John Lennon and a “Tropical Tribute to The Beatles”
This past October 9th would have been the 70th birthday of the great musician John Lennon. The RMM album “Tropical Tribute to The Beatles” is a classy Latin music homage to him.
As I pondered if and how Lennon had an influence on Latin music, I realized that he probably had an influence on all musical genres. I read somewhere that the Beatles actually performed the Bolero “Besame Mucho” in 1962 in a show in Hamburg, Germany. So, guess what; I went to YouTube and here it is…
Salsa’s “Tropical Tribute to The Beatles”
As a way to pay homage to the late Beatle, I want to highlight the 1996 Salsa album “Tropical Tribute to The Beatles”. It was released by Ralph Mercado’s RMM label, with the participation of some of the best stars of Salsa music. This album is relevant not only because of the occasion, but it’s also a pretty good Salsa recording.
In a “Tropical Tribute to The Beatles”, various Salsa music stars participated in a great musical tribute to the boys from Liverpool. The Salsa album has many songs with varying degrees of quality. But some of the arrangements made to convert Beatles songs into Latin music are magnificent.
The versions of “Let It Be” (sung by Tito Nieves), “Hey Jude” (sung by Tony Vega), “Yesterday” (sung by Cheo Feliciano), and “Day Tripper” (sung by Domingo Quiñonez) make this Salsa album a must-have. There are other worthy Salsa songs in the album performed by Salsa music stars like Celia Cruz, Oscar D’Leon, and Tito Puente. However, the ones I mentioned above are my favorites.
A Classy Tribute to Lennon, McCartney, and The Beatles
A few months ago, I participated in a 4-day offsite training at my job. We were broken up into groups, and in my group, I was assigned to put together a slide show of photos I had taken during the training. I used Microsoft’s Photo Story to show the photos and selected the song “Hey Jude” as the soundtrack. When I showed the photo story, everyone in the room loved the Salsa music version of “Hey Jude”. Several participants asked me for the name of the album and where they could purchase it. I pointed them to the “Tropical Tribute to The Beatles“.
Lennon and McCartney made great music that redefined rock and popular music. John Lennon, in my opinion, was the Beatle that had the most impact on music as a solo artist. But if you reminisce about the Beatles and their music, “Tropical Tribute to The Beatles” is a great album to enjoy. It has Salsa music arrangements that swing, and an all-star cast performing.