Babe Ruth was a five-piece rock band formed out of a group called Shacklock (named after their songwriter/guitarist Alan Shacklock) in Hatfield, England, in 1971 and they recorded this, their debut LP, the following year at EMI's Abbey Road studios. Alongside interesting covers of Jesse Winchester ('Black Dog') and Frank Zappa ('King Kong'), the record's opening song 'Wells Fargo' displays the band's recurring obsession with using Hispanic/western themes in their work. Another example of this and the stand-out track on the album is 'The Mexican' which begins with a delicate Spanish guitar intro and then has original Babe Ruth vocalist Jennie "Janita" Haan beltin' out lyrics about a soldier serving under Santa Anna (during the 1836 Texan Revolt) before culminating in a big guitar riff borrowing Ennio Morricone's theme to spaghetti western 'For A Few Dollars More' (Babe Ruth went on to cover Morricone's 'A Fistful Of Dollars' on their self-titled third album); crucially the song also has a solid drum and bassline backing throughout.

Despite being by a British band, 'The Mexican' made its most significant impact in America - during the birth of hiphop in New York. In the early/mid 1970's in the Bronx the biggest dance parties were hosted by Kool DJ Herc, starting out in the rec-room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue and later overspilling into the first outdoor block parties. Herc became number one by crate-digging in record stores so that he could play the most exclusive and obscure records that the radio stations (and other party deejays) didn't have (and he even concealed the labels to keep them secret). Whilst playing these he observed that many of the dancers (who he dubbed his "b-boys") would wait for the funky drums on the instrumental break of a record before going wild on the dancefloor and he struck upon the idea of extending the break by either juggling between two copies of the same song (notably looping James Brown's "clap yer hands, stomp yer feet" line from the album remix of 'Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose') or mixing together several different "break" tracks. Herc named this part of his set the "merry-go-round", unaware that he'd simultaneously pioneered the concept of the "break-beat" and kickstarted the entire hiphop movement!! ...and the link to Babe Ruth is that one of Kool Herc's favourite vinyl exclusives to play in the merry-go-round was 'The Mexican'. So, despite having a killer guitar riff, powerful vocals and exotic lyrics, the track became famous in the Bronx because of its instrumental break - which the band would probably have described as its least interesting part!

The track became an NYC block party anthem and was a frequent influence when hiphop records started to get released in later years, for example seminal electro classic 'Planet Rock' rips the "Morricone bit" (around four minutes in) while 'Feel It (The Mexican)' by the Funky Four on Sugar Hill converts some of the other guitar parts into trebly brass and squiggly synth riffs, copies the percussion and uses the same lyrical metre (but different words). Although it'll never be as big as the Apache break (another "discovery" credited to Herc), the distinctive bassy Mexican break was used on several old skool hiphop tracks such as 'Africa (Goin' Back Home)' by Doug E Fresh, 'Prisoners Of War' by Organized Konfusion and 'On The Run' by the Jungle Brothers. All the original breaks tracks from the 70's are still just as popular today in the breakdance scene (although most of them were recorded by black American funk acts, not white British rock bands!) and Babe Ruth's contribution in particular is respected and revered as a classic. This explains why DJ Spitfire used the break and vocals throughout his intro tracks on the 'Strictly B-Boy Breaks' album in 2000 and I've even seen footage of a breakin' competition where not only does the deejay play 'The Mexican' during the final b-boy battle but the event is actually named after one of the lyrics: "Chico Got To Have His Share".

Elsewhere - outside the hiphop world - 'The Mexican' has inspired no less than three full cover versions: in 1978 the Bombers included a 12-minute disco work-out on their self-titled debut LP, in 1984 John "Jellybean" Benitez got Janita Haan on board for a freestyle interpretation that topped the Billboard dance chart and in 1999 German metallers Helloween recorded their take on the song for their compilation of covers entitled 'Metal Jukebox'. Another copycat track is the massive '88 warehouse anthem 'Dreams Of Santa Anna' by Orange Lemon (Todd Terry) which has a magical Morricone synth lead and a few sampled vocals (presumably taken from the acappella on the Jellybean 12"); Todd Terry's 'The Texican' and JD's 'Good Vibrations' also feature similar elements. The Mexican break can be found on one of the tracks on the Chem Bros 'Brothers Gonna Work It Out' mix album too.

The song's historical significance and classic status is evidenced by its various appearances on (non-rock) compilations, for example the legendary Grandmaster Flash included it on his 'The Official Adventures...' compilation on Strut and it's one of several hiphop-sampled 70's breaks tracks used on the Prodigy's 1997 'Dirtchamber Sessions' mix album where Liam plays a long section of 'The Mexican' and even extends the instrumental break hiphop-style. It's also included on the Big Apple Productions old skool breaks megamix on the 'Ultimate Lessons 2' compilation, again with the break looped (which is no mean feat if mixed live on turntables as the basic guitar-free drum break is only four beats long).

Obsessives (like me!) should also check-out Morricone's original whistled theme to Sergio Leone's 'For A Few Dollars More', the cover version of it by Material featuring scratches by Grandmixer D.St (available on the 1992 reissue of the 'Memory Serves' album) and the remix by Terranova with appropriately twangy spaghetti western guitar and a funky breakbeat (on the 'Morricone Rmx' compilation). Also listen to 'The Good, The Bad And The Dread' by Dreadzone which samples the whistling from the Morricone original.

Even as recently as a few weeks ago Babe Ruth's masterful 'The Mexican' is still cropping up - it was included as one of the unlockable songs on the (BAFTA Video Games Awards nominated) soundtrack to the new Sony PS2/PSP videogame 'B-Boy'.