''Vida Loca'' () is the first studio album by Cuban singer-songwriter
Francisco Céspedes
Francisco Fabián Céspedes Rodríguez, also known as Pancho Céspedes (born 28 February 1957) is a Grammy-nominated Latin American singer, musician, and songwriter born in Santa Clara, Cuba. Céspedes is currently a naturalized Mexican. He is m ...
, released on August 1997 by
WEA Latina
Warner Music Latina (formerly WEA Latina) is a record label part of Warner Music Group that focuses on Latin music. The record label was established in 1987.
List of artists currently on Warner Music Latina
Alaya* Alex Ubago
*Andres Calamaro
*Boh ...
. In Spain the album was awarded with an for the best Latin album. It was nominated for Pop Album of the Year by a New Artist at the
1999 ''Billboard'' Latin Music Awards, but lost to ''
Carlos Ponce
Carlos Armando Ponce Freyre Jr. (born September 4, 1972) is a Puerto Rican actor, musician, model, and television personality. Ponce began his acting career by participating in Spanish language soap operas for Televisa and Telemundo. Ponce contin ...
''. By June 2000, the record had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide.
History
In August 1997 Céspedes released his debut album, and the first single "Se me Antoja". The album languished selling no more than 10,000 copies by year's end. The things changed when network
TV Azteca
TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as some local operators. It owns two national ...
held a contest to find the title track for a new soap, . Céspedes submitted a song written specifically for that purpose, and out of hundreds, it got picked. "Señora," the song, became the title track of Señora, the soap, and it was added as a bonus track to Vida Loca in the second edition, the single sold 10,000 copies in Mexico. By year's end, the album had sold 180,000 copies in Mexico alone, and Cespedes was on his way to becoming an international star.
After seeing Céspedes perform in Mexico City,
Alejandro Sanz
Alejandro Sánchez Pizarro, better known as Alejandro Sanz (; born 18 December 1968), is a Spanish musician, singer and composer. Sanz has won 22 Latin Grammy Awards and four Grammy Awards. He has received the Latin Grammy for Latin Grammy Awar ...
persuaded Warner Music Spain president Saul Tagarro to promote Céspedes' CD "Vida Loca" in Spain. By mid-December 1998, "Vida Loca" had sold 350,000 units, and was eventually awarded with five platinum certifications by
PROMUSICAE for shipping over 500,000 copies.
In addition, Cespedes, won one
Premio Ondas
The Premios Ondas (Spanish: literally "wave awards", also known in English as the Ondas Awards or simply The Ondas) have been given since 1954 by Radio Barcelona, a subsidiary of Cadena SER, in recognition of professionals in the fields of radio ...
and three , including one for the best Latin album.
Track listing
Personnel
Adapted from the ''Vida Loca'' liner notes:
Performance credits
*Waldo Madera –
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
*Agustin Bernal –
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
*Raúl del Sol –
acoustic piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
, chorus
*
Eugenio Toussaint
Eugenio Toussaint Uhtohff (October 9, 1954 – February 8, 2011) was a Mexican composer, arranger and jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th ...
– acoustic piano
*Jorge Aragón – acoustic piano
*Fernando Otero –
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
*
Dean Parks
Weldon Dean Parks (born December 6, 1946) is an American session guitarist and record producer from Fort Worth, Texas.
Albums
Parks was member of the North Texas State One O'clock Lab Band before moving to Los Angeles to work with Sonny and Cher ...
– steel
acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
*Freddy Ramos – nylon acoustic guitar
*Gil Gutiérrez –
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
*Chilo Morán –
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
*Fernando Acosta –
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...
*
Yomo Toro
Víctor Guillermo "Yomo" Toro (26 July 1933 – 30 June 2012) was a Puerto Rican left-handed guitarist and cuatro player. Known internationally as "The King of the Cuatro," Toro recorded over 150 albums throughout a 60-year career and worked exte ...
–
cuatro
Cuatro is Spanish language, Spanish (and other Romance languages) for the 4 (number), number four.
Cuatro may also refer to:
* Cuatro (instrument), name for two distinct Latin American instruments, one from Puerto Rico (see cuatro (Puerto Rico), ...
*Alcira Herrera –
chorus
Chorus may refer to:
Music
* Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse
* Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound
* Chorus form, song in which all verse ...
*Maryori González – chorus
*Elizabeth Meza – chorus
*Pancho – chorus
*Aneiro – chorus
*Silantiva Vera –
strings
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
*Jorge Deletze – strings
*Bozena Slawinska – strings
*Matthew Paul Schubring – strings
*Viktoria Horti – strings
*Naomi Eve Brickman – strings
*Abraham Mayer – strings
*Vladimir Tokarev – strings
Technical credits
*Juan Carlos Paz y Puente –
executive producer
Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...
, direction A&R
*Aneiro Taño – co-producer, arrangements
*Salvador Tercero –
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
,
mixing engineer
A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...
*Raúl Durand – assistant
*Jean B. Smit – mixing engineer
*Andy Richter – assistant
*Leon Zervos –
mastering engineer
A mastering engineer is a person skilled in the practice of taking audio (typically musical content) that has been previously mixed in either the analog or digital domain as mono, stereo, or multichannel formats and preparing it for use in distr ...
*Ron McMaster – mastering engineer
*Eugenio Toussaint – arrangements
*Manolo González Loyola – arrangements
*Mark Kamins – direction A&R
*Edgar Ladrón de Guevara – photography
*Jessica Fallon – graphic design
*Lidia Salazar – coordination in Mexico
*Laura Cárdenas – coordination in Mexico
*Maricela Valencia – coordination in Mexico
*Nina Swan – coordination in Los Angeles
*Freddy Ramos – coordination in Los Angeles
*Raúl Ortega Alfonso – exergues
Recording and mixing locations
*Estudio 19,
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
– recording
*
Westlake Recording Studios
Westlake Recording Studios is a music recording studio in West Hollywood, California.
History
Westlake Recording Studios was founded in the early 1970s by the American audio engineer Tom Hidley under the name Westlake Audio. Hidley was experienc ...
– Studio A,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, CA – mixing
*Mad Hatter Studios, Los Angeles, CA – mixing
*Absolute Audio – mastering
*
Capitol Mastering, Los Angeles, CA – mastering
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Sales and certifications
References
{{Authority control
1997 debut albums
Spanish-language albums
Warner Music Latina albums