Lou Bega's single, Mambo No 5, has already been a hit across Europe and is due for release through RCA on 30 August.

But returning holiday-makers and cricket fans have been buying up import copies of the single - pushing it into the charts at number 40.

It has already been a number one hit in 10 other European countries, including Belgium, Germany and Spain.

In the UK the record has introduced Channel 4's coverage of Test match cricket, set to film of dancers acting out the umpire's signals.

'Flying off shelves'

Jason Legg, from the HMV retail chain, said: "It's just been flying off the shelves.

"It's got everything really - it's got the Latin feel that is doing really well at the moment, it's dancey, it's commercial, and it reminds people of their holidays.

"Unlike a lot of other dance hits that are in the charts, it hasn't been big at all the trendy clubs in Ibiza, but more popular at holiday resorts."

The last single to reach the Top 40 on import sales alone was The Jam's That's Entertainment, which reached number 21 in 1981.

The record is based on the original Mambo No 5 by written in the 1950s by the Cuban, Perez Prado.

Prado's Guaglione reached number two in the UK charts in May 1995 when it was used in an advertisement for Guinness.

The man behind the new Mambo No 5, Lou Bega, is a 23-year-old part-Sicilian, part Ugandan musician.

The theme to the BBC's cricket coverage, Soul Limbo by Booker T and the MGs, reached number 30 when it was released in 1968.