Mambo with Sonny Burke

A short while back I offered the first US LP by Pérez Prado, mentioning that it was issued after bandleader Sonny Burke had had an American hit with a cover version of one of Prado's tunes.

Here is that Burke record - Mambo Jambo - which includes a selection of other mambo items that Burke issued after his initial success with the title tune.

Burke was an accomplished arranger and these sides are actually quite good in their own way, if not with the idiomatic touches that make Perez's records so satisfying. So, for example, instead of Perez's perfectly timed interjections of "dilo!" (which he somehow turns into one syllable), you get a sloppy band shout of "ugh!" And instead of the great vocalist Beny Moré, you get that horrible swing-era convention, the band vocal. As usual, the band here sounds bored, embarrassed and a little irritated - why this sort of thing became popular is an enduring mystery.

My friend Ernie asked for this record because he somehow acquired the cover above without the record inside (actually records - it's a double EP), and always wondered what the music sounds like. Now he knows.

Picking up a cover with no record (or the wrong record) is an all too frequent annoyance for the record collector. Right now I am looking at one of my favorite record covers, which I unfortunately found with no record. It is called Authentic Music from Another Planet, in which ufologist Howard Menger plays music taught to him by a man from Saturn (the planet, not the car company). Also on the record is music inspired by Marla Baxter, who claims to have had a lover from Saturn - a tall, well-built man with a golden beard, she says. There are photos of Howard and Marla on the LP, but none of the tall, well built man with the beard.

Since I don't have the record, you will never learn what the people of Saturn were listening to in 1956, when this record came out. (Presumably it wasn't Elvis.) Sorry!