Lou Bega explains why Mambos No. 1-4 don't exist as he reflects on his hit track
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mambo Number Five.
It's been 25 years since Lou Bega released his iconic track, but still the song continues to pop up at parties and weddings across the country and beyond, leaving crowds unable to resist declaring that they need 'a little bit of Monica' in their lives and a 'little bit of Erica' by their side.
Looking back, Bega has described the phenomenon that is Mambo No. 5 as a 'viral moment before viral moments'.
"I was a bit shocked," he said of the song's success. "I knew when it was coming out, I knew it would do something. But of course, I was a bit shocked of the ferocity, you know, the strength and the size that it reached within that very short time."
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"That was a time before the internet was really a thing, right? And the song traveled quicker than I could travel," he added.
Speaking to UNILAD, Bega remembered how DJs took the track from Germany, where Bega is from, and took it to 'holiday destinations all around the world'.
"It was a phenomenon," he said.
The song's success came at what had been a tough time for Bega. His dad had died just one month earlier, and within weeks of the song's release, 'everything changed'.
"Doors opened, and all of a sudden I'm on that Concord, that plane, and I'm flying to New York City for breakfast and then on the way back for dinner in London. It was the craziest of times, the craziest summer a man can imagine."
As much as Bega was the one enjoying the success of the song, he doesn't take sole credit for it.
You see, the reason Bega jumped straight in with Mambo No. 5, rather than trialling Mambos No. 1-4, is because the track is actually based on an instrumental song composed and recorded by Cuban musician Dámaso Pérez Prado in 1949.
Bega 'stumbled' upon the track one day after he'd started writing songs at just 15 years old, and the moment he heard it he felt like he had to 'freestyle' on top of it.
"The 'A little bit of' version that is now known as Mambo No. 5, it just came out of this one session because it was so organic.
"I felt like it was a fantastic instrumental version, and it had all the grits of the 50s and that special sauce that you have in these recordings, but what was missing was a song structure. So the 'a little bit of Monica' lyrics matched it perfectly. We recorded it. It was the first recording, and that was the demo that was then sold all over the world."
Bega 'gladly' pays royalties for using Prado's music, which he's happy to do in order to enjoy that 'magnificent' trumpet sound from the original song.
"You could never replicate it," he said. "It's just the best I've ever heard. It the end of the day, it's about preserving good music and not just changing it, right?"
As for the number five, Bega pointed out that 'five is the number of grace in the numerical system'.
"Five is a extremely positive number that radiates whenever it is heard or counted. This is like, on a spiritual level," he said.
Other than that, Bega admitted he didn't have a 'clue' why the track was coined 'Mambo No. 5'.
"But I know it is the number of grace. And we all need grace, because we all fail all the time."
Though Mambo No. 5 is Bega's best-known track, the artist has released a slew of other tracks, including love songs and ballads, with one of his favorite to perform being the 2010 track 'Sweet Like Cola'. He's also still working on new projects - though nothing that he's quite ready to talk about just yet.
That being said, he can't ignore the impact that 'Mambo No. 5' had on his life, and he says he 'cannot do anything but love it'.
"If you put 'Mambo No. 5' on the dance floor, it works. Regardless of who your audience is and how they feel - if they are children or elderly people, you can just unite the dance floor in a way that no other song has the ability to do."
Emily Brown