Mambo with Prado and Monroe

This is a follow-up to the recent reup of Pérez Prado's first LP on my other blog. This 1954 single combines the "Marilyn Monroe Mambo" with the "Steam Heat Mambo."

Just to be clear, Monroe does not appear on the song named for her. The closest we get to her is hearing the band chant "Marilyn Mon-roe" in the toneless manner that was popular among the ensembles of the time.

I wonder how many Monroe tributes there were in popular music. I know Ray Anthony had a hit with "Marilyn."

Was she spinning "Marilyn" or the "Marilyn Monroe Mambo"?

(Brief digression - There are photos online of Marilyn taken at a photo-op at Ray Anthony's house in 1952 promoting the "Marilyn" record. Just to show you how far we are away from those times, the Daily Mail identifies Anthony as a "crooner," even though he is toting his trumpet, and offers another photo of the two watching Mickey Rooney play the drums - and identifies him only as "a drummer." I hope they know that Monroe was an actor.)

The "Marilyn Monroe Mambo" appears on one of Prado's LPs, but I think the flip side of this 45 may be a non-LP tune. It is a mambo version of "Steam Heat," one of the songs from the great Adler and Ross show The Pajama Game.  Here, predictably, you get to enjoy the band chant "Steam Heat". And of course, Prado yells "Ugh!" as he does on most of his records.

The sound is reasonably good.