Gloria Estefan Top 10 #1

So now I am ready to talk about Gloria Estefan whom I absolutely love! In the beginning of the 80s she was apart of the group Miami Sound Machine as their lead vocalist but soon got pushed to the foreground where they started to be marketed as Gloria Estefan And The Miami Sound Machine. Toward the end of the 1980s and early 1990s she became more of a solo artist and returned to her Cuban musical roots and became more of a dance-disco diva than pop singer. On March 22nd of 1990, Gloria Estefan was severely injured in an accident involving her tour bus where her spine was fractured and about an inch away from leaving her completely paralyzed for the rest of her life but she went through surgery and therapy to come back stronger than ever! I view Gloria Estefan as one of the pop singers and rock stars that I looked up to as being a positive role model for young women due to her determination, talent and her beauty. Another thing I admire Gloria for is that she has been married to her husband Emilio Estefan Jr. for 35 years and he was her first and only boyfriend! He has produced her albums and they love each other so much that I call that a true power couple! Praise aside, I owe discovering Gloria Estefan mostly to my half-sister Tamara as she did so with many other musical artists sometimes in a combined effort along with my mom and I am always appreciative of that. So today let's take a look at the first of my ten favorite Gloria Estefan/Miami Sound Machine songs.

#10. Here We Are from the album Cuts Both Ways

This is probably the song you think of first when you hear Gloria Estefan's name or maybe it's just me because this is a very sweet yet sultry ballad...pure romance for a person like me! The bass guitar, acoustic guitar, piano and percussion makes a great combination with Estefan's vocals and the song is about finding love, being with that person, later becoming only friends but never forgetting the special times you shared. Inside you know you still love them but to the rest of the world you have to hide it especially the person who still has your heart even if they don't know it.

#9. Betcha Say That from the album Let It Loose

I saw this video when I was really young and thought that Gloria Estefan was so beautiful and that it looked like she and the Miami Sound Machine had so much fun together! I think the infectious pop beat is why I like this song because of course a young kid may not have any idea about what the song is truly about. With new knowledge, it's a song about falling in love with a guy who uses cheesy lines, innocent manipulation and probably has broken the hearts of many girls in the past. The man in question doesn't seem to do so maliciously but he just happens to be a big flirt and it probably pushes some girls away and wraps others around his finger until the feelings gone and he skedaddles (probably afraid of commitment...I know a man like that...) Then the day happens that he truly does fall in love and wants to settle down but the girl in question knows about his past and isn't sure if she can believe him. Now that I think about it I like the song because I kind of relate to it now...is that really a good thing?

#8. Bad Boy from the album Primitive Love

There are actually two videos to this song but the one above is the version I saw first and yep you guessed it besides the members of Miami Sound Machine in one part...most of those actors playing cats are actually from Cats. Again this shows me how a good band can even stand dressing up to make a memorable video and well Gloria does have a velvet voice like a cat's purr so I guess it fits. There's really no deep reasoning behind the lyrics it's simply being in love with a bad boy maybe not a criminally bad boy or a dangerous one unless that just happens to be your type (I'm not judging anyone!).

#7. Reach from the album Destiny

Gloria Estefan is a powerful singer when it comes to ballads and when she is given a song to sing by master songwriter Diane Warren and it also happens to be chosen as an Olympic anthem, you know chills will be going down your arms in goose bumps! When the Summer Olympics were held in Atlanta back in 1996 who better to sing your official song of the games than a woman who knows what it is to fight like Gloria Estefan! Her accident and her parents escaping from the Cuban regime under Castro to come to America you know that she can push the power of her emotions into her voice. As the title states, it's about reaching for your dreams no matter what and we all have dreams we want to achieve no matter how impossible they may seem. I think anyone can do this as long as they are within realistic limits and I may still be chasing some of my dreams but I'll keep on reaching thanks to Gloria and this song...

#6. Dr. Beat from the album Eyes Of Innocence

Another fun video that is enough to attract a young child's attention and as the word is in the title, also the beat which is dancey and infectious like a musical ear worm is meant to be! It's self-explanatory that once music gets into your head you can't get rid of it but then when it moves to your feet that you can't stop dancing maybe you should consider visiting a real doctor but until it becomes a fatal emergency...you can dance as much as you like!

