There was a time when most of the albums coming down the pike for Record Club were new, or new-ish, albums. I think that made sense for a while. But I think it also makes sense to cover some old albums too, some classics, so unforgettable no-miss albums that everyone on earth loves and you will too, when you hear it. I have a good feeling that this week's album is one of those oldies-but-goodies. Thanks to our blogging pal Gilson, for loving Lou Bega this much, for probably on some days even being the guy's favorite artist of all time. And thanks to everyone in Record Club, for keeping this space alive, so that we can go back in time and revisit one of the greatest albums ever. It is truly a gift.
GILSON'S SONG: "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)" — Day 86, "A pro-women anthem"
VOTING RESULTS: Like Pat's Sugar Ray by Sugar Ray, this album was chosen for Gilson by vote, as voted on by the seven Song Challengers who were fully participating. Gilson chose not to participate, and his punishment will be to write a review for Lou Bega's A Little Bit of Mambo. But here were the other potential punishments.
GILSON'S COMMENTS: "I'm so mad about this."
9/1 — Street Worms by Viagra Boys (Sunny's album chosen by Brianna) ✔
9/8 — Infinite Arms by Band of Horses (Zach's album chosen by Sara) ✔
9/15 — Sugar Ray by Sugar Ray (Pat's album chosen by vote) ✔
9/22 — Stankonia by OutKast (Joe's album chosen by Sunny) ✔
9/29 — A Little Bit of Mambo by Lou Bega (Gilson's album chosen by vote) ←
Record Club:
WEEK 296 — September 29-October 5, 2024
A Little Bit of Mambo
by Lou Bega
LISTEN:
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PICKED BY VOTE
BASED ON YSC SONG BY GILSON
VOTING RESULTS: Like Pat's Sugar Ray by Sugar Ray, this album was chosen for Gilson by vote, as voted on by the seven Song Challengers who were fully participating. Gilson chose not to participate, and his punishment will be to write a review for Lou Bega's A Little Bit of Mambo. But here were the other potential punishments.
- More Scared of You Than You Are of Me by the Smith Street Band (Day 119) — 1 vote
- I-Feel-like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die by Country Joe and the Fish (Day 15) — 2 votes
- Fiestas + Fiascos by Lifter Puller (Day 62) — 2 votes
- Chroma by Cartel (Day 40) — 3 votes
- A Little Bit of Mambo by Lou Bega (Day 86) — 4 votes
GILSON'S COMMENTS: "I'm so mad about this."
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ALBUM DETAILS
GENRE: Latin pop, swing revival, contemporary R&B, mambo, dance-pop
RELEASED: July 19, 1999
LENGTH: 43:04
TRACKLIST:
- Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)
- Baby Keep Smiling
- Lou's Café
- Can I Tico Tico You
- I Got a Girl
- Tricky, Tricky
- Icecream
- Beauty on the TV-Screen
- 1+1=2
- The Most Expensive Girl in the World
- The Trumpet Part II
- Trumpet Reprise
- Mambo Mambo
LYRICS: Genius
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ARTIST DETAILS
PRONOUNS: he/him/his
ABOUT: Not sure why I even need to fill out this space, since there's a Lou Bega biopic that you can just watch if you really wanna know that much about him. But just in case you are a cold, heartless bastard, here is the story of Lou Bega, told in maybe four additional sentences. Lou Bega was born David Lubega Balemezi on April 13, 1975, in Munich, Bavaria. He grew up in Italy with his mom, then Germany with his dad, and visited Miami as a teenager, where he received inspiration for a little song that ended up captivating a nation. Prior to discovering Latin music, he was a thirteen-year-old rapper in Germany. Smash cut to 2024, when he, at the age of 49, is still mamboing all over the world. Wikipedia is sure to note that "Bega has appeared on stage for royals as well as international corporations," which really says a lot about his success. He is a Grammy nominee, and a hardcore bible-thumper.
DISCOGRAPHY: The man has seven classic albums, A Little Bit of Mambo being his very first. The most recent is 90s Cruiser in 2021, a collection of '90s covers, which comes eight years after A Little Bit of 80s, a collection of '80s covers. In between, there was 2018's Walk to the River ("featuring Jenieva, his wife").
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ADDITIONAL INFO
READING SOME SHIT: 2019 feature in Vanity Fair
WATCHING SOME SHIT: unfortunately, I will not watch Ed Sheeran covering "Mambo No. 5" in a car, but I'll still link to it, in case you want to watch
PREVIOUSLY ON RECORD CLUB: RC artists that share a name with one of the Mambo No. 5 girls: Pamela, Tina (Turner), Mary (Lattimore), maybe Jessie Ware (short for Jessica?). This list is possibly incomplete, since I only started listing band members' names in the Sunday write-up two years ago, and it could be that there's been a band we've covered with a Sandra or a Rita or a Monica. But should I continue, I can't imagine it getting sweeter.
I can, however, name at least one other Lou off the top of my head—the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed. And there's also been one other mambo—T. Rex's "Mambo Sun" off of Electric Warrior.
