Who recorded “The Syncopated Clock Mambo” in 1951?

Best known as Pérez Prado or “The King of Mambo”, the late Dámaso Pérez Prado (12/11/17 – 9/14/89) was born in Matanzas, Cuba. Singer, musician, composer, actor, and band leader, he moved to Mexico in 1949 and became a citizen of that nation in 1980. In Mexico City. his son, Pérez Prado, Jr., still conducts the orchestra named for his father.

Leroy Anderson (6/29/08 – 5/18/75) was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was serving in the US Army in Washington, DC in 1945 when he composed “The Syncopated Clock”, about a timepiece with a syncopated rhythm. He mailed the score to the Boston Popular Orchestra and, at the request of Conductor Arthur Fiedler, asked for and was granted a three-day pass to conduct the work.

In 1950, Mr. Anderson recorded the song. A year later, Mr. Prado recorded it with a Latin syncopation.

The late Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (3/2/17 – 12/2/86) was a Cuban band leader. Better known as Desi Arnaz, he was a TV and film actor, composer, and TV producer. The late Eugene Bertram “Gene” Krupa (1/15/09 – 10/16/73) was best known as a drummer and also acted, composed, and led his own band.