Born in Johannesburg in the 1940s and formed his first band, The Dukes, in 1961. He had further success in the early 60s with his band Johnny And The G-Men.
In 1963, he released his first solo album, This Is Johnny and the single “Tulips For ‘Toinette”
When the Dukes broke up in 1966 he left for England where, in 1967, he formed the short-lived Floribunda Rose with other South African musicians.
The following year he formed another band with South African musicians, Scrugg. When Scrugg broke up in 1969 Kongos went solo, releasing the album Confusions About A Goldfish (1969) and Kongos (1972). The latter album included the successful singles “Tokoloshe Man” and “He’s Gonna Step On You Again”.
He continued to release singles infrequently throughout the 1970s and 1980s but increasingly focused on writing film music.