August 3rd: The Day Music went Macarena Mad!

Many a school disco was never complete - and still probably wouldn't be today - without 1996 pop hit The Macarena by Los Del Rio. The infectiously catchy song released on August 3rd is one that will stay in your head, whether you like it or not. In most cases the average human being wants to throw a small boulder at the stereo after 2 minutes of 'HEEEEYYY Macarena', but it appears that even the dance routine has remained imprinted in the 1990s school kids brains. 

   No surprises how everyone knows The Macarena so well, when it spent a total of fourteen weeks at Number 1 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, and 60 weeks in total playing over and over and over and over. With the majority of the song being in Spanish, I for one, was rather flummoxed as to what I should sing during the chorus, apart from 'HEEEEYYY Macarena, AhhhAy!'. So although I resorted to making up words that phonetically (partially) resembled the Spanish, there was quite a lot of meaning behind the lyrics. The song features a male Spanish vocal that originally said: 'Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Ma'delena'; meaning 'Give joy to your body, Magdelena', referring to Mary Magdelene, a religious image of seduction. After Miami producers made a few changes to make it more suitable for pop and disco, Magdelena was swapped for Macarena and a few verses were translated into the English language, sung by a female vocalist. 

   So there you have it, ranked Number 1 Greatest One-Hit Wonder of All Time by VH1 in 2002, Los Del Rio's The Macarena first began it's endless climb in the charts, and the beginning of an iconic dance routine too! Do you remember this song? Are you a fan?