#5. I See Your Smile from the Greatest Hits album

You should know by now that I am a lover of ballads and when Gloria Estefan sings a ballad, it can really hit you where you live or at least bring a tear to your eye or a crack in your heart. From the moment I heard this song I was in love with it and when I learned it was written by Jon Secada I realized why it was so lyrically beautiful! It's a song about loving someone who brights up the day with their smile and makes your life easier through all the rough patches but then suddenly not having them anymore due to distance or maybe even death. They may be the one who got away in the romantic sense but as a friend they still remain in your heart even if separated by distance.

#4. Can't Forget You from the album Into The Light

I wasn't lying when I told you I love Gloria Estefan ballads now was I? The first time I heard this song is when I saw the video on VH1 and of course fell in love with it. By now you know I love songs about well...love in all its forms: positive or tragic. Sometimes you don't appreciate the love you have until it is no longer in your life especially when you are the one that walked away. Maybe you were confused or just too young to understand the good thing you had especially where love is concerned but now it hurts not to have that love anymore. It's even more difficult when you can't forget that person and then try to bring that love back by maybe trying to get back together and it is now too late.


#3. Don't Wanna Lose You from the album Cuts Both Ways

This was the first Gloria Estefan song and video I ever saw which began my full blown love of Gloria Estefan and let me explore everything that came before this. I like the simplicity of the video in its sepia tones and how Gloria is wearing little or no makeup and still looks so gorgeous! Everyone knows what it is like to love someone and how you want that person to love you for just being yourself and there are some of us who just where our hearts on our sleeves so that we are always open and vulnerable to the pain that comes with love. Sometimes it's tough not to fight with each other but you don't want it to get so bad that you end up walking away from each other but if you did end up saying good-bye would you lose apart of yourself as well...watching the other half of you walk away?

#2. Can't Stay Away From You from the album Let It Loose

From that first opening note, I was hooked on this song and I like how the tone is more pensive than sad and even though very adult contemporary I don't really think of it as a ballad. Yes it is slow to be considered a ballad but I find it more of an emotional plea from the heart that is just too powerful to be labeled a ballad because too people who don't appreciate this type of music could put the word sappy in front of it and I don't like that. I think maybe I relate to the lyrical content of the song too much is why I can't see it as a ballad because believe me I have been in a situation similar to this! Sometimes you will love someone and that love is not reciprocated because the other person only wants to be friends or maybe they are pining for someone else and you feel like you may just be the last resort. You know that maybe you need to just walk away and try to find love somewhere else but you don't want to lose this person as a friend. You know you can't stay away from people you care about but in the long run I've found sometimes you do and it's all for the best. 

So which hit is this list's top pick? It just happens to be one of my favorite ballads and even though the live version is best the album one is too...

#1. Words Get In The Way from the album Primitive Love

This was I believe on a collection of Gloria Estefan videos my sister recorded for me when I was little after I discovered her for the first time and the video above was how I heard the song until I found it on her greatest hits album in its original album/studio version. It's always good to hear performers sing live without all the studio sound behind it because it proves just how powerful some singers really are and Gloria Estefan sounds beautiful live! Being in a friendship that was once an old relationship can be hard if you have to watch your former flame or crush be with someone new and you will hate the day when they come to tell you that they are falling in love. It's going to be especially hard because you have been trying to get your courage together to tell them how much you love them and now you know before your heart becomes broken further you just have to walk away. This song is not the object of your affection getting a wake-up call and realizing they have loved you all along but you being strong enough to admit you may never fall in love again they way you hope and being the one to walk away before any pain is caused.

So are you a little impressed by how much music I like and how many different artists I love? Well even if you aren't  I'm still not going to stop talking about my large music collection! So what artist will I talk about next or are we going to get some more randomness? I hope you come back and see!

Random Top 10 #1

Welcome back music lovers this time you really are in for a treat the first of many Random Top Tens! Now a random top ten does not focus on one artist and sometimes not the same genre. There are many songs that I like and over the years I have collected so many of them that I would just like to share with you. I discovered music in many different ways through the movies, television shows, the radio and the MTV and VH1 of my youth. I can't wait because there is so much music to talk about so let's get started on the first ever Random Top 10 of my favorite songs!

