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The Frito Bandito

The Frito Bandito"Aye, yai yai yai, I am the Frito Bandito!"

For many of us, when we hear the familiar verse to Cielito Lindo, those words pop into our heads. From 1967 until 1971, when he was done away with under pressure from a Mexican-American anti-defamation group, the Frito Bandito ruled the airwaves. He also sold a very large bunch of snack food.

I remember constantly hearing that song, and memorizing the lyrics.

His voice was that of the master of making cartoons talk, Mel Blanc. Mel, the man who provided voices for dozens of characters for Warner Bros.and Hanna-Barbera, was a natural for this gig.

Unfortunately, people took offense. The next thing you know, there were protests. And eventually, he was laid to rest.

While this piece could easily digress into social commentary, I won't let that happen. However, I WILL replay those familiar lyrics in my mind whenever I hear that classic Spanish tune.

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Comments (4)

Rhonda:

I had a Frito Bandito eraser that Fritos had as a giveaway before the Bandito had to go.
:(

scott:

Per the last comment of erasers, I believe we at the end of the baby boom were the first to get bombarded with corporate "Junk Food"
products and sponsorships in Schools.
My junior high still had the classic lunch food like mac and cheese, hot dogs, and
spaghetti's, but Mcdonalds and Pepsi were licking their chops
looking to "turn on" the kids to the latest crap products for life.
We did get lots of bombardment of kids cereals, which seemed to consist of hundreds of characters too humorless to warrant their own cartoon, but
cool enough to hawk cereal(Leprechans, Toucans, Bears, Tigers,
Vampires, Rabbits, and the like). Now even lame concepts like Geico's Cavement warrant their own prime-time series...personally, I'd rather see the lucky charms leprechan have his own series than the cavemen, even Pillsbury the doughboy(his time in the trenches of WW1 would be interesting)....

Richie:

Howzit you guys
I was thinking maybe you could help me with a song I am trying to find ,I have been a collector of music for many years and I have a vast collection, so for many years I have had people coming to ask me for names of different songs and lyrics, so far I have not really had a problem helping them .About three months ago an elderly lady approached me for the name of a song that she sings to her granddaughter ,I first thought it was done by Dean Martin or Perry Como I have exhausted all possible avenues including East Coast radio and Johan Stemmet and dozens of other music related people . Every person with no exception including myself knows the song but no one knows or remembers the name or who sang it .So don't feel bad if you don't know it you are in good company and the song was most probably done before you were born .If you can help I would be truly grateful .
Richie

The words that she gave are as such.

Aye ,yai ,yai ,yai
Si, Si Senora
I love you
I love you
I love you I do
So give me your heart Senora

Ron Enderland:

According to Wikipedia, a song called "You, Me, and Us" was written in 1956. It followed the tune to Cielito Lindo. Here are the lyrics:

YOU ME AND US
(John Jerome)

Sung by Alma Cogan - 1957

You, me and us
We are my favourite people
We all go together like peaches and cream
Or bells with a church and a steeple

Some people I know, I'm fond of and so
All day I keep singing about them
For one of them's you and, Darling, it's true
I find that I can't live without them

You, me and us
We are my favourite people
We all go together like peaches and cream
Or bells with a church and a steeple

The stars were as bright as diamonds the night
We met and we danced and we flirted
With one look at you, my dream had come true
And nothing will ever divert it

You, me and us
We are my favourite people
We all go together like peaches and cream
Or bells with a church and a steeple

Now, outside of town we all settled down
Our place isn't big, but it's cosy
I know that you're mine and ev'rything's fine
Our future forever is rosy

You, me and us
We are my favourite people
We all go together like peaches and cream
Or bells with a church and a steeple

Yes, we all go together like peaches and cream
You, me and us!

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on January 3, 2007 12:03 AM.

The previous post in this blog was Pushbutton Transmissions.

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