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

Perez Prado | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 30, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000E0OCHI
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,038 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #9 in Music > World Music > Caribbean & Cuba > Cuba > Big Band
  • #33 in Music > World Music > Caribbean & Cuba > Cuba > Mambo
  • #56 in Music > Latin Music > Tropical > Merengue

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic tracks, April 18, 2006

By 

Santiago (Birmingham, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Pérez Prado: The Original Mambo No. 5 (Audio CD)

This is the best Perez Prado album available. It has all the originals which were the best. Great sound considering the original hits (Mambo No.5, Mambo No.8, Que rico el mambo) were recorded in 1950. Ignore the first review that was written by someone who knows little about Perez Prado.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars As A "Best Of" This Has Some Drawbacks, September 24, 2011

By 

AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Best of Pérez Prado: The Original Mambo No. 5 (Audio CD)

Accomplished pianist/organist Damaso Perez Prado, who was born on December 11, 1916 in Mantanzas, Cuba, spent his early days playing piano and doing the arranging for the renowned Cuban band Sonora Matancer, as well as finding steady work throughout the 1940s in the various Havana casinos with several different bands. After relocating to Mexico in late 1948 where he formed his own band, he began to focus most of his music on the Mambo, which was more less an up-tempo version of the traditional Cuban danzón.

A tour of the U.S. in the early 1950s led to a rise in popularity of the Mambo and an RCA Victor recording contract. For the next several years he would record prolifically for the label with close to 30 single releases not to mention LPs and E.P.s, resulting in 7 hit singles, some of which are in this release.

His first hit came in August 1953 when Anna, the title tune from the film of the same name, made it to # 29 on RCA Victor 20-5367 b/w Sylvana Mangano, a tribute to the film's star and unfortunately not included here. Over a year later his version of the much-recorded South African song Skokiian topped out at # 26 in September 1954 on RCA Victor 20-5839 b/w his cover of another hit from the time, The High And The Mighty (also omitted here).

Then came the hit that would elevate him to the top of the heap, Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White, based on a French song from 1950 which was featured in the film Underwater. With trumpeter Billy Regis leading the way, it soared to # 1 in the spring of 1955 where it stayed for ten incredible weeks, spending half a year in total on the charts. The flipside on RCA Victor 20-5965, Rhythm Sticks, is another omission.

He would then disappear from the charts for almost 3 years before, right in the midst of the Rock 'N' Roll explosion, he scored again with Patricia, once more reaching # 1 Pop as well as # 1 R&B (2 weeks) in the summer of 1958 on RCA Victor 20-7245 b/w Why Wait? (not here). Later that fall he would have Guaglione, from the Dean Martin film Ten Thousand Bedrooms, peak at # 53 on RCA Victor 20-7237 b/w Paris, which also charted at # 95. But that B-side is also left out of this so-cal;led "best of" album.

Four years later he would have his 7th and final charted hit when Patricia - Twist, an attempt to cash in on the new craze started by Chubby Checker, struggled to a # 65 b/w Ti-Pi-Tin - Twist on RCA Victor 20-8006. Perez Prado died on September 14, 1989.

While not a bad compilation of the man's music - and certainly representative of his signature 'sound' - it seems to me that something labelled his "best" should at least include all the hits that earned him enough air- and jukebox-play to get him onto the charts, not to mention their B-sides. The sound quality is certainly adequate.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The inventor of mambo, February 1, 2009

By 

J. G. Aymerich "Jose G Rosay" (Madrid, Spain) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Best of Pérez Prado: The Original Mambo No. 5 (Audio CD)

Mambo number 5, the second best piece in 20th century, after Stravinsky Sacre du printemps