Popular Culture Review Vol. 13, No. 1, January 2002 | Page 146

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Popular Culture Review

While Madame Lasanga
Was teachin the conga
In her little cabana
Down in old Havana
We were doin’ the Charleston
And ballin’ the jack
And the old black bottom
‘Til we started the jitterbug rag
Then across the water
Came a Cuban beat
He started to boogie
To the Rhumba beat
It’s the Rhumba boogie
Let’s give it a whirl
While they play the boogie
In the South America style^
Just as many popular singers covered his records, Snow recorded many
pop standards, such as “Memories Are Made of This” and “My Way.” Snow
remained steadfastly country, refusing to record suggestive lyrics or to arrange his
songs to sound more like the “Nashville Sound” with its strings or Rockabilly with
its electrification and amplification. But he experimented with other sounds and
arrangements that incorporated jazz and Latin rhythms, or referred to exotic locales,
all the while adapting them to country music. He recorded “Blue for Old Hawaii,”
“My Little Swiss Maiden,” “My Filipino Rose,” “Bluebird Island,” “That Crazy
Mambo Thing,” “Cuba Rhumba,” “Rainbow Boogie,” “Caribbean,” “New Spanish
Two Step,” “La Cucaracha,” “Carnival of Venice,” “El Rancho Grande,” “Sing
Me A Song o f the Islands,” “Calypso Sweetheart,” “Blue Danube Waltz,”
“Everybody Does it in Hawaii,” “Seashores of Old Mexico,” “The Mysterious
Lady o f St. M artinque,” “Hula Love,” “My Oahu Rose,” “Spanish Eyes,”
“Tradewinds Over Mamala Bay,” “Song of India.” And the list goes on and on. )