Lou Bega - A Little Bit Of Mambo (1999)

What sounds like an early-model Casio playing "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go" quickly gives way to a classic Perez Prado riff. On top of it all, Lou Bega--born in Germany to a Ugandan father and Italian mother--hoarsely exhorts the floor to "Mambo No. 5." A runaway hit in more than a dozen countries, it's an agreeable trifle, if ultimately not as charming as "Macarena" proved to be a few summers back. Throughout this cash-in album, Bega comes off like a cross between a less clever Tone-Loc and a less inspired Buster Poindexter. If there's a great Europop-Cuban fusion in the making, its standard-bearers will have to come up with more durable trashy fun than this. --Rickey Wright