Songfacts®:

• Imbued with Ted Nugent's savage energy, "Wango Tango" is one of his most popular live songs. He told Songfacts it's about "beautiful girls on the beach, and the rhythm that accompanies that." It's a close cousin to one of his earlier songs, "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang."
• Growing up in the '50s and '60s, Nugent heard lots of songs about dances, many coming from Motown Records in his hometown of Detroit. The "wango tango" is his version of a dance, but not the kind you can do in public without getting arrested.
• If it's loud, goes fast, and has an engine, Nugent probably likes it (he did some off-road racing for a short time), so it's no surprise to hear him singing the praises of a Maserati in this song. But this hot rod is all about innuendo, with Nugent finding yet another way to express the throes of passion.
• "Wango Tango" is the first track and only single from Nugent's sixth album, Scream Dream. On many of his earlier songs, he didn't sing lead - his guitarist Derek St. Holmes often did. But Ted sang most of the tracks on the album, including "Wango Tango," which doesn't require virtuoso vocals.
• This was used in the 2007 Simpsons episode "I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and in the 2017 episode of Stranger Things, "Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak."