Twenty-five years ago today, the Bayside Boys remix of Los Río's "Macarena" (1993), with English lyrics added, hit number one on the Billboard music charts. Wedding DJs never recovered.
From Wikipedia:
Los del Río were invited to tour South America in 1992 and, while visiting Venezuela, they were invited to a private party held by the Venezuelan empresario Gustavo Cisneros. During the celebration, a local flamenco teacher, Diana Patricia Cubillán Herrera, performed a dance for the guests, and Los del Río were pleasantly surprised by Cubillán's dance skills. Spontaneously, Antonio Romero Monge, one half of the Los del Río duo, recited the song's chorus-to-be on the spot, as an accolade to Cubillán: "¡Diana, dale a tu cuerpo alegría y cosas buenas!'" ("Give your body some joy, Diana"). When Monge wrote the song, he changed the name to Macarena, in honor of Antonio's daughter Esperanza Macarena.
From Spin:
…The "Macarena" is about a threesome that disrespects a soldier. If you haven't heard (though technically you have), Macarena is a woman who gets bored when her boyfriend joins the military, and decides to get with not one, but two of his best friends. Los Del Río don't shame the hookup either: translated, the chorus urges the lonely mamí to "give your body some joy." She was named Diana in the demo, but in an act of next-level freakiness, the Monge half of Los Del Río took the liberty of changing her name to Macarena, in honor of Perdigones' daughter[…]
If the year of "Macarena" had a high-water mark it was the 1996 Democratic National Convention, where in a spectacle of mass goof unmatched at any (legit) political event since, the song took possession of the United Center in Chicago like the Holy Spirit at a Baptist revival.
Here's the clip:
