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I always like Charo, but didn’t know most of this. Enjoy! "Around the world, I am known as a great musician. But in America, I am known as the cuchi-cuchi girl. That's okay because cuchi-cuchi has taken me all the way to the bank." María del Rosario Mercedes Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza was born in in Murcia, Spain. She attended the Catholic Convent of the Sacred Heart, where she began playing guitar at age 9. When she was 14, she won a scholarship to study classical guitar with Andrés Segovia. In 1966, she married bandleader Xavier Cugat and they moved to the United States. In the late 1960s and 1970s, as Charo, she became a ubiquitous presence on American television, frequently appearing as a guest star on series like "Laugh-In", "Fantasy Island", and "The Love Boat". She is known for her uninhibited and exuberant manner, ostensible lack of fluency in English, and heavy Spanish accent, and the catch-phrase "cuchi-cuchi".She also appeared in "The Concorde... Airport '79" (1979) as Margarita, a woman who attempts to smuggle a dog aboard the plane. As a musician, she has performed and recorded in various styles for five decades. She released a series of disco recordings in the 1970s with Salsoul Records, most notably "Dance a Little Bit Closer" (1970). In 1995, her flamenco album "Guitar Passion" (1994) won the Female Pop Album of the Year award at the Billboard International Latin Music Conference and was named best female Latin pop album by Billboard. (IMDb/Wikipedia) Happy Birthday, Charo!