Xavier Cugat - Viva Cugat
i n f o
ripper.: Aquafina date ripped..: Nov-08-2005
label..: n/a date released: 000-00-1997
encoder: Lame 3.90.3 APS release size.: 69,10 MB
bitrate: VBR kbps tracks.......: 24
mode...: Joint-Stereo source.......: CDDA
url....: n/a
n o t e s
Xavier Cugat (January 1, 1900 - October 27, 1990) was
a Catalan-Cuban bandleader who many consider to have
had more to do with the infusion of Latin music into
United States popular music than any other musician.
Desi Arnaz and Perez Prado followed in Cugat's
footsteps.
Cugat was born Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Mingall
de Bru y Deulofeo in Girona, Spain. With his family,
he immigrated to Cuba when he was five. He trained as
a classical violinist and played with the Orchestra of
the Teatro Nacional in Havana.
Sometime between 1915 and 1918, Cugat moved to New
York, where he played with a band called "The Gigolos"
during the tango craze. Later, he went to work for the
Los Angeles Times as a cartoonist (Cugat's caricatures
were later nationally syndicated).
In the late 1920s, but sound began to be used in
movies, he put together another tango band that had
some success in early short musical films. By the
early 1930s, he began appearing with his group in
feature films. Cugat took his band to New York to open
the new Waldorf Astoria Hotel and it became the
hotel's resident group.
He shuttled between New York and Los Angeles for most
of the next thirty years, alternating hotel and radio
dates with movie appearances.
In 1940, he recorded the song Perfidia with singer
Miguelito Valdes which became a big hit. Cugat
followed trends closely, making records for the conga,
the mambo, the cha-cha-cha, and the twist when each
were in fashion. He married salsa dancer Charo on
August 7, 1966; the two were the first couple to marry
in the newly opened Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.
Cugat did not lose sleep over artistic compromises: "I
would rather play Chiquita Banana and have my swimming
pool than play Bach and starve."
Cugat died of heart failure at age 90 in Barcelona in
his native Catalonia, Spain.
d a t a
# t r a c k n a m e t i m e
01- Frenesi [03:11]
02- Siboney [03:16]
03- The Lady In Red [03:23]
04- Yours (Quiereme Mucho) [03:09]
05- Jealousy [03:22]
06- Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil) [02:50]
07- La Golandrina (The Swallow) [03:14]
08- South America, Take It Away [02:54]
09- The Peanut Vendor (El Manisero) [02:43]
10- Amor, Amor, Amor [03:23]
11- La Cucaracha [03:13]
12- Besame Mucho [03:27]
13- La Cumparsita [03:21]
14- Time Was [02:57]
15- Begin the Beguine [03:16]
16- Say Si, Si [03:15]
17- The Breeze and I [03:28]
18- Cuban Love SOng [03:24]
19- Miserlou [03:27]
20- Amapola [03:13]
21- The Isle of Capri [03:16]
22- You Belong To My Heart [02:37]
23- Adios [03:18]
24- Green Eyes [03:14]
69,10 m e g s t o t a l [76:51]