| Anabacoa | |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Beny Moré & Pérez Prado |
| B-Side: | Batiri RCA |
| Released: | 1949 |
| Recorded: | 1949 |
| Genre: | Guaracha-mambo |
| Label: | RCA Victor |
| Prev Title: | Qué te pasa José |
| Prev Year: | 1949 |
| Next Title: | Mi chiquita |
| Next Year: | 1950 |
"Anabacoa" is a guaracha composed by Puerto Rican trumpeter Juanchín Ramírez which has become a Latin music standard. Its most famous recording was made in Mexico in 1949 by Beny Moré backed by Pérez Prado and his orchestra.[1] [2] Recorded as a mambo, Moré's recording became a hit throughout Latin America. It was followed by the version made by Arsenio Rodríguez and his conjunto in 1950, which further cemented the piece as a standard of the Cuban music repertoire.[3] [4] Arsenio's rendition, although labeled as a guaracha, was driven by a guaguancó pattern on the tumbadora.
In the 1970s, "Anabacoa" became the signature song of the Grupo Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorkino, a New York-based descarga ensemble originally known as Conjunto Anabacoa.[5] [6] [7] It was founded by Jerry González and his brother Andy in 1974. Like Arsenio's version, their rendition is also "a guaguancó based on a two-measure montuno pattern that is unchanging throughout the entire piece".[8]
In the 1990s, Sierra Maestra recorded another descarga rendition of the song for their album Tíbiri tábara, which included other "familiar songs of the Cuban repertoire".[9] [10]