Let's see, what else, what else. Lou Bega is technically part of the '90s swing revival, which also notably includes Squirrel Nut Zippers, of whom Andrew Bird is a former and/or sometimes member. The 2000 Grammys, when Lou Bega received a nom, also featured nominations for the Chicks, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthews, Neil Diamond, Tori Amos, Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Beck, Destiny's Child, the Roots, Missy Elliott, Dolly Parton. I only saw three wins out of those two dozen nominations or so. Lou Bega went 0 for 1.
Finally, let us acknowledge that "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)" has hit #1 in the UK twice. Once for Lou Bega's version, and then again for a version by... Bob the Builder. No, I'm not kidding. It was #1 for one week, and the only reason that it didn't go for longer than that was because it happened to debut at #1 on September 9, 2001, and after the planes hit the towers, it was deemed "too disrespectful" for BBC to play a song about construction... I don't know, man, maybe because 9/11 was technically a deconstruction? I'm not trying to make a joke, I'm genuinely curious as to why this song was removed from playlists.
IN ANY CASE, I can't not use these tidbits in this Sunday write-up, so I am forced to make a connection between Bob the Builder and any other RC artist, even if that connection is tenuous or strained. And here's what I came up with: the voice of Bob is Neil Morrissey, who starred in 2017's Diana & I with Kingsley Ben-Adir, who also starred in 2023's Barbie, where he danced to a song from Dua Lipa (and Sam Smith and Tame Impala and PinkPantheress and strip club aficionado Lizzo). Not a great connection, but now you know what was the #1 song in the UK on 9/11, so it was worth it, I hope.
DOCUMENTING VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS'S VINYL PURCHASES:
(a bit that will continue every week from now until either she loses the Presidential election (hopefully not), or the meme generator gets shut down) (wowowow can't believe Chappell Roan is voting for Kamala Harris, good thing her fans are listening to her about giving her a break)
I can, however, name at least one other Lou off the top of my head—the Velvet Underground's Lou Reed. And there's also been one other mambo—T. Rex's "Mambo Sun" off of Electric Warrior.
Let's see, what else, what else. Lou Bega is technically part of the '90s swing revival, which also notably includes Squirrel Nut Zippers, of whom Andrew Bird is a former and/or sometimes member. The 2000 Grammys, when Lou Bega received a nom, also featured nominations for the Chicks, Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthews, Neil Diamond, Tori Amos, Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Beck, Destiny's Child, the Roots, Missy Elliott, Dolly Parton. I only saw three wins out of those two dozen nominations or so. Lou Bega went 0 for 1.
Finally, let us acknowledge that "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)" has hit #1 in the UK twice. Once for Lou Bega's version, and then again for a version by... Bob the Builder. No, I'm not kidding. It was #1 for one week, and the only reason that it didn't go for longer than that was because it happened to debut at #1 on September 9, 2001, and after the planes hit the towers, it was deemed "too disrespectful" for BBC to play a song about construction... I don't know, man, maybe because 9/11 was technically a deconstruction? I'm not trying to make a joke, I'm genuinely curious as to why this song was removed from playlists.
IN ANY CASE, I can't not use these tidbits in this Sunday write-up, so I am forced to make a connection between Bob the Builder and any other RC artist, even if that connection is tenuous or strained. And here's what I came up with: the voice of Bob is Neil Morrissey, who starred in 2017's Diana & I with Kingsley Ben-Adir, who also starred in 2023's Barbie, where he danced to a song from Dua Lipa (and Sam Smith and Tame Impala and PinkPantheress and strip club aficionado Lizzo). Not a great connection, but now you know what was the #1 song in the UK on 9/11, so it was worth it, I hope.
DOCUMENTING VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS'S VINYL PURCHASES:
(a bit that will continue every week from now until either she loses the Presidential election (hopefully not), or the meme generator gets shut down) (wowowow can't believe Chappell Roan is voting for Kamala Harris, good thing her fans are listening to her about giving her a break)
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9/1 — Street Worms by Viagra Boys (Sunny's album chosen by Brianna) ✔
9/8 — Infinite Arms by Band of Horses (Zach's album chosen by Sara) ✔
9/15 — Sugar Ray by Sugar Ray (Pat's album chosen by vote) ✔
9/22 — Stankonia by OutKast (Joe's album chosen by Sunny) ✔
9/29 — A Little Bit of Mambo by Lou Bega (Gilson's album chosen by vote) ←
10/6 — Bando Stone and the New World by Childish Gambino (Brianna's album chosen by Nate)
10/13 — Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman (Maeve's album chosen by vote)
10/20 — Bleed Out by the Mountain Goats (Nate's album chosen by Allison)
10/27 — Infest by Papa Roach (Boober's album chosen by vote)
11/3 — Born This Way by Lady Gaga (Sara's album chosen by Joe)
11/10 — Metamorphosis by Hilary Duff (Bridget's album chosen by vote)
11/17 — Forever for Now by LP (Allison's album chosen by Zach)~~~~~~~~~~
RC CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Every week from now on, we're giving a quick re-listen to the RC album we covered five years ago exactly. Check out the quick reevaluation every Friday morning, before the regular reviews. Reevaluation, reflection, something like that.
Every week from now on, we're giving a quick re-listen to the RC album we covered five years ago exactly. Check out the quick reevaluation every Friday morning, before the regular reviews. Reevaluation, reflection, something like that.
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Happy listening, RC family!
Have a great week!
Have a great week!
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