Ai! Si! Si! Mambo and Latin Flavoured Rhythm and Blues

Born as a mixture of jazz-swing and Cuban music, a fantastic blend for a fantastic foot moving music and often featuring wild acrobatics, The Mambo gained big popularity in the USA during the late 1940s when loads of dancers used to hang around legendary places like New York's Park Plaza Ballroom or the Palladium Ballroom. Following the great popularity of the new dance other Latin rhythms such as the Cha Cha Cha or Merengue also became popular. By the mid '50s everything that had a Latin sound was hip and cool. A few Spanish words (Hey Señorita!) and the sound of maracas, bongos or castanets were often used as condiments by the R&B scene cooks. Here are 28 vibrant examples from 1954-1957.