Rosemary Clooney & Perez Prado – Sway

2nd June 2021 · 1960, 1960s, Music

Rosemary Clooney, perhaps better known now as George Clooney’s aunt, brings back the Latin vibe of Sway, previously popularised by Dean Martin.

I knew this song was familiar from something more recent than its release date in 1960, when even I was a tiny baby. But I couldn’t quite place it.

Then, yesterday, I heard about a second season of the great Netflix drama Lupin, and remembered where I had heard it – in a carefully choreographed cycle chase through Luxembourg Gardens involving multiple orange-clad bike couriers.

I realise too that I also know this song through the Dean Martin version from 1954. But I prefer George Clooney’s auntie Rosemary singing with Perez Prado in 1960.

Prado was the Cuban bandleader who popularised the mambo in the 1950s, and Clooney had an affinity for the style dating back to her previous hit Mambo Italiano.

She restores the Latin vibe of the song – original title: Quién Será – written by Norman Gimbel, Pablo Beltrán Ruiz and Luis Demetrio, and first recorded back in 1953 by Nelson Penedo con la Sonora Matancera.