Buena Vista Social Club released

Buena Vista Social Club various artists

Released: June 21, 1997 Charted: March 14, 1998 Peak: 80 US, 44 UK, -- CN, 6 AU Sales (in millions): 1.93 US, 0.53 UK, 8.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: world music > Cuban

Tracks: Song Title [ARTIST] Chan Chan [with ELIADES OCHOA] De Camino a la Vereda [with IBRAHIM FERRER] El Cuarto de Tula [with RY COODER] Pueblo Nuevo [with RUBÉN GONZÁLEZ] Dos Gardenias [with IBRAHIM FERRER] Y Tú Qué Has Hecho? [with COMPAY SEGUNDO] Veinte Años [with OMARA PORTUONDO] El Carretero [with ELIADES OCHOA] Candela [with IBRAHIM FERRER] Amor de Loca Juventud [with COMPAY SEGUNDO] Orgullecida [with COMPAY SEGUNDO] Murmullo [with IBRAHIM FERRER] Buena Vista Social Club [with RY COODER] La Bayamesa [with LICEA, MANUEL “PUNTILLITA”] Total Running Time: 60:00

Rating: 4.319 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: This album takes its name from “a members-only club that was opened in Havana in pre-Castro times, a period of unbelievable musical activity in Cuba. While bandleader Desi Arnaz became a huge hit in the States, several equally talented musicians never saw success outside their native country, and have had nothing but their music to sustain them during the Castro reign.” AMG “Ry Cooder went to Cuba to record a musical documentary of these performers.” AMG His “name has helped bring attention to this session, but it’s the veteran Cuban…musicians who make this album really special.” AZ “Many of the musicians on this album have been playing for more than a half century, and they sing and play with an obvious love for the material. Cooder could have recorded these songs without paying the musicians a cent; one can imagine them jumping up and grabbing for their instruments at the slightest opportunity, just to play.” AMG “Reminiscent of Ellington in its scope and sense of hushed romanticism, Buena Vista Social Club is that rare meld of quietude and intensity; while the players sound laid-back, they’re putting forth very alive music.” AZ “Most of the songs are a real treasure, traversing a lot of ground in Cuba’s musical history. There’s the opening tune, Chan Chan, a composition by 89-year-old Compay Segundo, who was a bandleader in the ‘50s; the cover of the early-‘50s tune De Camino a la Verada, sung by the 72-year-old composer Ibrahim Ferrer, who interrupted his daily walk through Havana just long enough to record; or the amazing piano playing on Pablo Nuevo by 77-year-old Rubén González, who has a unique style that blends jazz, mambo, and a certain amount of playfulness.” AMG “Barbarito Torres’ laoud solo on El Cuarto de Tula is both more blinding and more tasteful than any guitar showcase on any recent rock album; a quote from ‘Stormy Weather’ and some very distinct parallels to Hawaiian styles remind us of why it’s called "world music.’” AZ “All of these songs were recorded live – some of them in the musicians’ small apartments – and the sound is incredibly deep and rich, something that would have been lost in digital recording and overdubbing. Cooder brought just the right amount of reverence to this material, and it shows in his production, playing, and detailed liner notes. If you get one album of Cuban music, this should be the one.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: AMG All Music Guide review by Steve McMullen AZ Amazon.com review by Rickey Wright WK Wikipedia First posted 10/7/2008; last updated 4/18/2022.

John Hiatt “Have a Little Faith in Me” released

Have a Little Faith in Me John Hiatt

Writer(s): John Hiatt (see lyrics here) Released: 5/29/1987 (album cut on Bring the Family) First Charted: -- Peak: 37 CO, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 13.30 video, 80.10 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “For years, John Hiatt was in a category of his own. His own record company didn’t know where to place him. He is undoubtedly under Americana’s broad banner, but would you say he was country, blues or new wave? No matter where you peg Hiatt, he has produced noteworthy music throughout his career.” AU The singer/songwriter was born in 1952 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He went to Nashville in 1972 and became a staff songwriter, crafting songs covered by Feddy Fender, Willie Nelson, Three Dog Night, and others. He released his first album, Hangin’ Around the Observatory, in 1974 but didn’t find any chart success on the Billboard album chart until more than a decade later with 1987’s Bring the Family, which blogger Lary Glickman called “a country-rock masterpiece.” GO It featured a stellar lineup of guitarist Ry Cooder, bassist Nick Lowe, and drummer Jim Keltner. The four later reformed in 1992 as the group Little Village. The album produced Hiatt’s first mainstream rock hit with “Thank You Girl.” It also had “Thing Called Love,” which was a #11 mainstream rock hit for Bonnie Raitt in 1989. In 1994, the song “Alone in the Dark” was featured in the 1994 James Cameron movie True Lies. It was “Have a Little Faith in Me,” however, that became the album’s most memorable song. It has been recorded by multiple artists, including Jon Bon Jovi, Joe Cocker, Bill Frisell, Jewel, Chaka Khan, Delbert McClinton, Mandy Moore, and Dolly Parton. It has been featured in multiple movies, including Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), Benny & Joon (1993), Phenomenon (1996), and more. Hiatt wrote the song after sobering up from drugs and alcohol. While trying to record it, he learned his estranged wife had committed suicide. WK Producer John Chelew encouraged Hiatt to sit down at the piano and run through a quick version of the song to let everyone hear it fresh. Chelew taped the performance, unbeknownst to Hiatt, and it ended up the version on the album. GO “Hiatt whispers, then sings in falsetto. He strains to share passion and emotion. The lyrics are not groundbreaking, but they tell a truth. He is singing to us. He is singing for us.” GO “The simplicity of the lyrics and the arrangement let the song breathe in the way it should.” AU Resources: AU Americana-UK.com (8/5/2024). “For the Sake of the Song: John Hiatt ‘Have a Little Faith in Me’” by Andy Short GO GlickmanOnline.com (6/23/2017). “One Perfect Song: ‘Have a Little Faith in Me’” by Larry Glickman WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/21/2025.