Boogaloo & Pachanga

Two overlapping New York scenes ran from the late 1950s into the 1960s. First the pachanga craze — an uptempo charanga sound out of Cuba (Eduardo Davidson's...

Two overlapping New York scenes ran from the late 1950s into the 1960s. First the pachanga craze — an uptempo charanga sound out of Cuba (Eduardo Davidson's 1959 "La Pachanga") — filled rooms across the Bronx and uptown. Then came a distinct, R&B-facing turn: boogaloo, made by a New York–raised generation who heard the older Cuban forms at a generational distance and spliced son montuno with soul, R&B and English-language hooks. Pete Rodríguez's "I Like It Like That" and Joe Cuba's crossover sides found radio; Johnny Colón cut "Boogaloo Blues." For a few wild years the barrio's own youth sound spoke American — then the industry's pivot toward "salsa" absorbed its energy and its name, through a mix of generational change, market consolidation and venue/radio shifts that historians still debate.

Years

1959-1969

In the app

Timeline