Dreaming of You (Selena album)
Dreaming of You is the fifth and final studio album by American singer Selena. Released posthumously on July 18, 1995, by EMI Latin and EMI Records, it was an immediate commercial and critical success, debuting atop the United States Billboard 200—the first predominately Spanish-language album to do so. It sold 175,000 copies on its first day of release in the U.S.—a then-record for a female vocalist. With first week sales of 331,000 units, it became the second-highest first-week sales for a female musician since Nielsen Soundscan began monitoring album sales in 1991. Billboard magazine declared it a "historic" event, while Time said the recording elevated Selena's music to a wider audience. It won Album of the Year at the 1996 Tejano Music Awards and Female Pop Album of the Year at the 3rd annual Billboard Latin Music Awards.
Dreaming of You
July 18, 1995
December 1994 – March 1995
51:23
- English
- Spanish
After signing a recording contract with EMI Latin in 1989, the label denied Selena a requested crossover after she made three demonstration recordings. After her Grammy Award nomination for Live (1993) was announced, Selena signed with SBK Records to begin recording her crossover album, which was front-page news in Billboard magazine. In March 1994, she released Amor Prohibido; in interviews she said her English-language album was still being developed. Recording sessions for Dreaming of You began in December 1994; Selena recorded four tracks slated for the album. On March 31, 1995, she was murdered by Yolanda Saldívar, the former manager of her Selena Etc. boutiques over a dispute about claims of embezzlement.
The album contains some previously released material, as well as some unreleased English and Spanish-language tracks that were recorded between 1992 and 1995. The tracks are a mixture of American pop and Latin music, with the first half of Dreaming of You containing English-language R&B and pop ballads, while the latter half profiles Selena's Latin-themed repertoire, making this her only album to feature English-language songs instead of exclusively Spanish-language songs as with her past four albums. Six tracks from the album were released as singles. The first four singles, "I Could Fall in Love", "Tú Sólo Tú", "Techno Cumbia", and "Dreaming of You", charted within the top ten on the U.S. charts. The title track became Selena's highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 single of her career, peaking at number twenty-two.
Dreaming of You was among the top ten best-selling debuts for a musician, best-selling debut by a female act[nb 1] and the fastest-selling U.S. album of 1995. It has since been ranked among the best and most important recordings produced during the rock and roll era. Media outlets have since ranked the recording among the best posthumous releases. When Dreaming of You peaked at number one, Tejano music entered the mainstream market. Music critics said the general population of the U.S. would not have known about Tejano or Latin music had it not been for Dreaming of You. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the record 59x platinum (Latin field), with sales of 3.549 million album-equivalent units in the U.S.. The album was eventually certified gold by Music Canada and by Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (AMPROFON). As of January 2015, the album has sold five million copies worldwide. With sales of three million copies, it is the best-selling Latin album of all-time in the U.S. as of December 2020.
Music and lyrics[edit]
Dreaming of You is a multigenre work of American pop and Latin music.[37][38] It incorporates the diverse stylistic influences of techno, hip-hop,[39] pop rock, dance-pop, regional Mexican music, Tejano,[40] R&B, disco, and flamenco music.[41] The first half of the album comprises R&B and pop ballads, while the remainder contains Latin-themed influences that profile Selena's music career.[42][43] Music journalists said producers who worked with Selena tried to caricature her with Paula Abdul, Amy Grant, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Madonna.[nb 2] Newsweek magazine called Selena's English-language recordings "a blend of urban pop and Latin warmth".[50] According to AllMusic's Stephen Erlewine, the album's mood is spicy, celebratory, and exuberant.[40] "I Could Fall in Love" and "Dreaming of You" are lyrically identical;[46] called "confessional ballads",[42] both recordings speak of despair, heartbreak, and fear of rejection from a man the songs' narrators are falling in love with. The lyrics of "Dreaming of You" also explore feelings of longing and hope.[51][49][52] Larry Flick of Billboard magazine wrote that "Dreaming of You"'s idealistic lyrics have an "affecting poignancy that will not be lost on AC [radio]."[53]