#10. Send Me An Angel by Real Life

First heard this song in the movie Teen Wolf Too during a classic 80s montage moment and it was love at first note. Being an 80s child is probably why I have thing about synth melodies thanks to so much New Wave and Soft Rock using synthesizers and why I like newer songs that implement the same kind of beats. It was first released in 1983 and again in 1989 and is about wondering if you will ever find love. I think it is a very seductive yet subtle song.


#9. Possession by Sarah McLachlan

First heard the song on VH1 in 1994 (11 years old)

By now it's common knowledge that Sarah McLachlan wrote this song about an obsessed fan who then almost took her to court to sue her over using stuff he wrote in his letters but it was dismissed when the man committed suicide. The dark tone of the lyrics makes the song seem almost forbidden to listen to it but then you just can not get the damn thing out of your mind! I love the sound of the organ which brings about a Gothic tone which of course intrigues me and Sarah McLachlan just has a velvet voice.

#8. Take My Breath Away by Berlin

No child of the 80s can not love or at least get this song out of their heads! From the soundtrack to Top Gun and produced by Giorgio Moroder, it has of course that instinctive keyboard/synthesizer hook and the hauntingly powerful vocals of Terri Nunn. Being very young when the song came out, I had no idea about how very sexy and romantic the song was and probably fell in love with it because of it being on MTV and VH1 where children respond to the images flashing on TV screens. This is such a great song I don't see how anyone could not like it unless new wave-pop isn't your thing.

#7. Ordinary Life by Kristen Barry

This song is on the soundtrack to the 1999 film Cruel Intentions starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Philippe. It plays during a scene where Ryan's character Sebastian tries to seduce Reese's character Annette and it sets the mood perfectly even though it plays quite faintly in the background. I discovered this song because Kristen Barry helped sing background vocals on The Road Home, an acoustic album by my favorite band Heart. I was interested in hearing what her own voice sounded like instead of being overpowered by the vocals of Ann Wilson and I find it has a raspy, velvet quality. I love the drum beat and guitar that make for a very steamy, entrancing track.

#6. Just Be Good To Me by The SOS Band

Okay this song wasn't on the official soundtrack of the movie but I heard it for the first time in the background of the party scene in 10 Things I Hate About You. It has that early 80s R&B/Funk sound and I think another reason I like it is it was written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who went on to work with Janet Jackson! It of course is another sexy song meant for slow dancing on the floor of the club and it is about loving someone who is known to be a real heart breaker. No matter how many girls he might have you still want him even though everyone else around you thinks you are delusional and as long as you get him for one night as long as he treats you right that's all you'll need. Now I know the message of the song that I pick up doesn't fit well with today's standards but it is one of my favorite songs.

#5. Stay by Shakespears Sister

Okay yes the video is very weird but I think that is why it drew in my attention when I first saw it back on MTV in 1992 when I was about eight or nine years old. Before I get more into the song, the video was directed by Sophie Muller (you may know her as directing a lot of No Doubt videos) and the woman who plays the angel of death going after the guy is Siobhan Fahey, former Bananarama member and former wife of the Eurythmics member, Dave Stewart. I always see the video as a perfect example of visual interpretation of the lyrics which is life and death. Being a person who has been depressed and has known a person who did take their own life it shows one side of being sick of living and wanting to end your life but there is one person who wants you to stay whether it is romantic, family or friendly love trying to pull you back from that dark edge. When the song gets to the bridge that is death trying to persuade you to give in and almost seducing you and may even be symbolic of personal demons such as drugs and nightmares. In the video's case, life and love defeat death. I may be taking the lyrics to a rather unintentional place but after so many years of listening to this song, I think that is why I love it.

