1962
EL WATUSI * RAY BARRETTO * COLUMBIA 7684 * UK
The second British issue of this esoteric Mod dance tune, which is sung entirely in Spanish. This record caught the imagination of the Modernist's as a great soulful dance tune which had the magic ingredients of sophistication and obscurity (something that was later taken to extreme limits by some followers of Northern Soul) The record has lived outside many Mod mythologies partly due to the difficult nature of relating to any information about what was thought to be a record of Spanish origin, and probably being that it was a difficult record to ask for in shops, affecting its sales, thus adding physical scarcity to its intellectual scarcity. Ray Barretto, who was not from Spain but born Brooklyn New York of Puerto Rican parents, had been playing drums for some time when in 1957 he replaced Mongo Santamaria in Tito Puente's band. It was after forming his own band in 1961 and recording for Riverside records that after a brace of albums he cut the album Charanqua Moderna from which El Watusi was taken, it was a popular success in the States and reached the Top 20 pop chart and in 1963 and went gold; which is probably how British Deejays came to use it, as very little other Latin stuff was played at the time.