World music before world music

[c hristian]

in the jungle the mighty jungle the lion sleeps toniiiiiiiight.

[will vine]

I obviously didn't read it right - wasn't paying proper attention. Not only did I repeat Rob's nomination but I also didn't get that they neccessarily had to be HITS. On the realisation of that I withdraw my Osibisa suggestion, good as their first album is, but I am loathe to withdraw the Champion Jack Dupree song "Ba' La Fouche" on the grounds that it is a fabulously exotic noise that came from out of nowhere. If it didn't chart high enough to register then I maintain it was a hit just by dint of being released as a single in those far off days.

Does anyone else actually remember this record ? I seem to sense blank stares.

[Neil Foxlee]

I think 'hits' can be interpreted pretty loosely here - some stuff came out before there were charts, and someone's mentioned one South African track as being a 'radio hit'. As long as it made a significant impact, whether in its original form or as a cover version (and is good/interesting music to boot - if this is going to be a pitch for a real compilation, it's gotta be good!).

Ba' La Fouche, btw (with which I am not acquainted) is on the Complete Blue Horizon Sessions CD - and lo and behold, here's what Will said in The First Hit Is The Deepest thread back in 2005:

I'm almost certain I'm quoting Charlie by saying of our various musical enthusiasms that when you first get hit is when you get hit hardest. Though I never for a minute put the words world and music together at the time, I first realised there was something other than the twelve bar blues going on way back in 69 or 70 when I first heard Ba' La Fouche by Champion Jack Dupree.
...A real curio this, a propulsive creole? chanting with Jack on vocals and percussion ,and an insistent Hawaiin guitar played by a man later destined for much greater fame (I'll leave it at that in case Charlie should get round to playing it and wish to use it for his quiz).
The point of this posting....This is when I got hit first and hardest 'cos it's stayed with me all these years. I've never ever heard it on the radio so I'm giving CG a nudge ... AND it's re released by Sony on Aug 8, the perfect excuse to play it........Champion Jack Dupree - The Blue Horizon years.. Will Vine

[Neil Foxlee]

Late addition:

Jorge Ben - Mas Que Nada (1963, covered by Sergio Mendes, who I don't think should be included)

[Neil Foxlee]

A recap (replying to myself again):

AFRICA (9 - 10 if you include Bert Kaempfert):
Little Kid Lex - New Year Rock (1958)
Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata
Hugh Masakela - Grazing In The Grass
Elias & His ZigZag Jive Flutes - Tom Hark (No. 2 UK, 1958)
African Dance Band of the Cold Storage Commission of Southern Rhodesia / Bulawayo Sweet Rhythms - Skokiaan
Babatunde Olatunji - Jin-go-lo-ba
Manu Dibango - Soul Makossa
Solomon Linda & His Evening Birds - Mbube (Wimoweh/The Lion Sleeps Tonight)
Drumming from Musique du Burundi (Occora, 1968) - basis for Burundi Black
(Bert Kaempfert - Swinging Safari - anyone know the original if there is one?)

LATIN (15+):
(various tangos) - El Choclo (Kiss of Fire), Adiós Muchachos (I Get Ideas), La Cumparsita (Strange Sensation) ???
El Condor Pasa (zarzuela written 1913 - version?)
??? - La Cucaracha
Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan OR Los Pregoneros del Puerto - La Bamba
Jose Fernandez Diaz - Guantanamera
Rita Montaner OR Antonio Machin/Don Azpiazu and his Havana Casino orchestra - El Manisero (Peanut Vendor)
Xavier Cugat with singer Miguelito Valdés - Perfidia
Perez Prado - Qué rico mambo (aka Mambo Jambo) OR Mambo No. 5
Pery Ribeiro or Getz/Gilberto - Garota de Ipanema/Girl From Ipanema
Jorge Ben - Mas que nada
Walter Wanderley Trio - Summer Samba
Mongo Santamaria - Watermelon Man
Ray Barretto - El Watusi
Joe Cuba Sextet - Bang Bang
Los Indios Tabajaras - Maria Elena
(Los Paraguayos ?)

CARIBBEAN (5):
Lord Invader - Rum & Coca Cola
Mighty Sparrow - Jean and Dinah
[* new entry] Edric Conner & the Caribbeans (1952) - Day De Light (original of Banana Boat Song - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_Boat_Song)
Arrow - Hot Hot Hot
Millie - My Boy Lollipop

Shall we forget the Greek stuff (no offence) mentioned earlier? with the possible exception of:
Michalis Patrinos rebetiko band - Misirlou (as covered by Dick Dale and in klezmer) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misirlou

Enough tracks for a CD then - and that's before I've been through the Guinness Book of Hit Singles for further possibilities. At this point it might be an idea to ask if anyone has, or knows anyone who might have, some of the more obscure items here (a fair proportion of the selection is blind, as it were - a risky proposition if we're to interest Union Square in putting a CD out!).

[Neil Foxlee]

Normand has reminded me of the Egyptian Bob Azzam and his Orch - Mustapha (1960 UK hit) - it's on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjAC3IJbTJo - bits in French!

and the Turkish traditional Uskadara by Eartha Kitt (which wasn't a hit).

[Dayna]

Could you call Montego Bay early World Music. I know it's by Bobby Bloom, from US.

[tulsehill charlie]

"Sukiyaki" ("Ue o muite arukō") was a number 1 US hit in 1963, and sold 13m worldwide. Here it is as it was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVIddibrWAM

[Rob Hall]

"Sukiyaki" ("Ue o muite arukō") was a number 1 US hit in 1963, and sold 13m worldwide. Here it is as it was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVIddibrWAM

Please form an orderly queue

[tulsehill charlie]

Humble apologies for failure to read or attribute, Rob. In the spirit of the moment it's sometimes difficult to do all the prior research into the previous posts. It's a matter of balancing accuracy and spontaneity, wouldn't you say?

Just to add to the Sukiyaki story - it was apparently written about a prisoner walking to the gallows "I hold my head up high". Life enhancing ditty.

[Rob Hall]

No problem. If I were an emoticon-using type of chap, maybe it would have been clearer that apologies were not required.

[Rob Hall]

Thinking about this thread again, the name of Lionel Belasco sprang to mind. Raised in Trinidad (born 1881) he travelled widely in the region as a musician before leaving and setting himself up in as a song publisher in New York. By all accounts, his method was to re-work folk tunes and then publish them under his own name. The sleeve notes to the CD of his surviving work - "Goodnight Ladies And Gents: The Creole Music of Lionel Belasco" say that he was instrumental in bringing calypso music to a wider public (which was why I thought of him in relation to this thread). One of the tunes that he claimed authorship of was titled "L'Annee Passee", and this was the tune that was used by Lord Invader on "Rum & Coca Cola". The song as recorded by the Andrews Sisters was credited to TV comedian Morey Amsterdam, and Lionel Belasco and Lord Invader successfully sued him for breach of copyright; there's extensive discussion of the song and its background in this Mudcat Cafe thread.

[Neil Foxlee]

They didn't have any hits, but the Wire 100 most important records (see post in this section) list reminded me of King Sunny Ade.

[Chris P]

How can anyone forget King Sunny Ade ? He had shedloads of hits back in Nigeria of course, and JuJu Music was a minor LP hit over here back in 1982 - not enough of a hit for Island's extravagant hopes of a new Bob Marley though.
The recent 2 compilations of his early songs on the Shanachie label have been exceptionally good : 'The Best of the Classic Years' and 'Gems from the Classic Years', and thankfully Charlie's been highlighting them & playing tracks from them on his shows.

[Rob Hall]

They didn't have any hits

Neil - who is "they" here?