But its complex harmonies and gospel tinges were frankly revolutionary. But it started with “Eres tu,” a track penned by master songwriter Juan Carlos Calderon that was a runner up in the 1973 Eurovision Song contest. In the 1970s, everything Spanish male/female group Mocedades sang, turned to gold. The song went where no song in Spanish had gone before or since, and, with Colon’s cutting-edge arrangement also became a continental hit. Included in 1989’s Top Secrets, his last album for Fania, “El Gran Varón” tells the story of Simon, who is destined to be a “big man,” but instead, goes to the U.S., discovers he is gay and dies of AIDS. Gloria Estefan recorded the only English translation in 2013.Įl gran varón” wasn’t even meant to be a single for Colón. The song was inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001. The haunting song of impossible love would become first a tango standard, then a romantic standard, done and redone by dozens of artists, perhaps most memorably by Mexico’s Luis Miguel. One of the many songwriting collaborations between the immortal tango king Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Le Pera, it was originally featured in the 1935 film of the same name, performed by Gardel. “El dia que me quieras” – Various artists “El buen perdedor” (The good loser), from his 1984 solo debut, opened a new generation’s eyes to romance.ġ6. Then along came Franco de Vita, a Venezuelan with Italian roots who wrote and sang love songs, yes, but intensely personal ones told in a colloquial language that connected with a new generation. Latin music in the 1970s and 1980s was dominated by heartthrob balladeers who sang the songs of great composers. Illogical.”) Penned by Estefano, it spent two weeks at No. “Ahora quien,” from Anthony’s 2004 Valió la pena, is one of the most exquisitely painful breakup songs (“Who now, if not me? I look at myself in the mirror and I feel stupid. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, a record it would hold until Shakira’s “La Tortura” topped it in 2005. Penned by Omar Alfanno, “A puro dolor” spent a record 20 weeks at No. Released in 2000, the song was such a hit, it spawned an English version and a ballad version, and ended up topping Billboard‘s decade-end Hot Latin Songs of the 2000s chart. The purest of pain - that’s what this beautiful break-up anthem from Puerto Rican salsa romántica quartet Son by Four evokes. 1 on Hot Latin Songs, but it established Juanes as Colombia’s favorite rocker. “A Dios le Pido” (To God I Pray) never hit No. In 2002, inspired by the guasca sounds of his native Medellin, the Colombian rocker with a heart of gold infused folk into Spanish pop/rock, and instantly gave us a new, feel-good sound to groove to.

Le le maza le means trainslation