Songfacts®:

• This song was originally done in 1952 by the Cuban-Mexican bandleader Perez Prado. Known as the "King of the Mambo," Prado recorded numerous mambos, and when he ran out of inspiration, he would simply number them. "Mambo No 5" was one of a series of eight.
• Perez Prado's version was instrumental. In 1999, the German pop musician Lou Bega added lyrics to it, transforming it into a love song for several women, namely Angela, Pamela, Sandra, Rita, Monica, Erica, Tina, Mary and Jessica. It was reported that the girls he mentioned were all Lou's former girlfriends, but it is probably beyond coincidence that eight of the girls in the song have names that end in "A," making them quite singable.
• On VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders, Lou Bega said: "When I wrote the song, I believed it could be the thing it is today. All people hate it completely, that's what I thought. I knew it wouldn't swim in the middle because it was too different from all the stuff that was outside, so I'm quite happy with it. Mambo makes you happy, Latin music makes you happy, its sexual, its erotic, energetic, I think that's the point."
• "Mambo No 5" was a #1 hit in Germany for over 10 weeks. When import copies started to sell in the UK, RCA released it and it went to #1. It also spent a record 20 weeks at #1 in France and topped the charts in most other European countries.
• Bob The Builder, a cartoon character, had a #1 UK hit with his 2011 reworking of "Mambo No 5." Instead of singing about girls, Bob makes it about construction. Sample lyric:
  
  A little bit of timber and a saw
  A little bit of fixing that's for sure
  A little bit of digging up the roads
  A little bit of moving heavy loads
• Bega told Fox News that the story behind the song was a simple one. "I dated a lot of pretty nice ladies when I was younger," he said. "These names of my past, you know, just came to me and I wrote it down, got the melody and the rest is history."
  
  Asked if he had a favorite, Bega replied, "My favorite is Sandra, that's why she was the one in the sun."
• This was the theme song for the 2000 Democratic Convention (Bill Clinton's party), until someone noticed the line, "A little bit of Monica in my life."
• In The Office episode "The Dundies" (2005), Michael Scott sings this in a clip of the previous Dundie Awards. He changes the names to women who work at Dunder Mifflin. The song shows up again a few episodes later in "The Fire" as Michael's ringtone.
  
  It was also used in these TV series:
  
  Fresh Off The Boat ("Vice Mommy" - 2019)
  Scorpion ("Super Fun Guys" - 2014)
  The Simpsons ("The Ziff Who Came To Dinner" - 2004)
  
  And in these movies:
  
  What Men Want (2019)
  The Grinch (2018)
  A Simple Favor (2018)
  Iron Man 3 (2013)
• The renowned author Stephen King played Lou Bega's hit so frequently that his wife, Tabitha, threatened to divorce him. "I played that a lot," he told Rolling Stone. "I had the dance mix. I loved those extended play things, and I played both sides of it.
  
  "And one of them was just total instrumental," King continued. "And I played that thing until my wife just said, 'One more time, and I'm going to f---ing leave you.'"