In 2022 I read Decoding Despacito: An Oral History of Latin Music by Leila Cobo. I felt like there was a lot more to learn from it and promised I would get back to it.
Trying that this year, I was not nearly as impressed. What I had left to learn was not going to come from that book.
Part of that has been a growing disdain on my part for oral histories. It was exacerbated here by there being so many songs that seemed like they should have been included but were not. Was that because she had no one to interview?
And why did Cobo choose "Whenever, Wherever" instead of "Hips Don't Lie" for Shakira? I think it was just because she wanted to highlight this line:
Lucky that my breasts are small and humble
So you don't confuse 'em with mountains
I did some more searching and found a list of the 50 Greatest Latin Pop Songs by Rolling Stone:
The criteria for inclusion here was more clear: these were supposed to be songs that had an influence. Some of the writers made better cases than others, but I still felt like there were exclusions.
(They did cite "Hips Don't Lie" though.)
Rolling Stone mentioned Richie Valens' "La Bamba", but not the Los Lobos version. There was also a mention of Latin pop having a resurgence that would coincide with Los Lobos, and I believe they had an influence.
No one mentioned "Rico Suave", but it at least put a new phrase into the lexicon.
"Bang Bang" was mainstream enough to end up in a King of the Hill episode.
No one mentioned the Gypsy Kings either, but they did allow other musicians from Spain. I admit the history of Roma people being expelled from Spain gets complicated, but a lot of this is complicated, when you look at it.
Rolling Stone even allowed a song in Portugese, Kaoma;s "Lambada". They only mentioned one of the terrible movies inspired by it, though. There were two. (Apparently Golan and Globus split up on it; usually they just make one terrible movie together.)
I was going to listen to everything and choose the ones I liked, but it eventually felt right to use all of them, plus some songs that were mentioned but not featured in each work, plus some songs that I remembered.
This resulted in the longest list of songs for one month ever, running from September 17th through November 24th.
They are in chronological order with one exception. Before I decided I would use everything I was going to skip "Feliz Navidad" (1970), as I had used it before. It became the last song, leading into Christmas music.
That still did not feel like quite enough, so I took a few musical styles that had either been mentioned or that I thought I remembered being mentioned. Those genres were son, bachata, reggaeton, dancehall, and cumbia. I looked them up on Wikipedia as well as finding which ones were mentioned in the article as relating to those genres, and found songs for additional listening that way.
I'm not an expert now. For one thing, some of them -- especially son -- have many different regional versions. Still, I know more.
There is also some really interesting political history regarding how things were popularized and why, especially for the Dominican Republic.
There is always more to learn.
The notations on where the song came from are pretty obvious, but just in case...
DD = Decoding Despacito
RS = the Rolling Stone list
* = the song was mentioned in the cited work, but not one of the featured songs
MM = from my memories (maybe that one wasn't obvious)
Daily songs:
9/17
“Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” by Dámaso Pérez Prado (1950) DD*
9/18
“Bonito y Sabroso” by Benny Moré (1951) RS
9/19 “¡Que rico el mambo!” by Dámaso
Pérez Prado (1952) DD*
9/20 “La
Bamba” by Ritchie Valens (1958) RS
