PEREZ ‘PREZ’ PRADO AND HIS ORCHESTRA – “Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White”
The intro to this is easily the most exciting sound to hit No.1 so far ? a slamming one-note trumpet fanfare that takes you into the tune’s gimmicky sliding-horn hook. Beyond that it’s hard for me to get much of a grip on “Cherry Pink” – it’s a stomping dance number but it keeps stopping and starting, and what’s that grunting man doing there? (Answer: harshing the buzz, mostly.) The ID3 for this MP3 describes it as “House”, which isn?t totally unreasonable: I don’t think I’d truly understand “Cherry Pink” unless I was giving it some on a 1955 dancefloor.
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In a year when Vera Lynn could still rack up a few hits, this must have sounded super-exciting and deliciously rude. Not as panting-rude as Such A Night, but Perez’s rasping, lascivious trumpet reminds me of a Tex Avery cartoon wolf. What’s that middle eight all about?? It’s not Love To Love You Baby, but this one would have fooled the BBC. Ha!
This was a huge hit in 1957! I was an 8th grader at St Vincent’s School for Boys in San Rafael, California. The band leader for the 49′ers taught me how to play this song and how to slur that one note. St Vincents is the oldest school in the US west of the Rockies and the Dominican sisters from Germany took care of us boys back than God Bless them all and this wonderful song!
Очень хочется написать пакость, но может я одинок, подожду других постов
One of those rare 50s #1s that doesn’t sound particularly dated today; I bet it still gets a few plays at dance classes. Very exotic, too. The appeal is obvious when you bear in mind how few people were travelling by plane in 1955!
It probably still illustrates how a lot of people think of certain Latin-American countries nowadays. Havana Rum, anyone?
DESERT ISLAND DISC WATCH (Up to 11/04/11)
Alicia Markova, Ballerina (1958)
Robert Marx , Scientist (1965).
Though he doesn’t trouble the scorers on Popular himself the popularity of the Latin dance sound owes a lot to Edmundo Ros and this seems the best place to mark his passing.
As I mentioned to Rosie in another place, Edmundo Ros was the guest of honour at Prize Day at my school back in the mid-seventies. Bizarre. What this bugger made of one of the most violent comprehensives in London, God only knows. I’d like to say that I yelled out “Do Spanish Flea, mate!” but that, I’m afraid, didn’t happen. You could mug, rob, loot, blackmail, bully and kill at Stockwell Manor and get away with it. But nobody liked a smart-arse.
Edmundo Ros had a pre-Popular sheet music no.1 with Yours, 5 weeks at the top in 1941, later a hit for Julio Iglesias. I had no Edmundo was still with us until so very recently.
In a similar vein, it was Joan Fontaine’s birthday on Saturday! She’s still with us at 95!! And she shares her b’day with Arsene Wenger. Twinnies! Imagine them having a party together.
Naw! Wenger would have denied seeing anything..