This rhythm:

                         1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &.

 

While none of these examples match the rock/mambo rhythms exactly (with the single exception of Tito Puente and Creedence Clearwater Revival), they are all 2 bars long and have accents on bar 1/4& and bar2/ 1& and 2&, like the rhythms from our rock songs.

Mambo reached New York in 1947, eventually resulting in a craze for mambo dancing that lasted well into the 1950s. 

Mambo rhythms began appearing in jazz music sometime after WW2 (Manteca 1947, Jah-Bero 1948, Hamp’s Paws 1952…).

1953 seems to be the year the rhythms began to show up in pop songs (Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, Bicycle Tillie, Real Gone Mambo, etc). Woke Up This Morning, a blues by BB King which was also released in 1953, uses a mambo rhythm in it’s “B” sections.

Rock Around the Clock, which was released in 1954, has a 12-bar section using mambo rhythms. This was a huge hit song which disseminated the rhythm to non-Latin audiences across the world.

At some point (somewhere in the 1970s?), in the rock world, these rhythms stopped being associated with mambo and were accepted as “rock” rhythms.***

 

 

                                                                                 FOOTNOTES

*Both these songs had been recorded by other artists BEFORE 1953 (Diamonds: Original Cast album 1949, Ethel Merman 1950, Jo Stafford 1950) (Bicycle Tillie: as “My Bicycle Tillie” Bill Samuels and the Cats’n’Jammer Three 1947, as “I’m Gonna Ride Tillie Tonight” The Four Tunes 1948). None of these recordings had the mambo rhythm, which suggests that the use of mambo rhythms in non-mambo songs didn’t begin until the early 1950s.

 

**Chris Cester, of the band Jet, responded to media commentary regarding the similarities, stating in a Jared Story interview that the beat was taken from Motown, referring to a meeting between Pop and himself:

“It's funny because I asked him point blank about that. He said I was crazy. He said that when he and David Bowie were writing "Lust for Life", they were ripping off Motown's beat. It's funny that he said that to me because we also thought we were ripping off Motown more than "Lust for Life". To be honest with you that kind of annoyed me a lot, because I always thought it was really lazy. People just go well Lust for Life is more well-known so that's what they go for, but if you listen to a song like "You Can't Hurry Love" (The Supremes) I think you'll find its closer to "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" than "Lust for Life" ever was. And that's what Iggy said as well.”^[6]

 

 

***Seems like 60s musicians were still aware of the connection:

      In the video “The Story of ‘Break on Through’ at 1’21”, Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the Doors, plays the riff to “Break on Through” and says “Latino”.

       In several different interviews, including one for Rolling Stone magazine (1995), Mick Jagger refers to the rhythm of “Sympathy for the Devil” as a samba-he’s got the wrong rhythm, but he is aware it comes from Latin music.

 

 

                                                                         ODDS & ENDS

 

        Here’s a list of a few songs that have 4-bar mambo patterns:

       

        Real Gone Mambo (Bill Doggett, 2/1953)

        Kokomo (The Flamingos,1955)

        C’mon Marianne (The Four Seasons, 6/1967)

        Room to Move (John Mayall, 1969)

        Bad Religion (Godsmack, 1998)

        Dance Like a Monkey (New York Dolls, 2006)

  There's bound to be at least a few mistakes in here. Feel free to point them out or add to the lists of songs!

       

             

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              12/2020

There are certain chord progressions, rhythms, licks, etc., that show up over and over again in different rock and pop songs. Some are distinct and easily recognizable. 

       For example, here’s a VERY incomplete list of songs that use the drum pattern  kick    kick kick   snare  (dotted quarter note, eighth note, quarter note, quarter note) : 

[The songs are listed chronologically in order of their release dates]. 

Be My Baby   (The Ronettes, 8/1963)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-bcn6Rwn44

Leader Of The Pack (The Shangri-Las, 9/1964) 

Rag Doll   (The Four Seasons, 6/1964) 

Still I’m Sad   (The Yardbirds, 10/1965) 

I’ll Be Back   (? And The Mysterians, 6/1967) 

Teengenerate   (The Dictators, 1/1975) 

Say Goodbye To Hollywood   (Billy Joel, 5/1976) 

Hand In Hand    (Elvis Costello, 3/1978) 

The Card Cheat   (The Clash, 12/1979) 

Glory Days   (Bruce Springsteen, 6/1984) 

Just Like Honey   (Jesus and Mary Chain, 9/1985) 

Joey   (Concrete Blonde, 5/1990) 

What’s A Girl To Do   (Bat For Lashes, 9/2006) 

Black Magic   (Jarvis Cocker, 11/2006) 

I Want To   (Best Coast, 7/2010) 

Every Time The Sun Comes Up   (Sharon Van Etten, 5/2014) 

Lust For Life   (Lana Del Rey, 4/2017) 

    

  Another example:  There must be 100s of songs, from the 1950s onwards, that use the doowop chord  progression:   /  I  /  vi /  IV /  V /,  [ In the key of C:  /  C  /  Am / F /  G / ]. 

 Here’s a VERY incomplete list of these: 

Earth Angel    (The Penguins, 10/1954)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJcGi4-n_Yw

In The Still Of The Night   (The Five Satins, 1956) 

Why Do Fools Fall In Love   (Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, 1/1956) 

Walking  Along  (The Solitaires, 1957) 

A  Teenager In  Love    (Dion & the Belmonts, 3/1959) 

Stand By  Me    (Ben E. King, 4/1961) 

Crocodile  Rock     (Elton John, 10/1972) 

Starry Eyes   (Roky Erickson, 9?/1975) 

Baby   (Justin Bieber, 2010) 

[In jazz the word “contrafact” means a tune that uses the chord progression of a pre-existing song. I’ll use that as a generic term for these borrowed rhythms, progressions, etc]. 

