Lou Bega: Mambo No. 5 (a Little Bit of…)

Continuing my list of the best music of 1999, today’s selection is the cult classic song of the year. No one had heard of Lou Bega before he released the single “Mambo No. 5 (a Little Bit of…)” in April 1999. It was a world-wide hit and dominated the global charts throughout the summer and fall. I’m not going to say much more about Bega or the tune. It liberally samples the 1949 Perez Prado song “Mambo No. 5,” the lyrics are ridiculous, and the groove is infectious. I dare anyone not to dance when this one comes on the radio. What I will say is that 1999 holds a special place in Ms. Faux’s and my heart. This is the year we got engaged, bought our first house, and officially started our life together. As part of that new beginning, we started doing a lot of CD shopping together and began building an extensive joint music collection. A lot of that CD shopping occurred at a local CD store with dozens of music stations for listening to the new releases of the week. This was all pre-internet and pre-streaming, so CD stores like that were a must if one wanted to discover new music. Many of the contenders for my best of 1999 list were discovered through purchases at that store or other similar stores we visited. One of them was Lou Bega. I can’t say that the album holds up, but we certainly enjoyed it at the time and it brings back a lot of great memories.

To learn more about Lou Bega, check out his Wikipedia page.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

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