RDP Thursday: OOZE
When millions of Americans ( or nearly 67% of households that had television sets ) tuned into I Love Lucy, most of them probably didn’t realize that Ricky Ricardo’s signature song was a tribute to an Afro-Cuban god.
“Babalu,” written by Cuban composer Margarita Lecuona, is about Babalu-Aye, one of the seven main gods of the Afro-Cuban religion Santeria. It was first recorded by Cuban vocalist Miguelito Valdes in 1941.
Interesting factoids aside, may I say Desi Arnaz oozes serious moves from every pore in his body in this clip- the ending is ahem.
Wow.
What a performance!
A very athletic performance. They were both television genius’. Among their inventions was the revolving set. They helped create modern television technique.