"South America, Take It Away" was written for Call Me Mister, a 1946 Broadway revue that touches on the post- war infatuation with Latin and Latin-American music and culture in the United States, which would go on to spawn and influence numerous hit songs throughout the latter half of the 1940s and early 50s.
It is a traditional pop song that combines elements of swing and jazz with latin jazz and rumba, and serves as a tribute to "our grand South American neighbors" and their "beautiful lands," and an appreciation of their genres of music like samba, conga, and the aforementioned rumba. The narrator claims that South American music styles are "leaving [him] aching," with "more bumps than a cucumber," "cracked hips," and an "outta-whack spine," insinuating that they are difficult to dance to and require a lot of moving, suggesting "Maybe Latins in their middles are built stronger."[1] Some of the lyrics are vague and up to interpretation, and much of the song consists of nonsense or stylish adlibs.