Friday, May 4, 2007

Viernes: Cinco por el Cinco de Mayo


Hola amigos, mañana es el Cinco de Mayo, y aqui està cinco canciones en español de cinco decadas. Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, so here are five songs in Spanish across five different decades.

De los 1960s:
Before he went country, Baldemar Huerta (aka Freddy Fender) was a Tejano rock and roller. "Acapulco Rock" is from an album he cut in the early 60s as "Eddie Con Los Shades". It sounds like a song that Elvis would've sung in Fun in Acapulco, and maybe he did?
I thought Perez Prado was Cuban, but according to wikipedia he was "Cuban/Mexican". His version of "Guantanamera" is quicker and more uptempo than the Sandpipers hit version, and doesn't have any of the drippy lyrics. This was probably recorded long before the 70s but that's when I first heard it.

De los 1980s:
Los Lobos' version of "La Bamba" came out 20 years ago this month on the soundtrack to the hit movie of the same name, and gave them the only chart hit of their career. It was a huge hit, that kind of cursed the band in the mainstream where most folks knew them as the "La Bamba" guys. Lots of P2P sites also credited them unfairly as the band behind that "Macarena" song
(that was Los Del Rio).

De los 1990s:
Selena - Fotos y Recuerdos
The movie La Bamba starred Lou Diamond Phillips as Richie Valens, and Phillips was in Stand and Deliver with Edward James Olmos, who also played Selena's dad in the 1997 Selena biopic. Which brings us to the 90s entry, Selena's "Fotos y Recuerdos", a cover of a famous classic rock song (listen to discover which song) with slightly altered lyrics. Selena was really talented, died way too young, and sounded almost nothing like J-Lo, who played her in the movie.

De los 2000s:
Volovan - Flor Primaveral
From this decade is Volovan's "Flor Primaveral" (Spring Flower). Volovan was one of my favorite discoveries from the early days of emusic. They're from Monterrey Mexico, but their debut album Suave sounds more like the Beach Boys crossed with the Pixies (who have at least one song in Spanish). They have a new album called Monitor, but it's on a major label, so it isn't on emusic. Volovan's power pop mixed with indie rock sounds great in any language!

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