Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine - Can't Stay Away From You

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Haiku Rewrites

Haiku Rewrites

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Thoughts on one of Mrs Estefan's ballad outings?

I used to only find this just OK but lacking in oomph and wouldn't pay much attention to it. I've warmed to it over the years (or have gone soft :D), I think I appreciate the simplistic subtlety to it and the chords at the end are wonderful. :disco:
 
Looking at Wikipedia, interesting that this was her second UK top 10 hit after Dr. Beat! Conga stalled at #79 and Rhythm Is Gonna Get You just scrapped #16. :o
 
If I'm honest I don't really care for her stuff, but that's based on recall, rather than recent listenings. I'd be happy to give her a go at some point, but right now Go Away is my only G-Est go to.
 
Driving Haiku For Christmas said:
Looking at Wikipedia, interesting that this was her second UK top 10 hit after Dr. Beat! Conga stalled at #79 and Rhythm Is Gonna Get You just scrapped #16. :o
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It wasn’t. Both Anything For You and 123 had gone top ten in the UK before this, which got there on a reissue in 1989, much helped by a rare actually sung live performance on Top of the Pops, which was excellent.
 
Sheena said:
It wasn’t. The release order is different. Both Anything For You and 123 had gone top ten in the UK before this, which got there on a reissue in 1989, much helped by a rare actually sung live performance on Top of the Pops, which was excellent.
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Ohhh interesting! :o Thanks for the correction, checking out the TOTP live performance now, Miss Estefan is indeed superb here, very magical performance. :disco: Wish it was more than 2 minutes.
 
Sheena said:
It wasn’t. Both Anything For You and 123 had gone top ten in the UK before this, which got there on a reissue in 1989, much helped by a rare actually sung live performance on Top of the Pops, which was excellent.
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I'm glad you posted that, because it wasn't as I'd remembered it, and you've saved me the trouble of a trip to the OCC website.
 
Driving Haiku For Christmas said:
Ohhh interesting! :o Thanks for the correction, checking out the TOTP live performance now, Miss Estefan is indeed superb here, very magical performance. :disco: Wish it was more than 2 minutes.
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It was really weirdly edited, considering what a big star she was becoming by that point.

The album took a long time to take off in the UK- all the singles bombed entirely, including releasing Rhythm is Gonna Get You twice, until Anything For You became a sleeper hit. They retitled and repackaged the album as Anything For You in late 88 from the original Let it Loose and it became a massive hit. They reissued Rhythm a third time and it finally worked and Can’t Stay Away From You followed that.
 
If anything, the follow up Cuts Both Ways album almost came too soon in the UK- although it was a couple of years after Let it Loose in the US, it was only six months or so after the Anything For You repackage, which I think was still top ten when Don’t Wanna Lose You came out (whilst Can’t Stay…was falling down the chart). They would probably have mined the album further in the UK (presumably a Betcha Say That reissue at the very least) with more time.

I feel like both albums were in the UK top ten simultaneously for a bit, but Cuts Both Ways sold well enough to suggest neither album was particularly damaged by the crossover.
 
Was the timeline of her and them being Miami Sound Machine/Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine/Gloria Estefan the same in UK and Europe as it was in the US?
 
lolly said:
Was the timeline of her and them being Miami Sound Machine/Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine/Gloria Estefan the same in UK and Europe as it was in the US?
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Yes. It changed to Gloria & with the release of Rhythm is Gonna Get You/ Let it Loose and then solo with Don’t Wanna Lose You/ Cuts Both Ways.
 
Sheena said:
Yes. It changed to Gloria & with the release of Rhythm is Gonna Get You/ Let it Loose and then solo with Don’t Wanna Lose You/ Cuts Both Ways.
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There wasn’t actually any change in anything apart from the name though, right? I guess they felt that Gloria was more bankable on her own.
 
Yes, I think it was just a way of realising her full potential without confusing and potentially losing Miami Sound Machine fans. Weren't they already very prolific before she was moved front and centre?
 
Kalabaliken said:
There wasn’t actually any change in anything apart from the name though, right? I guess they felt that Gloria was more bankable on her own.
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Yeah, essentially. By 1989, some members began to move onto other things though. I think a few still perform with her now, but not the entire band.

But by that point, it was the Emilio and Gloria show. The original line up had long disbanded and it was basically session musicians with those two rather than an equal group of band members.
 
Their first English album, Eyes of Innocence (with Dr Beat on it) had band members on the cover. The second, Primitive Love (Conga, Bad Boy etc), focused solely on Glo, even though the band name remained Miami Sound Machine. They were in the background very much so from 86 on.
 
The only other Miami Sound Machine member who went on to do anything that I know of was Jon Secada of Just Another Day fame. He co- wrote some of Glo’s stuff and I think Emilio produced his solo album.
 
I’d never have guessed @Sheena!

I’ve never listened to any of their pre Eyes of Innocence stuff. I think they had seven albums before then? Sadly none of it is online and most of it I doubt is even on CD.
 
Kalabaliken said:
I’d never have guessed @Sheena!

I’ve never listened to any of their pre Eyes of Innocence stuff. I think they had seven albums before then? Sadly none of it is online and most of it I doubt is even on CD.
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I never bothered either. I loved Dr Beat so much that I had the first album in 84/85 but didn’t love it at the time and it wasn’t until Anything For You that I got back on board. I picked up Primitive Love from the Nice Price range (remember that?!) so had all the English stuff but didn’t have the capacity to seek out the Spanish. I’ve never investigated.
 
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I think she is so underrated and often a bit too predisposed to bland balladry for what her husky voice can inject life into, but this is one of her untouchables.
 
Sheena said:
The only other Miami Sound Machine member who went on to do anything that I know of was Jon Secada of Just Another Day fame. He co- wrote some of Glo’s stuff and I think Emilio produced his solo album.
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He did produced his debut album, yes. Gloria appears (I think for a second, blink and you miss her) in the Just another day video (the background vocals are very obvious).
 
The performance was just on TOTP: 1989 on BBC4 right now, still as beautiful (her and the song) as ever. :disco:
 
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