5" is an instrumental mambo and jazz dance song originally composed and recorded by Cuban musician Dámaso Pérez Prado in 1949 and released the next year.
[1] German singer Lou Bega sampled the original for a new song released under the same name on his 1999 debut album, A Little Bit of Mambo.
[2] German singer Lou Bega recorded a cover of the song and released it in April 1999 as the first single from his debut album, A Little Bit of Mambo (1999).
[7] Elisabeth Vincentelli from Entertainment Weekly rated the song with a B minus, adding, "All of a sudden, mambo is hot again, and the unlikely city of Munich is on the Latin-music map.
For this we have to thank the Ugandan-Italian Bega and his German producing team, who have hit pay dirt by tacking new lyrics onto an old Pérez Prado song.
"[8] The song became the subject of a seven-year copyright trial between Prado's estate, the music publisher Peermusic, and Bega's producers.
The women's names from Bega's version are also replaced with types of construction supplies and building tasks, e.g., timber, saw, waterproofing and tiling.
[114] It was Australia's 26th-most-successful hit of the year and shipped over 70,000 copies, allowing it to receive a platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA).