Perez Prado
The Best of Perez Prado: The Original Mambo #5
1954

I hadn’t heard of Perez until recently, though I was familiar with his music, which has been sampled by the Avalanches and Lou Bega (Mambo #5 obviously), and used as the soundtrack for Jonathan Glazer’s Guinness commercials and Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. It even serves as the theme song for the newer editions of HBO’s Real Sex series. Raised in Cuba and later relocated to Mexico, Perez was the master of the mambo; he resembled a quirky bizarro Esquivel in many ways, his music a goldmine of happy oddness. If you ever hunt the man down on YouTube, you’ll be most amazed by his intense conductorship, frilly arm pieces, occasional yelps and cries, and ability to make the mambo worthy of afternoon chill-outs, wonderful daydreams, high-end art shows, and Venezuelan wedding parties.