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

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.

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...Read more

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