Stephen King's wife threatened to divorce him because he wouldn't stop playing 'Mambo No. 5'

'Mambo No.5' is one of the most iconic songs of all time.

Singer Lou Bega really made history when he sampled the 1949 instrumental mambo and jazz dance song from Cuban musician Dámaso Pérez Prado.

Virtually everyone grew up knowing the words and you would hear it at every dance party imaginable.

However, you'd usually only hear it once and that was it.

It was a different story in Stephen King's household.

The legendary author has revealed he used to enjoy the song so much that he nearly found himself being a single man as a result.

During an interview with Rolling Stone about his new book, Holly, he was asked about his love of writing while listening to music.

The journalist quizzed him about his love for 'Mambo No.5' and King said: "Oh, yeah. Big time. My wife threatened to divorce me.

"I played that a lot.

"I had the dance mix. I loved those extended play things, and I played both sides of it.

"And one of them was just total instrumental. And I played that thing until my wife just said, 'One more time, and I’m going to f**king leave you'."

Oooft, that is brutal.

King says he was probably writing 11/22/63 at the time of this awkward moment and he says that he can listen to songs over and over again without getting tired of them.

Richard Keith Wolff/Avalon/Getty Images

"A lot of it is techno stuff or disco stuff, but techno in particular, there’s this group called LCD Soundsystem, and I love that," he explained to the outlet.

"Fat Boy Slim is somebody else. I can just listen to that stuff. If you tried to write and listen to Leonard Cohen, how the f**k would you do that?

"Because you’d have to listen to the words and you’d have to listen to what he’s saying."

King revealed that he doesn't listen to music as much these days when he's writing as his 'thought process is not as limber as it was' when he was in his 30s.

Instead of techno music with repetitive beats and very few lyrics, he's now transitioned to 'loud rock & roll' like Foghat, Bob Seger, Travis Tritt and Alan Jackson.

Whatever the music is, we bet his wife Tabitha will be thanking her lucky stars that it's just not 'Mambo No.5'.

Topics: Stephen King, Music

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Senior Journalist at LADbible. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign. He is in charge of the LADbible Australia editorial content and social presence.

@stewartperrie