Mambo No. 5

Mambo No.. 5 is the title of a mambo and jive dance piece originally by Pérez Prado from the year 1949. A later version Prados served as a template for the instrumental song Mambo No.. 5 (A Little Bit Of ... ) by Lou Bega, which became a worldwide million-seller and summer hit 1999. In terms of world sales is Mambo No.. 5 is the most successful German music production ever in the pop music industry.

Genesis

The genesis of the original begins in 1949, when the Mambo bandleader Pérez Prado the song Mambo No.. 5 composed. He has since been registered as author at BMI and hereby won a BMI Award. For Prado total of 433 items are protected by copyright. From Mambo No.. 5 circulating countless recordings by the original artists; are often mistakenly referred to as Mambo No. on CD covers, other instrumentals Prados. 5 specified.

When Prado, the "King of Mambo ", the instrumental song Mambo No.. Had composed 5 and other titles, he was the Mexican record label Mexicana under contract, a subsidiary label of the U.S. major label RCA Records. The latter then closed with Prado because of its local success, a record deal, to facilitate the publications in the United States. Prados first single for RCA was then Qué rico el mambo / Mambo No.. 5 (RCA 47-3782 and 20-3782 ). Both photos were taken in Mexico City, and that on December 12, 1949 ( A-side ) and in November 1949 (B-side ). This single, both 78 rpm and 45 rpm as available, took with their vulcanized brass sections and persuasive percussion North America by storm and there broke the Mambo Fever from. With the catalog number 51-5062 RCA came in 1950 nor a plate with blue vinyl and the titles Mambo No.. 5 / Blue Mambo out. Prado took his music a growing following in the U.S. and launched in April 1951 in the " Puerto Rico Theater" in the Bronx, New York, a nationwide U.S. tour. Dave Barbour took with his orchestra as first a cover version under the title The Mambo, which reached rank 27 in the pop singles chart in September 1950.

Lou Bega million seller

The 24 -year-old Lou Bega was still unknown, as Mambo No. in the music industry. 5 of the Hamburg repertoire managers of American music publisher Peermusic (Germany) GmbH, which in the Hanseatic city has its European headquarters, was selected from the repertoire. The music publisher holds claims to the rights to over 500,000 music tracks from the past few decades. The repertoire manager analyzed the fundus their publishers systematically searching for tracks whose genre could have on the current market success again.

One of those titles was Mambo No.. 5, which was a team led by Goar Biesenkamp hands. Biesenkamp, the various functions of BMG Ariola had worked from 1987 to 1996 and was founded in 1997, the music production Unicade Music, sat down with Frank Lio ( Achim Kleist ) and Donald Fact ( Wolfgang von Webenau ), both of " Syndicate Music Production " ( inter alia responsible for Bro'Sis or No Angels ), together. Added to this was the progressive record label " Loudly " ( Label Code: LC 2180 / LC 02180 ), which had only been founded in 1997 and is part of the BMG group. Meanwhile Artist Development had specialized in " exceptional " talent. This co-operation of parts of the German music industry is considered as the discoverer and developer of Lou Bega and his hit.

Pérez Prado's Mambo No.. 5 received a text and a new chorus melody of Lou Bega and Christian " Zippy " Pletschacher. The producers Frank Lio and Donald Fact attended the Munich studio ( Baldham / Vaterstetten ) for the dance style of the original Mambo, cut into it from the original parts in the recording ( sampled ) were. Because it is - for those days - these were a work under copyright law, the heirs Prados had cause to be the legal successor of the composer's approval by their representative music publisher Peermusic. Legally controversial was later whether Bega's version merely represented a cover version of the old Prado songs or because of the processing units even an independent work ( see below). According to the BMI Bega's version is self- protected, but with Prado together as co-author. This work also received a BMI Award.

Publication and sale

Mambo No.. 5 (A Little Bit of ... ) was published on 19 April 1999 in Germany and internationally on 17 August 1999 and was completed in the summer of 1999 to a world-wide hit. In Germany, he took eleven weeks # 1 on the singles charts and reached six times platinum status. In over 20 countries around the dance titles listed as the number one national charts, such as in Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Australia and Canada. In the U.S., the single peaked at number three and also the associated album A Little Bit of Mambo reached there in third place and triple platinum status. End of July 1999 were sold in Germany alone, 1.3 million singles, Europe over 2.2 million. The end of 1999 in Germany and France and 882,000 worldwide 4.13 million recordings were 3 million, in the UK reacted. In the U.S. alone more four million have been implemented. More than 12 million CDs have been sold worldwide. Overall, Bega has now marketed 53 million records worldwide.

In 2000, Bega was recognized for this success with two echoes.

