Katunga: Oh Cherie
From Mira Para Arriba, Mira Para Abajo (RCA, 1973)
Katunga was a 1970s Latin funk/rock outfit out of either Peru or Argentina (I’m still not 100% certain if they were Peruvians who recorded/toured in Argentina or the other way around) with a few LPs to their name. “Oh Cherie” comes off of what is probably their “best-known” LP (to American heads), Mira Para Arriba, Mira Para Abajo (“look up, look down”) thanks to a number of b-boy break-type joints, especially “Palo Bonito.”
However, I keep coming back to “Oh Cherie,” which I initially would have sworn was a cover song of some early ’70s U.S. pop but the more I tried to research it, the more I realized it merely sounded like a cover but actually isn’t. That said, don’t you just get the idea that Katunga spent a lot of quality time with Chicago before coming up with this tune? Love the piano, love the electric piano, love the hook, love the small doo-wop touches.
chatter