It’s kind of a sad thing that the Gypsy Kings had to put crossover gypsy rock on the global map. It’s not that their music is all that bad – but every time I go to a mediocre Italian restaurant, much to my chagrin, I’m subjected to their music playing in the background. I’ve even heard Bandolero blaring out of a lime green convertible Mustang once. Oh lord.
Before all that, there was a true king of this genre: Peret – the Spanish Romaní singer, guitarist and composer, who was pretty much the embassador of the Catalan Rumba sound. If you are interested in this music please do check out the articles Soul-Sides has about Peret and Los Amaya (O-dub always has the finger on the pulse). What I wanted to add was that I found this in the KRMX lot of 45’s I have. So even though Peret is Spanish, his music was still heard in Latin America, although I am not quite sure what impact it had, if any. Either way, two really solid tunes from El Rey de La Rumba Catalana. Enjoy!
1. Peret: A Mi Las Mujers, Ni Fu Ni Fa
Super Sonido 
Big props for not including “Borriquito” which might be perhaps his best known song. I only discovered this guy fairly recently through watching his amazingly entertaining videos on YouTube, but I’m convinced he was at some point in time the coolest mofo on the planet. (Latin America included)
I’ve got a Uruguayan DJ friend who claims Peret was very big in his birth nation.
Tried to find some quality Peret on vinyl on my last Barcelona trip without much luck…then further on my travels waiting for a train connection I walked into a shop in Belgium where they had stacks of the older Peret albums very cheap – some of them obviously left over stock as they had multiple copies. Made my day…next time in Belgium I’m looking for that shop again…
I think I picked up a copy of Borriquito in Uruguay so he may well have been huge there. I thought it might be some Hnos Flores type party tune. It was not to be, but it would probably still go down well at a groovy student party.