Name: Pata Pata
Brand: Miriam Makeba

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

STRUT180LP

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "STRUT180LP"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2020-04-14

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0730003318016

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "0730003318016"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Total Cap

2 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

STRUT180CD

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "STRUT180CD"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

2019-08-30

0730003318023

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "0730003318023"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Miriam Makeba

Genre GB

African

Label GB

Strut

Grammy Award-winning South African singer, Miriam Makeba, also known as "Mama Afrika", was born on March 4th, 1932 in Johannesburg. She began her career singing with various groups before gaining recognition for her role in the musical King Kong in 1959. Makeba's talent caught the attention of Harry Belafonte, who invited her to America. Widely regarded as the first lady of South African traditional music, she became an international superstar in the USA and UK. Despite being exiled from her home country due to political unrest, Makeba eventually returned to South Africa once the situation improved.

Strut is a British independent label founded by Quinton Scott. From 1999 to 2003, Strut was at the forefront of unearthing forgotten dance music gems, covering a wide range of genres from hard funk and underground disco to Nigerian Afrobeat and old skool hip hop. Their releases not only featured killer dancefloor tracks but also provided a comprehensive context for the music, delving into the stories behind the tunes, the clubs, and the scene of that time. With meticulous attention to detail, Strut's albums were mastered from original tapes whenever possible and included extensive sleeve notes written by respected journalists, rare photographs, and memorabilia.

In January 2008, Strut was reactivated and became part of the *K7 label group. Since then, their releases have been primarily based in Europe unless there is an exclusive retailer in another territory.

Back In Stock

The album marked a significant international breakthrough for Makeba. Moving to the US after the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa gained international attention and staying there in exile, she quickly built her career in New York during the ‘60s, mentored by Harry Belafonte. Signing with Reprise after a period with RCA, she returned to one of her older songs: “I wrote ‘Pata Pata’ back in 1956, back in South Africa,” remembered Makeba in her autobiography. “It was a fun little song and I was thinking of a dance that we do at home (“pata” means ‘touch” in Zulu and Xhosa).” Originally a hit in South Africa with her early vocal harmony group the Skylarks, the new recording, produced by Jerry Ragovoy, brought a lighter uptempo R’nB arrangement, adding some English lyrics. “It was my first truly big seller. All of a sudden, people who never knew I had been in America since 1959 were asking me to be on their television shows and play at their concert halls during 1967. In the discotheques, they invented a new dance called the ‘Pata Pata’ where couples dance apart and then reach out and touch each other. I went to Argentina for a concert and, across South America, they are singing my song.”

The track peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at no. 12 and the album. Other songs on the album included a version of the traditional Xhosa classic, Click Song Number One (‘Qongqothwane’), the atmospheric West Wind, later famously covered by her friend Nina Simone, and a version of Tilahun Gessesse’s Yetentu Tizaleny which Makeba learned on a trip to Addis to perform for Haile Selassie at the Organisation Of African Unity.

Mastered by The Carvery from the original reel to reel tapes, Pata Pata is released in its mono and stereo versions for the first time. Physical formats feature brand new sleeve notes alongside rare photos from the time of recording and session details.

Pata Pata

Music GB

Buy Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.