#4. Don't Dream It's Over by Crowded House

Possibly one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard! As I constantly state, I am a child of the 1980s so anything from the last half of that decade has burrowed deep into my brain and this is no exception. Being too young to understand it then and now being older and having listened to it a million times, it is a wonderful song about keeping hope in the darkest of times. I think the full impact of it hit me when I saw it used at the beginning of the second part of the mini-series for Stephen King's The Stand (won't spoil it for you but it is worth checking out). I know the lyrics seem to fall more toward a couple staying together no matter how hard the world tries to tear them apart thanks to war, violence or even certain people and is clear to interpretation. Musically, I also love that organ that plays in the middle part of the song before the last verse to bring it an uplifting song one may hear in church. I believe the visuals are what caught my young eye and would you believe the video was directed by Alex Proyas of Dark City and The Crow fame? Guess that's why I thought the surreal feeling felt a little familiar...

#3. Into The Night by Benny Mardones

Not being sarcastic but I have my mother to thank for making me like this song as I heard it on many car rides and many visits to the dentist. Also (again not being sarcastic) I hate to say that this song is probably the ultimate song about jail bait. Okay in the quite literal context it is a guy singing about a girl who is sixteen years old and is much older than her and people tell him to leave her alone but if I disliked songs based on what they are truly about or what picture the lyrics paint...I probably would like less music than I do and that would be kind of a sad thing. I don't know how you could change the first few lines of this song to make it a little less Lolita fuel but I always try to picture it as a man who's older than the girl by at least a handful of years that may make people uncomfortable but not grossed out (up to your own personal standards I guess...) If you put that one little fact aside I find this to be a beautiful song about discovering a love for the first time that is not a crush or infatuation but equally felt between both people. Others around you have not found this true love yet so they don't understand it and try to keep you apart. No matter what kind of obstacles are thrown your way you will find a way to be with that person and if you had to do everything over again...you would. As you can see the romantic in me always tries to find a way to come out on top but in this case, you have to look at this song with rose-colored glasses or you may take it to a ludicrous, mind in the gutter place.

#2. Heartbeat by Don Johnson

I know what you are thinking and it's probably along the lines of what the fuck, am I right? Yes I admit without shame that I love this song and a list that MTV did only has itself to blame. You see I caught a program called 25 Lame where the video for this song was torn apart by Jon Stewart, Denis Leary, Chris Kattan and Janeane Garofolo. They were so busy making fun of it that I could not hear the song and as I could not remember hearing this song in its late 1980s heyday, I searched endlessly to find the song long before You Tube was even created! I found it on an 80s compilation at the mall, purchased it just for this song and I have loved it ever since and that was 1999! This may be considered one of the worst songs ever but I actually like it! Don Johnson may not be one of the greatest rock vocalists and more remembered as a television actor but at least he gives his all on his vocals and he does sound really good (I'm not the best singer so almost anyone is better than me). It may be standard 80s cheese but I love the guitar work and rhythm section that drive the song and the intensity of Johnson's performance. He really brings to life to me a song about a man who has been alone, giving up all material possessions, to try and find love. He's been hurt and almost feels as if his heart has stopped beating it's become so hard. Despite this fact he knows there is a girl out there who feels like he does but her heart has yet to become fully empty of love and it is so intense he can feel it when he almost thought he couldn't feel at all. I may be trying to give more subtext than a song like this deserves but that is just how the song makes me feel.

So a pretty random selection so far, isn't it? So with a list like this, what could possibly be my top choice? For my first ever Random Top Ten...

#1. You Can Do Magic by America

America...a band I came to love again thanks to my mother and this song in particular. I came home from college for either a weekend or a break with some friends and my mother just happened to be listening to the band's greatest hits and when this song came on, we were all dancing and having a good time! I have always loved that soft-rock, folksy sound America had this song is more the latter even though it does have beautiful guitar work of both the acoustic and electric variety but less heavy and more melodic. The beginning of the song is most certainly the hook that reels you in and then the pop sound makes it a great little foot-tapper as I mentioned at the beginning. Of course it is almost a cliche declaring love to be like magic and of course that's the basic premise of the lyrics  but it is kind of fitting to people who think love doesn't exist...I should know I use to be one of them! It's about discovering love that makes a disillusioned person break the stone surrounding their heart and see the world filled the true magic it always had! Sometimes a person can do that for you and then you do the same thing in return for them because once you find a love that is true...you can do magic of your own!

So many artist, so many songs...the possibilities are endless! Will we focus on one single artist or will more random music shuffle your way? Find out next time!