NRR Project: “Mambo No. 5”
Written by Perez Prado
Performed by Perez Prado and His Orchestra
Recorded 1949; released 1950
2:10
First, read Gustavo Perez Firmat’s expert essay on this selection at the National Recording Registry.
Few can understand the enormity of the mambo craze. EVERYBODY made a mambo recording. If you have ever gone through your great-grandparents’ LP collection, the odds are good that you will find some old mambo albums there. This dance for two is relatively simple, and it swept the country like proverbial wildfire. It was exuberant, flashy. It matched the mood of the times, when America ruled the free world and nightclubs proliferated across the landscape.
The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next time: Teardrops from My Eyes.
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