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Mambo Santa MamboDespite appearances, Mambo Santa Mambo: Christmas From The Latin Lounge (Rhino Records, 2000) isn't about Latin music, per se. Rather, it's about the Latin music craze that gripped American pop like a tropical fever during the 1950's - more like Ricky Ricardo and Carmen Miranda than Pedro Infante or Tito Puente. This was Latin music smartly packaged for an urbane, white market.

To wit, several artists on Mambo Santa Mambo are actual Anglos (Billy May, Hugo Winterhalter), and most sing mainly in English. Plus, the release closely followed a lounge music revival that sprung up during the post-grunge 1990's. All the same, Mambo Santa Mambo is a bona fide riot, alternating slinky grooves with goofy novelties ("How can Santa come to Puerto Rico," asks little Ricky Vera, "when there isn't any snow?"). Luckily, Rhino also makes time for some salsa muy authentica, courtesy Celia Cruz, and even a little rock 'n' roll, most notably the Enchanters' doo wop classic that lends Mambo Santa Mambo its name.

Perhaps the most entertaining moments, though, are the straight-ahead dance numbers - most of them simply applying Latin rhythms to Christmas standards. We are treated to "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," for instance, arranged as both a mambo (Billy May) and a cha cha (Hernando Hopkins). We also get "The Christmas Song," "Snowfall," "Here Comes Santa Claus," and "Jingle Bells" (three times!) underpinned by a variety of spicy Latin beats. With this sort of Latin music, you see, it's all about the dance - how you move it is as important as what you move it to. The first priority of a good Latin record is to get your hips shaking, and though some of these artists are about as Latin as mayonnaise (Steve Allen? Jimmy Boyd?), Mambo Santa Mambo gets that part right.

All that said, Mambo Santa Mambo does include a few original songs, none more key to the hip Christmas canon than "We Wanna See Santa Do The Mambo," a song recorded at least three times in 1954. This one is by Bill Darnel, a white singer then in the twilight of his performing career, recorded for "X" Records, a short-lived subsidiary of RCA, and it's the most Latin-sounding of the bunch. The song was also waxed by Terry Fell & The Fellers (see Bear Family's Christmas On The Range) for the country market, also on "X", and by Big John Greer (see Rhino's Hipsters' Holiday) for the R&B market on Groove Records, another RCA imprint. Despite Nipper's best efforts, the song was not a hit. In fact, none of the three records registered on the charts. But, in the decades since, "We Wanna See Santa Do The Mambo" has become something of a statement of purpose for hipsters hoping to hotwire their holidays with un poco de ritmo caliente.

Mambo Mania: The Kings and Queens of MamboA Fly In The Salsa

As was their practice on historical compilations like Mambo Santa Mambo, Rhino lamentably included one pointlessly out-of-place modern song, the Flashcats' tasteless "December Twenty 5" (1999). Falling nearly 30 years after the next-most recent track, this synthesized piece of crap plays off two then-contemporary hits, "Mambo No. 5" (Lou Bega) and "Livin' La Vida Loca" (Ricky Martin). Not only does the joke fall flat as a tortilla, it all but ruins the festive mood set by the rest of the tracks. ¡Ay, caramba!

It's worth noting, though, that Rhino released Mambo Santa Mambo as a sequel of sorts to Mambo Mania: The Kings and Queens of Mambo (1995). Then, they released an actual sequel, Mas Mambo Mania: More Kings and Queens of Mambo, the following year. The Mambo Mania discs tend to be more authentico than the ephemeral Mambo Santa Mambo - which, as I've shown, is beside the point.

And finally, Mambo Santa Mambo is just one of a long series of Christmas compilations Rhino released at the height of the CD era. Between 1988 and 2001, we got about two dozen marvelous compilations documenting holiday music in a dizzying variety of genres: country, jazz, blues, doo wop, reggae, punk, new wave, swing, and more (read all about it). All of them, unfortunately, are long out-of-print, and none of them made the leap to the world of downloads and streaming due the complex licensing involved. Copies might be available at places like Amazon, Discogs, or eBay, and some of the tracks can be streamed from other sources.

Postscript


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It took me nearly 30 years - and the intrepid ears of Ernie (Not Bert) - to figure this out, but Rhino used an incomplete master of "How Can Santa Come To Puerto Rico?" when they compiled Mambo Santa Mambo. On the original Coral 78-rpm record, little Ricky Vera sings a duet with pianist and songwriter Steve Allen, and they engage in some cute comic dialogue. But, Allen's vocal track is completely missing on the Rhino CD. Those were the early days of multi-track recording and, apparently, Allen overdubbed his vocal at a separate session. And, Rhino - or Universal, which owes the Coral masters - pulled the wrong tape, and nobody involved spotted the problem. Unfortunately, the song has never again been legitimately reissued. Copies of the original recording, however, can be found on the web, most easily on YouTube. [top of page]

Albums Albums

SongsEssential Songs

  • The Christmas Song Cha Cha (Hugo Winterhalter, 1958)
  • Corrido de Auld Lang Syne (Dance Of The New Year) (Little Bobby Rey & His Band, 1959)
  • Dónde Está Santa Claus? (Augie Rios, 1958)
  • Here Comes Santa Claus (Esquivel with the Skip Jacks, 1959)
  • How Can Santa Come To Puerto Rico? (Ricky Vera & Steve Allen, 1953)
  • I Saw Mommy Do The Mambo (With You Know Who) (Jimmy Boyd, 1954)
  • Jingle Bells (Celia Cruz with La Sonora Matancera, 1958)
  • Jingle Bells (Joe Loco Quintet, 1955)
  • Mambo Santa Mambo (Enchanters, 1957)
  • Rockin' "J" Bells (Little Bobby Rey & His Band, 1959)
  • Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo (Billy May, 1954)
  • Snowfall Cha Cha (Billy May, 1960)
  • We Wanna See Santa Do The Mambo (Bill Darnel & The Smith Brothers, 1954)
  • Winter Wonderland Cha Cha (Tina Robin, 1958)

Further ListeningFurther Listening

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