Litigation

Immediately after the success of peak came at Goar Biesenkamp at first doubt whether Lou Bega's version is merely an adaptation of Prados original version, or even whether Bega's version constitutes an independent composition. Bega and " Zippy " Pletschacher had some elements of this purely instrumental piece of music associated with self-composed elements and a written text you have, the relative weighting of these various elements in detail was controversial. Already on 19 November 2001 had before it a first musicological opinion that the client Biesenkamp / Unicade confirmed that Prado rhythm and harmonies were taken, Bega but by the melody own factory did it. Ultimately aimed the dispute from it, Prado and his music publisher Peermusic (Germany) GmbH to withdraw the previously collected royalties later, according to the experts were to be estimated at about 2 million euros. Two other reports were made ​​on 11 March 2003 and 1 October 2003 for Biesenkamp. They also came to the conclusion that it was in Bega version is a completely independent composition because they use Prados original only child elements ( " riffs ", but no protectable tunes), so that only Bega and " Zippy " to be regarded as music authors were.

Biesenkamps Musikverlag Unicade Music GmbH entered in the first instance, the Landgericht München I, as a plaintiff against the music publisher Peermusic (Germany) GmbH to. While Bega and " Zippy " Pletschacher sought a declaration that they are the sole author are together on their hit Mambo No.5, of the suffix " A Little Bit Of ... " carries in its version, the Hamburg music publishing peer had against the GEMA stated that the matter was still a factory variant and thus is an arrangement of the original version without its own copyright protection ability. The District Court of Munich I are in its judgment of 17 November 2004 the plaintiffs right and looks Bega's version as a separate composition at. However, the victory of the plaintiff did not last long, for judgment on the appeal of the procedure on the Higher Regional Court of Munich to the Federal Court.

The Munich Higher Regional Court had lifted in the second instance on the appeal of the defendant Peermusic the judgment of the District Court of Munich and the action of Unicade Music dismissed in its entirety. The complex procedure was decided in the last instance by the Supreme Court. From the judgments of interesting details in the pre- sequence are to be taken. Thereafter, the plaintiff had Biesenkamp (or the belongings of music publishing Unicade Music GmbH) the defendant Peer Musikverlag by letter of 9 October 1998 a demo CD with a recording of Mambo No.. 5 (A Little Bit Of ... ) sent and asked for a working permit for them. This Biesenkamp was initially self- assumed that Prados original was only edited and no new, independent copyright efficient work was written. Peer had tied the consent to the planned production with processing permit in mind that the copyrights for the new version of Mambo No.. By Mambo No. 5. 5 (A Little Bit Of ... ) should be retained in Peer Music. Therefore Bega and " Zippy " transferred the Peermusic an exclusive and unlimited right to the Publisher created by them text of the play Mambo No.. 5, after which Peermusic the authors Bega and " Zippy " at GEMA later than subtext - poet for the version Mambo No.. 5 (A Little Bit Of ... ) filed.

While two of the three submitted by the plaintiffs musicological opinion clearly confirmed their legal position, however, the acquired elements were so overweight that Prado was to be considered as co-authors for the third, commissioned by the plaintiffs expert, but the creative contributions of Bega and " Zippy " would outweigh such that they should be regarded 70% as music authors. The report commissioned by the defendant came to the conclusion that it was a cover version ( or even just to a subsequent captioning ). It could, moreover, be no question of that in the music business Mambo No.. 5 (A Little Bit Of ... ) no copyright music performance by the composer Pérez Prado was included more. The evidence provided by Unicade would not do justice to the situation. Instead, the opinion of the defendant Peermusic the music copyright of relevance in Mambo No. tries. 5 (A Little Bit Of ... ) to prove the elements contained Prado composition. Thus would Bega and " Zippy " next only dependent copyrights under § 3 Copyright Act acquired; they were by the Treaty of October 12, 1999 - transferred to the defendant Peermusic - with the express consent of Unicade. For this reason, both the Munich Higher Regional Court and the Supreme Court were to conclude that the question of what advice was to follow, should not be pursued further because Bega and " Zippy " her - had transferred copyright to Peer Music - dependent. Overall, therefore, neither the Munich Higher Regional Court nor the Supreme Court saw no legal basis on payment claims of the plaintiff or Bega or " Zippy " against Peermusic, so no claims for access or accounting had emerged.

In this litigation must not be overlooked that Unicade / Bega / " Zippy " only could therefore achieve significant revenue because they had used the existing work of Pérez Prado as a template. The question of which is preferable to the four musicological expertise and thus the question of whether Bega's version is a cover version, or at least an independent composition, did not need to be answered by the Supreme Court of technical legal reasons.