     Some of these contrafacts have a definite point of origin. For the drum lick it’s the intro to Be My Baby, recorded in 1963, with Hal Blaine on drums. Every subsequent version either imitates Be My Baby, or imitates someone who is imitating Be My Baby. 

 

    The doowop progression’s starting point is less clear. No doubt someone has pinpointed the first doowop song to use the progression, but the same  progression was used in earlier songs, including “Blue Moon” (Rodgers, Hart, 1933) and “Heart and Soul” (Carmichael, Loesser, 1938). 

This:  / I /  bVII /  IV /  I  /,   [In C:  /  C  /  Bb  /  F  / C / ], is a less well-known contrafact than the 2 above.   

Here’s a list: 

[In each song, the progression is used throughout a verse or a chorus, unless otherwise indicated]. 

2 bar versions:   / I bVII / IV I / 

Can’t Explain   (The Who, 12/1964) 

Joey    (Bob Dylan, 1/1975)  [Intro and interludes only]. 

4 bar versions:   / I / bVII / IV / I / 

If I Were A  Carpenter   (Bobby Darin, 9/1966) 

Dear Mr.  Fantasy   (Traffic, 12/1967)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxVlN-LzIks

Legend OF A Mind (Moody Blues, 7/68) [one short section aroun4:40"]

Hey Jude (Beatles, 8/1968) [In the coda]   

Ramblin' Gamblin' Man  (Bob Seger, 10/1968)                               

Hear My  Freedom   (Jimi Hendrix,  recorded:10/1968, released: 2010 )                             

Sympathy For The Devil   (Rolling Stones, 12/1968) 

Fortunate Son (Creedence Clearwater Revival, 10/1969) 

Thank You   (Led Zeppelin, 10/1969)                            

Rock’ n’ Roll Queen   (Mott The Hoople, 11/1969) 

Lost My Drivin' Wheel  (Tom Rush, 1970) 

All Right Now  (Free, 5/1970)  [chorus only]                    

Oh! Sweet Nuthin’   (Velvet Underground, 9/1970)

Can't You Hear Me Knocking    (Rolling Stones, 4/1971)  [chorus only]

Baby Won't Ya    (MC5, 7/1971)   [chorus only]                            

Can’t You See   (Marshall Tucker Band, 4/1973)                

Taking Care Of  Business    (Bachman Turner Overdrive, 12/1973)    

Juke Box Music   (The Kinks, 2/1977)               

Who Are You   (The Who, 8/1978) 

I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have  (Primal Scream, 1989)

Loaded  (Primal Scream, 2/1990)

Sleep   (The Oblivious, 9/1993)

One Day Like This  (Elbow, 6/2008)                                  

Hey Steven   (Mondo Cozmo, 6/2018) 

8 bar versions:   /  I  /  I / bVII / bVII / IV / IV / I / I /. 

Road House (Flamin’ Groovies, 7/1970) 

Rock Against Romance   (Holly & the Italians, 2/1981) 

Sweet Child O’ Mine   (Guns N’ Roses, 7/1987) 

Variants:  [The chords occur in the same order as in the others, but their duration is different]. 

Remember A Day (Pink Floyd, 8/1968) / I / bVII/ IV / I / I / I / I /

What Goes On (Velvet Underground, 3/1969)   /  I  /  I / bVII  IV/  I/ 

Seven Bridges Road  (Steve Young, 1969)  / I/ bVII / IV / I / I /

Rock And Roll  (Velvet Underground,  9/1970)  / I / bVII/ IV/ I / I / 

It's A Long Way To The Top  (AC/DC, 12/1975)  / I / bVII IV / I / I / 2x [first 8 bars of the chorus]

See No Evil  (Television, 2/1977)   / I / I / I / I /bVII/ IV / I / I / 

Partial:  [Unlike the other examples, the chord progression in these doesn’t last for an entire section]. 

Morning Dew  (Bonnie Dobson, 1962) First 8 bars of the verse: /  I  /bVII IV/  I  /  I  / 2x 

Something Following Me  (Procol Harum, 9/1967) First 8 bars of verse:  /  I  / bVII/ IV /  I  / 2x 

Mistress Of The Salmon Salt   (Blue Oyster Cult, 2/1973) First 4 bars of verse: /  i  / bVII/ IV /  i  / 

I Need Lunch  (Dead Boys, 10/1977) First 8 bars of verse:  /  I  /bVII IV/  I  /  I  / 2x 

Southern Cross (CSN, 9/82) In bars  2-4 and 6-8 of verse: / I bVII/ IV I / 

Oddities:  [ 2 examples where a medley was created out of different contrafacts]. 

 Dear Mr. Fantasy/Hey Jude medley   (Al Kooper-Mike Bloomfield,  2/1969) 

Rock And Roll/Sympathy For The Devil medley   (Jane’s Addiction, 5/1987) 

 

    The earliest appearance of something like this contrafact is “Morning Dew”. It was recorded by many different artists; Lulu’s version was in the Top 10 in Britain in 1968. 

    The earliest of the 4 bar versions  (by far the most common form) is “If I Were A Carpenter”, written by Tim Hardin. It was an international hit with many cover versions: 

Bobby Darin  (9/ 1966) [#8 in US, #9 in UK] 

4 Tops (4/1968) [Top 20 in the US, #7 in the UK] 

Johnny Cash/June Carter   (1/1970) [#2 in US country charts] 

Other early covers were by Johnny Halliday (1966) and Joan Baez (1967). 

So both Morning Dew and If I Were A Carpenter were widely disseminated and known. It seems likely that one or both of them was the starting point for all subsequent contrafacts. 

                                    Finally, I’d like to close with something Don, my mechanic, once said to me: 

                                                                     Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc.