Putumayo Presents: World Hits

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Though most world music exists largely under the radar, every once in a while a song comes along that achieves international success. World Hits brings together chart toppers from around the globe. Santana's 1969 version of Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va" turned the rock world upside down, as their version soared up the charts. Cuban musician Mongo Santamaria big crossover hit came in 1963, with his version of the Herbie Hancock composition "Watermelon Man." Another crossover hit comes from the French group Gipsy Kings, whose "Bamboleo" connected the dots between salsa, flamenco and pop. "Lambada" swept first across Europe and then throughout the rest of the world. The hit version of the "forbidden dance" was performed by the French group Kaoma. Manu Dibango's funky "Soul Makossa" became a surprise Top 40 hit in 1973. World music superstar Youssou N'Dour and soul singer Neneh Cherry provide the instantly-recognizable "7 Seconds," while Johnny Clegg and Savuka contributes "Scatterlings of Africa". Miriam Makeba delivers the classic "Pata Pata", an international hit in 1967 that became the first African song to reach the Top 20 on the Billboard pop charts. Rolling Stones' front man Mick Jagger met the enigmatic Peter Tosh in Kingston, Jamaica in 1978. Jagger joins Tosh on a cover of the Temptations hit "(You Gotta Walk) Don't Look Back." The movie The Harder They Come and it's title song became a cult classic in 1975 and made Jimmy Cliff a household name. A portion of Putumayo's proceeds from the sale of this album will be donated to World Learning in support of their efforts to foster global citizenship through international experiential education and community-driven development programs.

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For most fans of what eventually became to be known as world music, developing a taste for the incredibly diverse--to say nothing of complex, thrilling, organic, sophisticated and/or seductive--styles from around the globe occurred gradually, but the vast majority can recall a few tunes that achieved mainstream or college radio airplay, acting as important catalysts, pointing the way toward future explorations. For boomers, it might have been Miriam Makeba's "Pata Pata," a joyous blast of Jo'burg jive, heard here in another but no less enchanting version. Or perhaps it was Manu Dibango's "Soul Makossa," an urbane b-side from a then-unknown Cameroonian bandleader that became an international dance floor sensation. Younger aficionados could cite the Gipsy Kings' "Bamboleo," a flamenco-laced perpetual motion machine that filled nightclubs from Paris to Pittsburgh, or maybe the Senegalese band Touré Kunda's insanely catchy, reggae-inflected "E'mma." Some may even cop to having been momentarily charmed by Kaoma's flagrantly tacky, neo-Brazilian "Lambada" and its appended craze of vertical simulated copulation, often performed by women in short skirts and no underwear. Then there were the western superstar/international icon duets, such as Mick Jagger and Peter Tosh's "Don?t Look Back" or Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour's still-compelling "7 Seconds." All of these and many more appear on this evocative multiple-time-capsule of a disc, bringing back half-forgotten memories in poignant sensory swoops. --Christina Roden