In The Trashcan Records
GARBAGE36
"It would
be easy to fill 3 volumes with only Chakachas recordings, but these are not
their best known. The best Latin band in the late 50s and early 60s and yet
not from Latin America, but from ... Belgium! Big surprise to most of you,
huh? Included you'll find some other exotic sounds from those days you could
be dreaming of a Watusi war god..."
The cha cha cha has a special warm atmosphere and it makes you happy and the ballroom sunny. Fonseca recorded a few latin 45s. The brilliant A-side of this one can be found on vol 4 where you can also read some more info about this guy. On vol30 you can find another Fonseca recording.
Now follow me deep into the heart of the cha cha jungle and listen to what the watusi has to say. You won’t understand him, but I’m pretty sure you’ll dance to his music. And more great stuff on this '59 EP, just listen to the next song…
What a beautiful sleeve! “Orfeu negro” was a 1959 Marcel Camus movie starring Marpessa Dawn as Eurydice who fell in love with a tramway driver named Orpheus. The ancient Greek tragedy in Rio from the late 50s. Carnival & cha cha cha.
… and you’ll discover that not only cha cha cha, merengue and conga, but also the mambo was one of the Chakachas trademarks. “Filin’ cha” and “El bingo” are the other two songs on this '59 EP.
Four latin songs on this EP. This “Pita Camion” is the best and is cha cha cha mucho caliente.
Back to the suburban cha cha cha about the story of El Charlatan. Just look at the sleeve and admire the coolness of those Belgian latin lovers. From 1960.
The world champions in cha cha cha. From Belgium in 1960! This is a fast one, maybe even too fast to call it cha cha cha.
And another story here about a girl called Anita and she’s from Montparnasse. It’s not in French, but like all the other Chakachas recordings on this volume it’s sung in Spanish. Also from 1960.
Ha! No cha cha cha but a super seductive conga from 1960.
A trumpet leads this song to another highlight of cha cha cha. Maybe one day I’ll fill another volume of cha cha cha tunes by Les Chakachas.
And here again a genuine cha cha cha ballroom blitz and again from their most productive year 1960.
A middle eastern dance by the Egyptian French guy who gave us “Mustapha”. This is from 1960. If you don’t understand French, it’s a shame because the lyrics are quite explicit behind the harem veils.
The tempo is raised again with this one. The other three songs on this '60 EP are excellent as well, certainly “Mucho tequila”, but also “Chocolate” and the great conga tune “Bing Bang Conga”
And this is the only merengue song here. It could have been recorded in 1966, but that’s just a guess.
For me this 1959 release is one of the best Chakachas songs ever. It never got the credit it deserved because it was only the flipside of that world hit “Eso es el amor”.
Haha, fooled ya. This is no cha cha cha, it’s rather ska ska ska. And it’s from his hit 45 “Tell her Johnny said goodbye”. I never intended to make any sense, so why not include this one! It’s like Jerry has used the same backing choir as Screamin’ Lord Sutch on this 1973 recording.
