M is for... Mambo No 5

"Mambo No. 5" is a mambo and jive dance song originally recorded and composed by Cuban Dámaso Pérez Prado in 1949.




The song's popularity was renewed by German artist Lou Bega's sampling and vocal version of the original, released under the same name on Bega's 1999 debut album A Little Bit of Mambo.

Lou Bega's cover was a hit in the United Kingdom, and Australia, where it reached number-one in 1999. It stayed at number-one in Australia for eight weeks, ultimately becoming the best-selling single of 1999. It also topped almost every chart in continental Europe, including Bega's home country, Germany, and set a record by staying at number-one in France for 20 weeks. The song reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US on November 2, 1999, giving Bega his only Top 40 hit in the US.


Other cover versions
  • CKBE-FM David Tyler 1999.
  • A Bob the Builder version of the song, with the female names replaced with types of construction supplies and building tasks (timber, saw, waterproofing, tiling) reached number one in the UK, number two in Australia and number four in Ireland in 2001.
  • A ninety-second cover version was created for the Korean rhythm dance game Pump It Up.
  • A cover of the original Perez Prado version appeared in Guinness's famous 1998 "Swimblack" advertisement.
  • Max Raabe backed by the Palast Orchester included a vintage arrangement version of the song on their 2001 Superhits album.
  • Filipino jazz singer Richard Poon covered the song on the Filipino compilation album 90's Music Comes Alive in 2012.
  • Cover versions, with slightly different lyrics in each version, have been heard in Party City commercials.

Parodies

WHTZ DJ David Brody released a parody version named "Matzah No. 5" which aired on radio stations throughout the country. Performed by "Louie Bagel", the parody takes on various Jewish stereotypes. He also released a parody entitled "Bimbo No. 5" referring to the Monica Lewinsky scandal, wherein DJ Nelson imitates the voice of Bill Clinton. The song is commonly mis-attributed to both "Weird Al" Yankovic and Paul Shanklin. Also released was "Combo No.5"; the parody takes on ordering combo dinners from a Chinese take-away.



Legacy
  • The original recording by Pérez Prado was inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.
  • "Mambo No. 5" was ranked sixth in a 2007 poll conducted by Rolling Stone to identify the 20 most annoying songs.
  • This song was initially selected as the theme song of the 2000 Democratic National Convention, but this plan was scrapped due to the possibility of people associating the song with the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
  • On September 11, 2010, Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio ranked the Lou Bega cover of the song at number 95 on the list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, joking, "Can you imagine how bad Nos. 1 through 4 must have been? Let's all band together and make sure there's never a No. 6!"

All info gathered from Wikipedia (Because it's the internet - you can trust it! LOL)

So whether you Love it or Hate it (or somewhere in-between) - here's your earworm for today:

https://youtu.be/EK_LN3XEcnw





What does tomorrow bring?

Will it be Night Ranger?  Nazareth?  Nelly?

or maybe "Never Gonna Give You Up"?  "Numb"?  "No Diggity"?

or perhaps a style/genre - New Age? Nature Sounds? New Wave?

Tune in to find out! 


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