Perez Prado

This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Pérez and the second or maternal family name is Prado.

Dámaso Pérez Prado
Pérez Prado album il Re del Mambo
Background information
Birth name	Dámaso Pérez Prado
Also known as	"Prez" Prado "The King of the Mambo"
Born	December 11, 1916(1916-12-11) Matanzas, Cuba
Died	September 14, 1989(1989-09-14) (aged 72) Mexico City, Mexico
Genres	Mambo
Occupations	Musician, arranger, bandleader, composer

Dámaso Pérez Prado (December 11, 1916 – September 14, 1989) was a Cuban bandleader, musician (singer, organist and pianist), and composer. He is often referred to as the 'King of the Mambo'.^[1]

His orchestra was the most popular in mambo. His son, Pérez Prado, Jr., continues to direct the Pérez Prado Orchestra in Mexico City to this day.

Biography

Early life

Born as Dámaso Pérez Prado in Matanzas, Cuba, his mother was a school teacher, his father a newspaper man. He studied classical piano in his early childhood, and later played organ and piano in local clubs. For a time, he was pianist and arranger for the Sonora Matancera, Cuba's best-known musical group. He also worked with casino orchestras in Havana for most of the 1940s, and gained a reputation for being an imaginative (his solo playing style predated bebop by at least five years), loud player.^{[citation needed]} He was nicknamed "El Cara de Foca" ("Seal Face") by his peers at the time.^[1]

In 1948 he moved to Mexico to form his own band and record for RCA Victor. He quickly specialized in mambos, an upbeat adaptation of the Cuban danzón. Prado's mambos stood out among the competition, with their fiery brass riffs and strong saxophone counterpoints, and most of all, Pérez's trademark grunts (he actually says "¡Dilo!", or "Say it!", in many of the perceived grunts). In 1950 arranger Sonny Burke heard "Que rico el mambo" while on vacation in Mexico and recorded it back in the United States as "Mambo Jambo". The single was a hit, which caused Prado to launch a US tour. His appearances in 1951 were sell-outs and he began recording US releases for RCA Victor.^[1]

Famous pieces and hits

Prado is the composer of such famous pieces as "Mambo No. 5" (later a UK chart-topper for both Lou Bega in 1999 and animated character Bob the Builder in 2001) and "Mambo No. 8". At the height of the mambo movement, in 1955, Prado hit the American charts at number one with a cha-cha version of "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" (composed by French composer Louiguy). This arrangement, featuring trumpeter Billy Regis, held the spot for 10 consecutive weeks. The song also went to number one in the UK^[2] and in Germany.^[3] Prado had first covered this title for the movie Underwater! in 1954, where Jane Russell can be seen dancing to "Cherry Pink". In 1958 one of Prado's own compositions, "Patricia", became the last record to ascend to #1 on the Jockeys and Top 100 charts, both of which gave way the following week to the then newly-introduced Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song also went to number one in Germany, and in the UK it reached number eight.^[4]

However, since the Castro government took over Cuba, it prohibited any existing recordings of him and his orchestra from being put into a record compilation for many years. For this reason, phony or secondary versions of "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" and "Patricia" were put into compilations instead, disappointing a lot of Prado fans. This, however, changed only in the mid-1990s.^{[citation needed]}

International popularity

Alfredo Ruiz del Rio S. and Dámaso Pérez Prado

His popularity in the United States matched the peak of the first wave of interest in Latin music outside the Latino communities during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. He also performed in films in the United States and Europe, as well as in Mexican cinema (Rumberas film), always with his trademark goatee and turtle-neck sweaters and vests. With the end of the 1950s, his success waned, and the years gave way to new rhythms, like rock 'n roll and then pop music. His association with RCA ended in the 1960s, and his recorded output was mainly limited to smaller labels and recycled Latin-style anthologies.

Later life

In the early 1970s Prado permanently returned to his apartment off Mexico City's grand Paseo de la Reforma to live with his wife and two children, son Dámaso Pérez Salinas (known as Perez Prado, Jr.) and daughter María Engracia. His career in Latin America was still strong. He toured and continued to record material which was released in Mexico, South America, and Japan. He was revered as one of the reigning giants of the music industry and was a regular performer on Mexican television. In Japan, a live concert recording of his 1973 tour was released on LP in an early 4-channel format known as Quadraphonic.

In 1981 Prado was featured in a musical revue entitled Sun which enjoyed a long run in the Mexican capital.

In 1983 someone who had used his name had died, and the press erroneously reported the death of bandleader Pérez Prado.^{[citation needed]}

His last United States appearance was at Hollywood on September 12, 1987, when he played to a packed house. This was also the year of his last recording.

Persistent ill health plagued him for the next two years, and he died of a stroke in Mexico City on September 14, 1989, aged 72.

