Songoftheday 4/18/20 - Now don't you worry about my boyfriend the boy whose name is Vitorino, I don't want him can't stand him he was no good so I ha ha ha...
from the albums Club Cutz (various artists, 1995) and Macarena Non Stop (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (14 weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 37
Today's song of the day comes from the Spanish pop duo Los Del Rio, who got together way back in 1962. Hailing from the Andalusian city of Dos Hermanos, Antonio Monge and Rafael Perdigones have been performing together ever since, however it wasn't until the 1990s that they fell into international fame with a song they originally released in 1993. "Macarena" was named for Antonio's daughter Esperanza Macarena, and always meant as a dance song. However, after DJ's in the Miami area were getting requests for the remix of the song done by the production team Bayside Boys (Mike Triay and Carlos de Yarza). With a jacked up percussion beat, smart samples of George Michael's "Too Funky" and Yaz's "Situation", and English-language female vocals added in, "Macarena" became a club favorite before radio starting picking up on it. Originally lingering in the lower reaches of the chart due to its inclusion on a dance music compilation Club Cutz, the revamped "Macarena" complete with its own line dance came back on the chart and went to the top in its 46th week, a record for that sort of thing...
The Bayside Boys remix of "Macarena" ruled the American pop chart for fourteen weeks starting in August of 1996, the longest stay on the official Hot 100 that year. The song also reached both the Adult Top-40 (#19) and Adult Contemporary (#22) "easy listening" radio charts in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, and got to the runner-up spot in the UK, Norway, Sweden, and New Zealand. The song was so popular in the States that the original version, mixed without the female voice as "Macarena Non Stop", also managed to hit the Top-40 as well, climbing to #23 in September of 1996. The Macarena Non Stop album, which contained both versions, managed to miss the top-40 by a notch, peaking at #41. At the finale of 1996, a kitschy novelty single of "Macarena Christmas", which combined the Spanish Macarena with holiday tunes, spent a month on the chart, topping out at #57 on the Hot 100. It would be the duo's last appearance on the pop charts in America.
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Here's the original 1993 Spanish version of the song....
When the song was originally released with the Bayside Boys mix, it didn't have the female vocals. It still spent 20 weeks on the chart and peaked at #45, before re-entering the Hot 100 and racing to the top...
Here's Los Del Rio appearing on TV performing the song....
Meanwhile, another Spanish group, Los Del Mar, did a copycat version of the song, and somehow confused enough people to help it reach the American chart at #71, and almost make the British Top-40 at #43...
And here's the "Macarena Christmas" that scaled the American charts in the 1996 holiday season...
Three years ago, Cuban duo Gente De Zona put out "Mas Macarena" featuring the Los Del Rio guys...
At the end of 2019, rapper Tyga brought back the duo for "Ayy Macarena", which almost made the pop chart, "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #103, going to #42 on the R&B chart, and reaching the top ten in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Romania...
Finally, European classical music star Andre Rieu got Los Del Rio on stage with his orchestra...
Up tomorrow: This group of young men are asking you to stay.
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