This is an adaptation of a Swahili song by a late-1960s English band. Normally, this wouldn't work out at all, and this almost didn't: the trilling in between verses and the falsetto note at the end come very close to being jarring. But the enthusiasm of this song is infectious; when I first heard it, I played it several times.
"Helule Helule" was originally written and recorded by Kenyan musician Daudi Kabaka (this version is good too - it's enjoyable lo-fi goodness with a swinging beat). The Tremeloes released it as a single in 1968; it reached #14 in Britain and the top ten in a few countries, including Malaysia, Sweden, and Spain, but did not chart appreciably in North America. There is some question as to whether The Tremeloes compensated Kabaka appropriately for their version of the song - Wikipedia indicates that there are conflicting claims about this.
The Tremeloes were from Dagenham in England. They formed in 1958 as Brian Poole and The Tremeloes. Under this name, they reached #1 in the UK in 1963 with "Do You Love Me"; this is a cover of the 1962 hit by The Contours. It's not as good as the original but I'm not sure that there is any such thing as a bad version of this song.
Poole left The Tremeloes in 1966; the remainder of the band carried on without him. They had seven top ten hits in the UK between 1967 and 1970. Their two most successful releases in North America were "Silence Is Golden", which reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Here Comes My Baby", which reached #13. A version of The Tremeloes was touring as recently as 2023; of the group that recorded "Helule Helule", only bassist and vocalist Len "Chip" Hawkes remains in the current lineup.
Created October 20, 2026.