Originally released in 1955, Mambo on Broadway was the title of an RCA-Victor LP which was Tito Puente's first-ever reissue compilation, as it drew upon his earlier 78 rpm recordings. Although during the early ‘50s Puente also cut records for the Tico, Mambo Boys, and SMC labels, he signed an exclusive contract with RCA in 1955. Inspired by Machito and Mario Bauza, with whom he had worked the timbales, Puente had built up a terrifically hot band whose records sold quite well. According to producer Joe Conzo, however, the people in charge at RCA were surprisingly unaware of Puente's commercial potential, and considered him and his band less marketable than Luis Alvarado and Pérez Prado. As the LP era unfolded, Puente made numerous popular albums for RCA, but that company's A&R directors left literally hundreds of tracks unreleased. Mambo on Broadway is packed with excellent music, including spicy versions of "Tuxedo Junction" and "Take the 'A' Train," as well as "Tito Timbero," an explosive feature for Puente himself. Vocalists heard on this exciting collection are Vicentico Valdés, Alfredito Valdez, Jr., and Vitin Aviles. Fourteen of these tracks were reissued in 1996 on RCA's Very Best of Tito Puente & Vincentico Valdes, and everything here was included in the Complete RCA Recordings, Vol. 1, which appeared in 2000, as well as Emusica's outstanding four-CD set, The Complete 78s, which was released in 2008 and still stands as the most thorough and comprehensive early Puente anthology in existence. BMG's 2009 reissue of Mambo on Broadway holds 27 titles, considerably more than were able to fit onto the original record. In an apparent effort to replicate the exact dimensions of that LP, the Cloud 9 Records edition of Mambo on Broadway that came out in 2004 only holds seven tracks. Obviously, BMG's disc is a much better deal although as a Japanese import, the cost may seem prohibitive.