"God's Child (Baila Conmigo)" employs an off-beat rhythm that is energetic, dark, mysterious, and its lyrics suggest subterfuge and counter-hegemony.[54] The song has elements of rumba, flamenco, rock, R&B,[38] and Middle Eastern music.[46][47] "Captive Heart" has 1980s funk;[55] Achy Obejas of the Chicago Tribune said it was intended for contemporary hit radio.[38] The disco house track "I'm Getting Used to You", which makes use of cha-cha,[56] explores a volatile relationship.[57] Mario Tarradell of The New London Day said "Captive Heart" and "I'm Getting Used to You" border on new jack swing—a popular R&B subgenre pioneered by Jade and Mary J. Blige.[58] The producers of the soundtrack of the 1995 romantic comedy-drama film Don Juan DeMarco—in which Selena played a mariachi singer—decided not to include her recordings of "Tú Sólo Tú" and "El Toro Relajo". Christopher John Farley of Time magazine said the producers who excluded the songs regretted this move following the impact of Selena's death.[59] According to Denise Segura and Patricia Zavella in their book Women and Migration in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: A Reader (2007), "Tú Sólo Tú"—a Pedro Infante cover—and "El Toro Relajo" are about unrequited love[42] and were recorded in a ranchera-style.[55] Selena recorded "Tú Sólo Tú" con ganas—a Spanish-language aphorism that translates to a performer singing with "unapologetic emotionality"; common among ranchera singers.[60]
EMI Records, which wanted the 1992 track "Missing My Baby" and the 1994 single "Techno Cumbia" to be added to Dreaming of You, asked
Quintanilla III to meet with R&B group Full Force in Manhattan.[27] The group remixed both songs, added vocals to "Missing My Baby", and remixed the latter in a reggae style.[27] Quintanilla, Jr. decided to add "Como la Flor" (1992), "Amor Prohibido" (1994), and "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" (1994) to Dreaming of You. He pitched the idea of remixing the songs as though the band was singing them in concert, changing their beats slightly.[27] Quintanilla III said the new versions of the tracks gave fans "something fresh" and that he thought the idea was "neat".[27] "Como la Flor", credited as a career-launching single,[61] expresses the sorrow of a woman whose lover has abandoned her for another partner while she wishes "nothing but the best" for him.[62][63] "Amor Prohibido" is a Romeo & Juliet-esque Spanish-language dance-pop track.[64][65] "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom", remixed into a reggae track,[66] speaks of the narrator's heart palpitating whenever her love interest walks past her.[67] The Barrio Boyzz was asked to record a bilingual version of their Spanish-language duet with Selena on "Donde Quiera Que Estés" (1994) called "Wherever You Are".[27]
Singles[edit]
Davitt Sigerson, the president and CEO of EMI Records, feared "I Could Fall in Love" might sell more copies than Dreaming of You, so he did not issue the single as a commercial release.[68] "I Could Fall in Love" was released promotionally to U.S. radio stations on June 26, 1995,[69] at the same time as "Tú Sólo Tú" to demonstrate Selena's change from recording in Spanish to English.[27] Fred Bronson of Billboard magazine said if EMI Latin had released "I Could Fall in Love" as a single and it had debuted in the top 40 of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, it would have been the first posthumous debut single to do so since "Pledging My Love" by Johnny Ace in 1955.[70] "I Could Fall in Love" peaked at number eight on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart,[71] and at number one on the U.S. Latin Pop Songs chart.[72] "Tú Sólo Tú" and "I Could Fall in Love" occupied the first and second positions respectively on U.S. Hot Latin Tracks for five consecutive weeks.[73] Selena thus became the first artist to have both a Spanish-language and an English-language song in the top ten of that chart.[74] "I Could Fall in Love" became the fifth-highest-charting song on that chart in 1995[75] and remained the highest-charting English-language song for two years, until Celine Dion's 1998 single "My Heart Will Go On" exceeded it when it peaked at number one.[76] "Tú Sólo Tú" spent ten consecutive weeks at number one on the Hot Latin Tracks, becoming the most longevous number-one single of Selena's musical career.[77] With "Tú Sólo Tú" and her other chart-topping singles from 1992 to her death in 1995, Selena's recordings spent 44 weeks at number one; the most for any Hispanic artist as of 2011.[77]
On August 14, 1995, "Dreaming of You" was released as the album's lead single, with the remix version and a radio edit of "Techno Cumbia" as the b-side tracks.[78] The single peaked at number twenty-two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and sold 25,000 copies in its first week of availability; by 2010 it had sold 284,000 digital units.[79][80] "Dreaming of You" was the best-selling single of Selena's career; in 2003 it was the eighty-eighth best-selling Hot 100 single of all-time, according to Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan.[81] The Los Angeles Times placed "Dreaming of You" at number five out of its top-ten singles of 1995.[82] "Techno Cumbia" peaked at number four on the U.S. Hot Latin Tracks and the U.S. Regional Mexican Songs charts.[83] On December 2, 1995, "El Toro Relajo" debuted and peaked at number twenty-four on the U.S. Hot Latin Tracks.[84] "I'm Getting Used to You", the second commercially released single and the sixth single overall, was released on March 2, 1996.[56] It debuted and peaked at number seven on the U.S. Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart and at number one on the U.S. Billboard Dance/Electronic Singles Sales chart.[85] "I'm Getting Used to You" later peaked at number twenty-three on the U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary Tracks chart on the week ending June 8, 1996.[86] The Billboard critics poll ranked the remix version of "I'm Getting Used to You" among their top ten singles of 1996.[87]
