Cuban-born bandleader Xavier Cugat (1900-1990) did more than anyone else to establish the popularity of Latin dance music, particularly the rumba, in the U.S. during the 1930s and 40s.
Cugat continued to be a popular live (particularly in Las Vegas) and recording artist long after the commercial peak of Latin dance music had passed. In the 1950s, he was recording for RCA Victor and from his catalogue for that company the budget label Pair put together a compilation called Say Si! Si! in 1994. This long out-of-print release was issued in all three formats -- vinyl, cassette and CD.
Among the recordings on Say Si! Si! was Granada, which first appeared on a 1959 RCA release, Cugat in Spain.
You can get Granada from the link below. The MP3 is taken from the cassette release of Say Si! Si!.
Granada
Say Si! Si! is available on CD for next to nothing (how does 10 or 11 cents sound?) in the Amazon Marketplace. Cugat's RCA recordings have been repackaged numerous times on CD and many of them are available as downloads. Check the usual sources.
Below is a rather odd Cugat novelty, Gesundheit, issued on an RCA Victor 45 in 1958 (Billy's Cha Cha was on the flip side).
No comments:
Post a Comment