This upload counts for last nights upload. So you'll most likely be seeing two more sides of another record tonight.
Xavier Cugat was a Catalan-Cuban-American bandleader from the mid 1930s to the mid 1950s. He's often considered one of the main reasons, if not the SOLE reason why Latin music became popular in america and he's also one of the more overlooked artists of the 1940s. He did Latin while mixing it into pop jazz. But when he did it, in some songs it you can barely tell the difference between it and regular swing of the time. The only main difference being heard with the drums. He had several orchestras he lead. His Main Orchestra, His Caribbeans, and His Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Orchestra.
The group we know as the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Orchestra formed in the late 1920s as a tango based orchestra, but wouldn't see much success until they went to the opening of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in 1931. They became the hotel's main band, thus changing their name. It wouldn't be until 1934 that they would have a chance to cut the wax. They would begin to record for Victor and re-release onto His Master's Voice across the pond. It would stay like this until 1941 when they would leave Victor for Columbia. In 1945 they would share a Decca release with Bing Crosby while still recording for Columbia. In 1947 he would briefly return to victor for a short time while still recording regularly on Columbia. Finally stopping recording when the band would break up in 1955.
He had a good amount of hits through the years, those include Perfidia in 1941, Brazil in 1943, South America Take It Away in 1946, Intermezzo in 1941, Mambo No. 8 in 1954, Night Must Gall in 1939, Begin The Beguine in 1935, Para Vigo Me Voy in 1936, The Breeze And I in 1940, Babalu in 1944, and others.
