The Best of Perez Prado: The Original Mambo No. 5

Performer: Perez Prado
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Cuban-born Perez Prado was one of the main popularizers of Latin music in the postwar U.S.: his mambo instrumentals formed part of the soundtrack to the country's 1950s prosperity. Nowadays regarded as a kitsch delight, tunes like "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White," "Mambo No. 5," and "Patricia" once featured heavily in the pop charts in both America and Europe, and were also included in contemporary movie soundtracks like Federico Fellini's LA DOLCE VITA. This best-of gathers many of Prado's most popular pieces, including "Anna (El Negro Zumbon)" and a kitschy reworking of SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS' "Heigh-Ho," in a homage to Latin big band pop.

D�maso P�rez Prado, the original Mambo King, served time as an arranger and pianist in several Havana-based bands in the 1930s. By the '40s, the traditional Cuban danzon style was evolving into newer, African-inspired sounds like the cha-cha and the mambo. With an irresistible syncopated rhythm and sensual, brass-heavy melodies, mambo dovetailed nicely with the popular swing music of the day. Prado began to plant the mambo seeds farther away from home, and by the '50s, the mambo craze had taken hold in the U.S. While Prado was not the first musician to play this music, he wrote and/or recorded some of the biggest mambo hits of the era. Though the craze eventually faded, Prado performed and recorded until his death in 1989.

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