"I Could Fall in Love", "Dreaming of You", and "I'm Getting Used to You" were less commercially successful outside the United States and Canada. "I Could Fall in Love" peaked at number one on the RPM Adult Contemporary Songs chart on the week ending November 6, 1996.[88] "I Could Fall in Love" peaked at number five on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart.[89] It was the only single by Selena to chart on the New Zealand Singles Chart, peaking at number ten.[90] In 1996, "Dreaming of You" performed better in Canada on the RPM Adult Contemporary and the Top 100 Singles chart, peaking at numbers seven and thirty, respectively.[91][92] "I'm Getting Used to You" debuted at number ninety-six on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart on the week ending June 10, 1996, and became the third single by Selena to chart in Canada.[93] After five weeks on the chart, "I'm Getting Used to You" peaked at number sixty-five.[94] At number ninety-three, "I'm Getting Used to You", exited the Top 100 Singles chart after spending nine weeks on it.[95]
Impact[edit]
Dreaming of You sold 175,000 copies on its first day of release in the U.S.—a then-record for a female vocalist.[147][148] The recording also had the highest release-day sales of any Spanish-language album to debut on Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart.[149] According to Behar, the sales figures Nielsen SoundScan provided did not include sales in small shops specializing in Latin music, where Dreaming of You scored well.[115][116] The album's sales helped Selena to become the third solo artist to debut a posthumous album at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, after Janis Joplin and Jim Croce.[113] It became the first and only Spanish-language and Tejano recording to debut at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, and the first EMI Latin release to do so.[150]
According to John Lannert of Billboard magazine, Dreaming of You was among the top ten best-selling debuts for a musician, best-selling debut by a female act, and according to Thom Duffy also from Billboard magazine, it was the fastest-selling U.S. 1995 album.[102] It helped Selena to become the fastest-selling female act in recorded music history,[151] and has since been ranked among the best and important recordings produced during the rock and roll era.[152][153] Dreaming of You joined five of Selena's studio albums on the Billboard 200 chart simultaneously, making Selena the first female act in Billboard history to accomplish this.[113] The album was included on Michael Heatley's list titled Where Were You When the Music Played?: 120 Unforgettable Moments in Music History (2008).[152] Musicologist Howard J. Blumenthal said it "would have made [Selena] a major rock star", and included it in his 1997 book The World Music CD Listener's Guide.[154]
Billboard magazine said Dreaming of You was predominantly purchased by Latinos in the U.S.; demonstrating the purchasing power of Hispanic music consumers.[102] The album was believed to have "open the eyes" of retailers who never stocked Latin music; its sales were well above expectations of white, American music shop owners.[155] Sales of Selena's earlier albums and Dreaming of You prompted Best Buy and other retailers to hire Latin music specialists.[155] Within weeks, the album was predicted to outsell Julio Iglesias' 1100 Bel Air Place (1984), as the largest-selling English-language Latin album.[155] EMI Records announced in the December 2, 1995, issue of Billboard magazine that as EMI's best-selling record in North America, the album gave them the highest sales for a music label during the first half of 1995.[156] With Dreaming of You peaking at number one, Tejano music entered the mainstream market.[157][158] Music critics said the general population of the U.S. would not have known about Tejano or Latin music had it not been for Dreaming of You.[114][159][157] Following the album's release, and because of the singer's death, Tejano music's popularity waned as Latin pop began dominating U.S. radio play and commercial sales.[160][161] In March 2015, the Chicano Humanities & Arts Council in Denver, Colorado, showcased an exhibit called "Dreaming of You: The Selena Art Show", which prominently featured artwork by Chicano artists who paid homage to the singer.[162]
Notes