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No, that's not Xavier Cugat on the album cover above. All those easy-listening bachelor pad albums back then had cheesecake covers. On this LP we find a cover of the Beatles' "Yesterday", one of the most covered songs in history.Xavier Cugat, a.k.a. the Rhumba King, was an accomplished musician largely responsible for popularizing Latin music in the U.S. - you can thank Cugat for the conga, mamba and cha-cha becoming popular here.
Xavier discovered Desi Arnaz, performed at the opening of the Waldorf Astoria, sold millions of records, and had some knockout beautiful wives. He was married to Charo (cuchi-cuchi!) and Abbe Lane (that's her on the album cover below).
Lane was called "the swingingest sexpot in show business" and was famous for quotes like "Jayne Mansfield may turn boys into men, but I take them from there". Wow!Well, that's it for the first of, hopefully, many Beatles cover posts, but I should mention one last thing: Ever wander aimlessly around the internet only to stumble upon a goldmine? That's precisely what happened to me upon finding The Franklin Mint Blog. There I found an incredible list Beatles covers I'd never even heard of, and just had to give the blog a shout out and a big thanks.
