1932-1937

Antobal's Cubans | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 24, 1998)
• Original Release Date: 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Harlequin Records
• ASIN: B00000DMIK
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,062,238 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. La mulata rumbera

2. Los tres golpes

3. Para vigo me voy (Say 'Si Si')

4. Marianna

5. Hot tamales

6. Mammy bong

7. Spic and Spanish

8. Songo songo

9. A gozar (Let's be gay)

10. La conga (Havana's calling me)

11. The moon over Cuba was high and so was I

12. My Margarita

13. Virgen (In a Cuban garden)

14. El trapero (Old clothes)

15. They all look alike to Pancho

16. El maraquero

17. The night the lady said 'No'

18. Tierra tropical (The Cuban in me)

19. No se puede (Said the monkey)

20. Viene la conga

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great old music, marred by iffy cultural politics, June 12, 2003

By 

DJ Joe Sixpack (...in Middle America) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: 1932-1937 (Audio CD)

Don Antobal was the brother of famed bandleader Don Azpiazu, whose contemporary work included the huge, breakthrough hit, "El Manisero" aka "The Peanut Vendor." He followed his brother into the music business, fronting another highly successful dance orchestra during the Depression years. Working with him over the years was wife, Marion Sunshine, a vaudeville performer who moved into Latin dance material and helped translate Azpiazu's smash hit, "El Manisero" ("The Peanut Vendor") in 1931, and who went on to compose or translate numerous other hits in years to come. Her work here ranges from cute novelty tunes such as "La Mulata Rumbera (sung here by the great bolero singer, Antonio Machin) and "The Moon Over Cuba Was High (And So Was I)" to more questionable ethnic humor such as "Hot Tamales" and "They All Look Alike To Pancho." There's other racist material on here as well, most of which is charming and some of which, like "Spic And Spanish," is a reprehensible relic of an era long gone. One odd, interesting side note to all this is that about half the tracks on here feature vocals by popular singer Chick Bullock, performing under the paper-thin pseudonym, Chiquito Bullo, in sort of the Latin American equivalent of blackface minstrel shows. Antobal certainly wasn't alone in trafficking in "manana" stereotypes, but this disc does seem to have a higher proportion of this kind of tune that most... One can find all the stereotypes and bad puns either as simply offensive, or as noteworthy traces of an older, earlier showbusiness era. The music itself, though, is top-notch, and is what redeems these old, historical recordings.