9/21
“Mas Que Nada” by Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 (1966) RS
9/22
“Bang Bang” by Joe Cuba Sextet (1966) MM
9/23
“Oye Como Va” by Santana (1970) RS
9/24
“Contrabanda y traición” by Los Tigres del Norte (1974) DD
9/25
“Periodico De Ayer” by Héctor Lavoe (1976) RS
9/26
“Plástico” by Rubén Blades and Willie Colon (1978) RS
9/27
“Querida” by Juan Gabriel (1984) RS
9/28
“Amor Eterno” by Rocío Dúrcal (1984) RS
9/29 “Yo
No Te Pido la Luna” by Daniela Romo (1984) RS
9/30 “La
Jaula de Oro” by Los Tigres del Norte (1984) RS
10/1 “To
All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” by Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson (1984)
DD
10/2
“Conga” by Miami Sound Machine (1985) RS, DD
10/3 “Ay
Amor” by Ana Gabriel (1987) RS
10/4 “La
Bamba” by Los Lobos (1987) MM
10/5
“Bamboléo”
by Gipsy Kings (1987) MM
10/6 “La
Negra Tomasa” by Caifanes (1988) RS
10/7 “La
Incondicional” by Luis Miguel (1988) RS
10/8 “Tu
y Yo Somos Uno Mismo” by Timbiriche (1988) RS
10/9
“Dr. Psiquiatra” by Gloria Trevi (1989) RS
10/10
“Lambada” by Kaoma (1989) RS
10/11
“Como la Flor” by Selena (1989) RS
10/12
“El gran varón” by Willie Colon (1989) DD
10/13
“Tren al Sur” by Los Prisioneros (1990) RS
10/14
“Burbujas de amor” by Juan Luis Guerra & 4.40 (1990) RS, DD
10/15
“Rico Suave” by Gerardo (1991) MM
10/16
“Tu Pun Pun” by El General (1991) RS
10/17
“Oye Mi Amor” by Maná (1992) RS
10/18
“El Matador” Los Fabulosos Cadillacs (1993) RS
10/19
“El Tiburón” by Proyecto Uno (1993) RS
10/20
“La Gota Fría” by Carlos Vives (1993) RS
10/21
“Macarena” (Bayside Boys Remix) by Los del Río (1994) RS, DD
10/22
“Amor Prohibido” by Selena (1994) DD
10/23
“Ese Hombre” by La India (1994) RS
10/24
“María (Pablo Flores Remix)” by Ricky Martin (1995) RS
10/25
“La tierra del olvido” by Carlos Vives (1995) DD
10/26
“Comó Te Voy A Olvidar” by Los Ángeles Azul (1996) RS
10/27
“Suavemente” by Elvis Crespo (1998) RS
10/28
“Smooth” by Carlos Santana & Rob Thomas (1999) DD
10/29
“Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin (1999) DD
10/30
“Waiting For Tonight” by Jennifer Lopez (1999) RS
10/31
“La Negra Tiene Tumbao” by Celia Cruz (2001) RS
11/1
“Whenever, Wherever” by Shakira (2001) DD
11/2
“Obsesión” by Aventura feat. Judy Santos (2002) RS
11/3 “A
Dios le Pido” by Juanes (2002) RS
11/4
“Pa’ Que Retozen” by Tego Calderón (2002) RS
11/5
“Eres” by Café Tacvba (2003) RS
11/6
“Quiero Bailar” by Ivy Queen (2003) RS
11/7
“Algo Esta Cambiando” by Julieta Venegas (2003) RS
11/8
“Gasolina” by Daddy Yankee (2004) RS, DD
11/9 “Za
Za Za (Mesa Que Mas Aplauda)” by Grupo Climax RS
11/10
“Atrévete-Te-Te” by Calle 13 (2005) RS
11/11
“Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira feat. Wyclef Jean (2006) RS
11/12
“Fuego” by Bomba Estéreo (2008) RS
11/13
“Danza Kuduro” by Don Omar feat. Lucenzo (2010) RS
11/14
“Inténalo” by 3BallMTY (2011) RS
11/15
“Cómo Puedes Vivir Contigo Mismo” by Alex Anwandter (2011) RS
11/16
“Vivir Mi Vida” by Marc Anthony (2013) RS, DD
11/17
“Bailando” by Enrique Iglesias, featuring Sean Paul, Descemer Bueno & Gente
de Zona (2014) RS, DD
11/18
“Ginza” by J Balvin (2015) RS
11/19
“El Taxi” by Pitbull feat. Sensato, Osmani Garcia and Dayami La Musa (2015) RS
11/20
“Despacito” by Luis Fonsi, featuring Daddy Yankee & Justin Bieber (2017)
RS, DD
11/21
“Mi Gente” by J Balvin and Willy William (2017) DD
11/22
“Malamente” by Rosalia (2018) DD
11/23 “I
Like It” by Cardi B., Bad Bunny, J. Balvin (2018) RS*
11/24 “Feliz Navidad” by Jose Feliciano (1970) DD
Related posts:
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2022/12/hispanic-heritage-month-2022-songs.html
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