VIA PRESS RELEASE | Craft Latino continues celebrating the 60th anniversary of Fania Records by reissuing the unmistakable Nuyorican falsetto soul singer Ralfi Pagán’s self-titled debut album.
His distinctive talent as a singer and songwriter gave him the ability to write and perform across multiple genres and two languages. He made anything he touched uniquely his own. The Latin soul legend made an impact with the five albums he recorded before his untimely death in 1978. A precursor to the Bronx-raised musician’s seminal album With Love, his ahead-of-its time 1969 release Ralfi Pagán dazzles with bilingual appeal thanks to balladic hits such as the English-language “Don’t Stop Now” and “Who Is the Girl For Me,” as well as the Spanish-sung “No soy de ti” and “El hijo de mamá.”
Arriving on October 25, and available for pre-order today, the artist’s rare Latin soul debut features (AAA) all-analog mastering, lacquers cut from the original master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, 180-gram vinyl and a tip-on jacket replicating the original artwork. A 180-gram “Red Velvet” color vinyl variant (limited to 300 copies), with a bundle option that includes a collectible Fania N.Y.C. Latin Soul T-shirt and turntable mat, is available for pre-order at Fania.com. Additionally, the recording will make its debut in 192/24 HD digital audio. Throughout the year, Craft Latino will honor Fania Records’ legacy—as well as the iconic label’s foundational contributions to salsa music—with reissues such as this one. Visit fania.com/fania-60th to learn more.
Uniquely influenced by his Puerto Rican and Cuban mixed heritage, Ralfi Pagán was born in 1947 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Singing in both English and Spanish, the artist was proof that the power of soul music could transcend language. To that end, Pagán would go on to become one of first Latin artists to appear on Soul Train, while becoming an icon of the then-burgeoning Chicano music scene.
After a stint as a backing vocalist for King Nando’s Orchestra and dropping a mostly forgotten single in 1966, Pagán would go on to record his self-titled album for Fania Records in 1969. Legend has it, the musician walked into the Fania offices and wouldn’t relent until he could audition for label co-founder Jerry Masucci—which he did, on the spot. Impressed, Masucci connected Pagán with Fania’s recording director, Johnny Pacheco.
Produced by Kenny Vance (who’s done everything from producing The Warriors’ iconic soundtrack to briefly working as Saturday Night Live’s musical director), Ralfi Pagán would introduce the world to the singer’s love of soul, salsa and doo-wop—a rarified vision that reflected his cosmopolitan and multicultural sensibilities.
Fania Records initially released a version of Ralfi Pagán as an all-Spanish album, but realizing they had a star with mass appeal on their hands, reissued the LP with four English songs (which replaced four Spanish-language tracks). AllMusic remarked that Pagán’s silky falsetto was “far sweeter than Smokey Robinson or Eugene Record,” as evidenced by “two of the most unrepentant crossover ballads of the era,” the seductive, dulcet “Don’t Stop Now” and the lingering, lovesick album opener, “Who Is the Girl for Me.”
They live alongside a pair of smooth Spanish-language standouts, “No soy de ti” and “El hijo de mamá,” which feel tailor-made for slow-dancing by a jukebox. Meanwhile, the boogaloo-influenced singalong “Latin Soul” could stand as Pagán’s anthem: an assertive, fun-loving celebration of the entwined genre he’d help pioneer.
With Ralfi Pagán serving a successful introduction to his wild talents, Pagán would score a bona fide hit upon the release of his second Fania album, With Love. Its alluring single “Make It With You,” a popular cover of a song from the pop-rock group Bread, would peak at No.32 on Billboard’s R&B chart in 1971, thus prompting his Soul Train appearance.
Two years later, he likewise hit No.39 on that same chart with “Soul Je T’Aime,” a duet with Sylvia Robinson, the successful R&B singer who’d go on to become an immensely influential hip-hop producer-executive. Pagán, also popular in Latin and South America, would release three more albums with Fania Records before his tragic death in 1978 while touring Colombia. His murder there remains unsolved.
Looking back, Soul Tracks muses that Pagán—part Puerto Rican Smokey Robinson, part Cuban Curtis Mayfield—was “one of the most talented and versatile young singer/songwriters in the impressive Fania roster.” What he may have lacked in time, he more than overachieved in his music’s timeless impact.
