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Johnny Wakelin is a UK artist who enjoyed success during the mid-1970s national disco scene with a pair of hits paying tribute to boxing legend Muhammad Ali, "Black Superman" and "In Zaire." Born in Brighton, East Sussex on 30 November 1939, he cut his teeth on the local cabaret circuit before getting discovered by Pye Records producer Robin Blanchflower, who had famously steered Carl Douglas towards chart victory with "Kung Fu Fighting" in 1974. Recorded as Johnny Wakelin & the Kinshasa Band, the reggae-infused "Black Superman (Muhammad Ali)" became a top 1o hit in Australia and the UK that same year, also seizing the number-one spot in Canada and taking up residence on the US Billboard Hot 100 at number 21 in 1975. His debut album Black Superman arrived in 1975 with its successor, Reggae, Soul & Rock 'n' Roll, emerging in 1976. He scored another round of success with his single about Muhammad Ali's infamous 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" fight in Zaire, which crashed into the European charts in 1976, peaking at number four in the UK. He released records at a steady pace over the ensuing decades, from Rock 'n' Country Blues (1996) and From Ali to the Naz (1997) in the 1990s to Sway with Me (2005), In Africa (2005), Right Before My Eyes (2006), No Smoking (2007). 2016 saw the release of the LP Best of 40 Years.
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