Alumni of Pérez Prado's orchestra

During his lifetime, a cast of musical luminaries passed through his orchestra, including:

• Alex Acuña, percussionist
• Pete Candoli, trumpeter
• Beny Moré, singer
• Johnny Pacheco, percussionist
• Armando Peraza, percussionist
• Mongo Santamaría, percussionist

In popular culture

"Patricia" was later featured in

• the striptease scene in Federico Fellini's 1960 movie La dolce vita
• background music for a pool party in the 1969 film Goodbye, Columbus
• the episode "Some Enchanted Evening" of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, first aired on May 13, 1990^[5]
• a long-running series of famous TV commercials for the Royal Mail in the UK (using the slogan "I Saw This And Thought Of You") between 1996 and 2003
• the closing credits of HBO's Real Sex series

His mambo records and the joyous dancing they caused are described in a late chapter of Jack Kerouac's seminal novel, On The Road (1957).

His songs "Caballo Negro", "Lupita", and "Mambo n.8" are featured in the film Santa Sangre (1989) by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

His recording of "Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White)" features in the films Deal of the Century (1983), Cookie (1989), and Parents (1989).

In the decade after his death, the popularity of Prado's music was on the rise again. CD reissues of his RCA recordings continue to sell steadily. "Guaglione"peaked at number 2 in the UK Singles Chart in 1995,^[4] following its use in the Guinness television commercial Anticipation. "Mambo No. 5" was featured in another Guinness commercial in 1999 (the same year Lou Bega took his cover version of that same song to the top of the UK chart).^[6]

The soundtrack to the 1999 movie Office Space features two of his performances, "Mambo No. 8" and "The Peanut Vendor."^[7]

The soundtrack to the 2004 movie Diarios de Motocicleta features Prado's "Qué rico el mambo", more commonly known as "Mambo Jambo".

Avant-garde musician Nurse With Wound released a compilation entitled Funeral Music for Perez Prado in 2001. The album's title track exceeds 30 minutes.

List of popular songs

"Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" "A Go Go Mambo" "Concierto para Bongo" "Fantasia" "Ballin' The Jack" "Guaglione" "Que Rico el Mambo" "Mambo No. 5" "Mambo #8" "Mambo del Politécnico" "Chicago Dengue" "Mambo Universitario" "The High and Mighty"

"Tomando Cafe" "La Niña Popoff" "Patricia" "Mambo en Sax" "Mambo a la Kenton" "Mambo del Ruletero" "Mambo del Taconazo" "Mambo en trompeta" "Marylin Monroe Mambo" "Lupita" "Claudia" "La Chula Linda" "Tico, Tico, Tico"

Partial Discography

Prado recorded for RCA Victor from 1950 to 1965.

• Perez Prado Plays Mucho Mambo For Dancing (1951)
• Voodoo Suite (1955)
• Mambo By The King (1955)
• Mambo Mania (1955)
• Havana 3 A.M. (1956)
• Latin Satin (1957)
• Mambo Happy (1958)
• Dilo (Ugh!) (1958)
• "Prez" (1958) - Prado's only US Top 40 album, reaching the #22 spot in May 1959^[8]
• Pops and Prado (1959)
• A Touch of Tabasco with Rosemary Clooney (1960)
• Big Hits By Prado (1960)
• Perez Prado's Rockambo (1961)
• Exotic Suite of the Americas (1962)
• Our Man In Latin America (1963)
• The Best Of Perez Prado (1967) Reissue of "Big Hits By Prado"
• This Is Perez Prado (1971)
• Perez Prado - Pure Gold (1975) Another reissue of "Big Hits By Prado"

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Allmusic biography
2. ^ Stephen Nugent, Pete Fowler, Annie Fowler: Chart Log Of American/British Top 20 Hits, 1955-1973. In: Charlie Gillett, Simon Frith (eds.): Rock File 4. Frogmore, St. Albans: Panther Books Ltd. 1976, p. 276
3. ^ Günter Ehnert (ed.): Hit Bilanz. Deutsche Chart Singles 1956-1980. Hamburg: Taurus Press 1990, p. 162
4. ^ ^{a b} Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 433. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
5. ^ http://www.snpp.com
6. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 52. ISBN 1-904994-10-5. 
7. ^ http://www.imdb.com
8. ^ Joel Whitburn, "The Billboard Book of Top 40 Albums" (1991), p. 208.

External links

• Complete Pérez Prado Discography
• Perez Prado at the Internet Movie Database
• Perez Prado discography at MusicBrainz
• Perez Prado at Allmusic
• "Mambo", a documentary about Perez Prado

Persondata
Name	Perez Prado, Damaso
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 11, 1916
Place of birth	Matanzas, Cuba
Date of death	September 14, 1989
Place of death	Mexico City, Mexico