Mambo No. 5
instrumental mambo composed by Dámaso Pérez Prado
"Mambo No. 5" is an instrumental mambo and jazz dance song originally composed and recorded by Cuban musician Dámaso Pérez Prado in 1949 and released the next year. German singer Lou Bega sampled the original for a new song released under the same name on his 1999 debut album, A Little Bit of Mambo. In 2026, Pérez Prado's original recording of the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its "cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation's recorded sound heritage."
Lou Bega version
German singer Lou Bega recorded a cover of the song and released it in April 1999 as the first single from his debut album, A Little Bit of Mambo (1999). His version became a summer hit during 1999 in most of Europe. Later that year, it experienced success in the United Kingdom, North America, and Oceania. In France, it set a record by staying at number one for 20 weeks. The song reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 on 2 November 1999, giving Bega his only top-40 and top-ten hit in the United States. Radio play made up most of the track's performance on the chart, as the song was released as a vinyl single and vinyl maxi-single but not as a CD single or cassette single during its chart run. The Lou Bega version was number-one on the Hot 100's component chart for airplay for six weeks.
“Mambo No. 5” enters the record as instrumental mambo composed by Dámaso Pérez Prado. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mambo, instrumental and mambo can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Mambo No. 5” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Mambo, instrumental and mambo provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q705575. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1999 and 2026.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Mambo No. 5”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Mambo No. 5 primary sources, Mambo No. 5 archive and Mambo research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mambo No. 5”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Mambo No. 5” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.