In Disney’s 1967 film The Jungle Book, King Louie sings “I Wan’na Be Like You.” The energetic number appears when the orangutan-like king captures Mowgli and asks him to reveal the secret of making fire.
The song was written by the Sherman Brothers, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, for Disney’s animated production. Louis Prima provided King Louie’s voice and performance style, bringing a strong jazz and swing influence to the character and the number.
King Louie is a major example of how the 1967 film reshaped material from Rudyard Kipling. Kipling’s original Mowgli stories feature the Bandar-log, or monkey people, but they do not include a character equivalent to Disney’s King Louie. The film created the character as a musical and comic centerpiece.
“I Wan’na Be Like You” is sometimes mixed up with “The Bare Necessities,” Baloo’s song. Both are famous songs from the same film, but they have different performers, writers, and dramatic purposes.