FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $75! *TERMS AND EXCLUSIONS APPLY

Back to the Streets

There have been very few attempts to bring latin music into mainstream popular culture. I don’t mean Xavier Cugat. He was on tv the other night in a 1943 Esther Williams movie called Bathing Beauty. Everybody called him “Cugie” and there were ladies with turbans, ruffled sleeves and maracas.

April 1, 1972
Dave Marsh

Back to the Streets

MALO

WARNER BROTHERS

SANTANA

COLUMBIA

There have been very few attempts to bring latin music into mainstream popular culture. I don’t mean Xavier Cugat. He was on tv the other night in a 1943 Esther Williams movie called Bathing Beauty. Everybody called him “Cugie” and there were ladies with turbans, ruffled sleeves and maracas. He was a gratuitous part of a plot that involved Esther Williams as a teacher in a girls’ school; Red Skelton does a whole ballet class scene dressed in a woman’s tutu; and in another scene some girls encourage the school organist to play some hot latin music: “Let’s go below the border for some South American jive,” they say. I don’t think that’s what I mean.

Sign In to Your Account

Registered subscribers can access the complete archive.

Login

Don’t have an account?

Subscribe

...or read now for $1 via Supertab

READ NOW