“Mambo no. 5” by Lou Bega

This song is basically the modern equivalent of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” or “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah”…a novelty song that takes its tune from an established classic. This is basically a Forties Mambo classic by legendary bandleader Damaso Perez Prado with some out-of-place synthesizer instrumentation and some really stupid lyrics added. The borrowed tune carries it, and it’s actually kind of enjoyable if you can tune out the moronic lyrics, but in an era where music is so easy to find, it’s worth the trouble to seek out the original, which has vastly better instrumentation and virtually no lyrics to begin with, and is a much more distinguished execution of this tune.

Verdict: Not terrible, but only because of its stolen tune, and even then the original is a hundred times better.

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