Monday, September 7, 2020

"Betcha Say That" by Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine

Song#:  3250
Date:  09/05/1987
Debut:  92
Peak:  36
Weeks:  11
Genre:  Pop



Pop Bits:  Estefan and her band got their fourth Pop Top 10 hit with "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" (#5), the lead single from their album Let It Loose. They were on a roll and decided to try and keep things going with this follow-up single. Unfortunately, it wasn't what listeners wanted and the song stalled after getting inside the Pop Top 40. It did only slightly better at AC (#19) and Dance (#22). It was a bump in the road for Estefan and the band. They needed something to perform much better than this if the album was going to approach the multi-platinum level of their previous LP Primitive Love.

ReduxReview:  This was a pleasant little tune. yet I wouldn't have selected it as the LP's second single. It might have worked okay as a wrap-up single, but as a follow-up to a fairly big hit it just wasn't the right choice. There wasn't much to the bouncy ditty. The chorus was slight and there were a lot of production touches that were added to make up for that. Frankly, it was like a sequel to the band's "Falling in Love (Uh-Oh)," which didn't perform all that well either. Estefan and the band were very lucky that they still had material on the album that was strong enough to overcome this lackluster single.

ReduxRating:  5/10

Trivia:  The production credit for the album (minus one song) was listed as by Emilio & the Jerks, which consisted of Emilio Estefan, Lawrence Dermer, Joe Galdo, and Rafael Vigil. The latter three wrote (or co-wrote) the majority of the band's Primitive Love album and half of Let It Loose. Although not credited, it seems they also did production work on Primitive Love. The production credit on that album went to Emilio Estefan. While the band's popularity was soaring, not all was totally rosy behind the scenes (naturally). There were accusations that the songwriting/production trio did all the work while Estefan contributed very little, if anything, and the trio were not compensated very well. According to a Rolling Stone article, It all came to a head before the 1988 Grammys where Emilio & the Jerks were nominated in the Producer of the Year category for their work on Let It Loose (they would lose to Narada Michael Walden). Estefan wanted to sign the trio in a 5-year deal, but it seems the offer didn't work in their favor and they turned it down. After the Grammys, the two factions ended their relationship.

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