Early American Rumba was made famous by a song called the Peanut Vendor which was the first recording of Cuban music to become an international hit. Interestingly, it was incorrectly described on the album label as a rumba, supposedly because the word son would not be understood in English. The name stuck, and a rumba craze developed throughout the 1930s. This kind of rumba was introduced into dance clubs in America and Europe in the 1930s, and was characterized by variable tempo, sometimes nearly twice as fast as the modern ballroom rumba.
