This infectiously catchy little number sprinted through many a high school students’ radio when it hit the airwaves in 1999. Nobody seemed to care that the chorus incoherently rambled on about random women and their ambiguous relationships with the singer (“A little bit of Tina’s what I see”?).

What made Bega’s irrelevant track, which was heavily reliant on the sampled Perez Prado song “Mambo No. 5,” so popular? Empirical research shows that it may have been listeners’ subconscious desire for big, fat phonies!

Surprise, surprise: Lou Bega was born in Munich, Germany, in 1975. His father was Ugandan and his mother was from southern Italy, according to the official Lou Bega Web site.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m for world music appreciation; I’m Irish/Dutch, but that doesn’t stop me from getting down with Tito Puente all night long. But you’ll never see me don a zoot suit and fedora and try to pass myself off as a bona fide Hispanic without disclaiming myself first.

That’s where I think Bega betrayed us — by not announcing himself as a non-Hispanic. So, with today’s “Track of the Day,” I’d like an official apology from Mr. Bega.

The ball’s in your court, Lou.

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