B-side Fun Recorded 1966 | Released 1966 | |
Label Karate 522
Stateside 513 (UK) Writer(s) Tash Howard
Murray Kenton Producer(s) "A (Tash) Howard/Smith Production" | ||
"Juanita Banana" is a novelty song adaptation from Mexican folk music by Tash Howard and Murray Kenton. The song, which tells the story of a Mexican banana farmer's daughter with operatic ambitions and whose chorus is an adaptation of "Caro Nome" from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto, was originally released in the United States in 1966.
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The Peels
The original release of "Juanita Banana" was performed by The Peels, a studio group assembled by co-writer Tash Howard, who also co-produced the single. The Peels consisted of Gail Allan (22), Bill Spilka (25) and Harvey Davis (23). and Harold Swart Howard also wrote "Juanita Banana Part 2" for The Peels as a follow-up release later in the same year.
The Verdi-inspired chorus of the Peels recording was sampled later that year in the Dickie Goodman record "Batman & His Grandmother".
Other versions
Henri Salvador, Luis Aguilé, Los Tres Sudamericanos, Paola Neri, Het Cocktail Trio, Los Yaki and Quartetto Cetra were among the many artists who recorded non-English cover versions of the song.