If you were wondering what the Billboard top single of 1955 was, wouldn’t you think that maybe it would be the Bill Haley and His Comets version of “Rock Around the Clock,” or one of the three versions of “The Ballad of Davey Crockett” released that year, or even Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons.” In each case, you would be wrong. The Billboard year-end top single for 1955 was “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” by Perez Prado.
Prado recorded the song as an instrumental with his orchestra featuring trumpet player Bill Regis, although lyrics do exist in both French (Jacque Larue) and English (Mack David). The music was written by Louiguy. Louiguy is a nom de plum of Louis Guglielmi, a Spanish-born French musician of Italian descent.
Dámaso Pérez Prado (1916 – 1989) was a Cuban bandleader, pianist, composer and arranger who popularized the mambo in the 1950s, which was the key to the song’s massive popularity at the time. And why is that you ask?
In the 1950’s, the mambo was the most popular dance craze in the Western world. Mambo dancers became famous, and the New York Palladium, a showcase for mambo music, gained international attention. Afro-Cuban band leaders like Damaso Perez Prado …and Mario Bauza, (1911-1993), became legendary.
The New York Times, May 12, 1991, Section 1, p. 32
Another interesting bit about the tune is that Perez Prado first recorded it for the movie Underwater in 1955 for a scene which involves Jane Russell dancing in some way (well, we know what kind of way). As you might imagine it was set around the ocean with ample opportunity for Ms. Russell to wear bathing attire.
It would seem that fads or, to be kinder, short-lived popular interests, can influence all sorts of things. In this case, the mambo craze made a song number one in 1955. Go figure.
Sadly, I could not find a clip a Jane Russell dancing, but here’s Perez Prado with that characteristic trumpet sound introducing the main theme, which I think is the only part of the tune I actually remembered.