bazouki on "Please Don't Go"
- Andy Duncan - percussion on "Please Don't Go"
;Technical
- Chris Porter, Tom Winter - engineer
- Mike Owen - photography
Charts
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
!Chart
!Position
|-
|Australia (Kent Music Report)||24
|-
|align="left"|Canadian Albums Chart
|22
|-
|align="left"|UK Albums Chart