Baila! The Hottest Latin Dance Music In the Club!
Aug 03 '07
The Bottom Line Here's my "ultimate best greatest top most outstanding latin club dance tracks and albums" of all time list. Lot of adjectives, lots of music that moves me!
Energy is the essence of a great dance song, and any list of top dance tracks simply must include a few latin numbers. Latin music has depth and soul that adds real zest to any dance mix. I'm a little disappointed in the low energy levels that I'm hearing on some of today's most recent club dance hits, and when I consider all the great high-energy, floor pulsing tracks that have popped over the last decade or two, its apparent to me that the quality right now isn't what it should be.
So, if I were putting together a great play list for a dance club, I'd probably liberally sprinkle a lot of proven, high-energy latin club tracks into the mix. In fact, I'd probably put together my own dance club mix CD that looked something like this...
Top Latin Dance Tracks...
Best latin dance music? What makes the cut, what doesn't? Here's my opinion on what constitutes the greatest hot latin club dance tunes of the past decade and change...
First off, I'd capitalize on the big dembow beat of the most popular reggaeton hits. I'd pull in Calle 13's mesmerizing Atrevete-Te-Te and then work in a couple of Daddy Yankee's biggest, most dance floor-packing tunes. Of course the megahit Gasolina makes the cut, and so does last year's big hit, Rompe. Great stuff, and not as blatantly formulaic as reggaeton sometimes tends to be.
Then, I'd head over to the Dominican Republic and pick up on some of the best of their trend-setting styles. Bachata's big these days, and while it often lacks the intensity and energy that I like in a truly "great" dance track, everyone needs to slow it down once in a while, so the hip and sassy Que Ironia by Andy Andy can fit into my play list there. When it's time to set the energy level back to overdrive, I'd include a couple merengue tracks...maybe some Giselle or Olga Tanon, but 100% for sure, I'd include the biggest, highest energy merengue dance track of all time, Elvis Crespo's Suavemente.
I'd use Shakira's sexy and uhhh "hip" sounding Hips Don't Lie as a segue into the pop and rock sound, which would dominate my ultimate latin dance track list.
Then I'd spin up the song that catapulted Ricky Martin into international fame: Livin' La Vida Loca and I'd follow it up with David Bisbal's masterful Ave Maria, which if you ask me, has just as much energy as even the Rickster's best. I'd follow up with a couple more floor scorchers...Te Quise Tanto by Paulina Rubio, Arrasando by Thalia, and even Asereje (aka, "The Ketchup Song"), even though that song personally offends me (I don't like it, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't high energy, danceable, and infectious as hell). Oh heck, I might as well throw Azul Azul's Bomba into the mix, though at some point on the timeline, the picks start becoming a bit dated.
Not that there's anything wrong with a few throwbacks to an earlier timespan. I think Gloria Estefan's Conga is still a great tune to throw into any dance club mix, and Selena's early 90s fave, Techno Cumbia would work there as well. And if you really don't mind heading into the realm of great all-time rockable hits, you have to talk about Carlos Santana's brilliant Oye Como Va and even the lightheartedly fun La Bamba, whether in its 60s hit version from Richie Valens or its 90s hit version from Los Lobos.
From the nostalgia department of cliche, you might want to throw in Los Del Rio's obnoxiously once-popular hit Macarena and Lou Bega's Mambo No. 5 because....welll....just because.
And though I don't like slow dance music, I love the socially acceptable invitation to cop a cheap feel, so I'd throw a few on my dance mix anyway, even though they're not what I really call "hot". I think I'd include A Puro Dolor by Son By Four, maybe some cheesy Jose Jose tracks or something newer by guys like Marco Antonio Solis, and of course, the ultimate suave, sexy, smooth sound...a classic bossa nova like Joao Gilberto's Girl From Ipanema.
And just to cap things off with style, I'd close with an Argentinian flare...the classic El Choclo by Angel Villoldo (after all, it does take two to tango).
There's no album that you can buy that has all this great club dance music on it, but if I were making one, that's what I'd include.
Greatest Latin Dance Albums:
The Epinions category here is really for Dance Albums, so that's what I better talk about. Naturally, my own mix CD would be my number one "desert island dance mix CD", but if I could pack a few more, I might consider...
Putumayo Presents: Baila - A Latin Dance Party (2006)
The Putumayo albums are always intelligently chosen mix compliations, though they're very heavy on folk traditions and non-existent on pop or club emphasis. This one is heavy on the Cuban salsa with a dose of big band orchestral numbers. Though I didn't get into the orchestral sound at all in my mix, it would make for a great dance track if you're looking for more of a formal, jazzy kind of Saturday night.
Best Latin Dance and Pop Hits (2006)
A 3-disc collection with a ton of recent, very relevant, high energy dance club tracks. The downside is that they're all cover versions by no-name artists rather than the originals. I've never seen a recent mix of name-brand hits, but if one existed, I'd prefer it over the generic. Still a good club mix. Not as good as mine, but what can I say?
Reggaeton 60 Super Hits (2006)
In the fast-moving world of reggaeton, new is a virtue. There's a lot of reggaeton compilations out there, but none that are truly stellar. Instead, you're left with stale material or material from "up and coming" names (read, "tracks you never heard of by people you don't know"). Because the genre is very derivative and fomulaic, that doesn't always matter...there will still be something with danceable energy.
The rest of my list of recommended dance albums are not generic compilation discs, but rather, are albums by individual artists. These are albums that I feel represent the best bang for the buck if you want to lift some really great dance tracks by bona fide established artists.
Thalia - Arrasando: Thalia's done newer discs than this, and she's had a couple of big hits that would be great dance tracks...unfortunately, most of her recent albums suck as a whole and I'd never tell anyone to buy them for the one or two standout tracks they offer. Arrasando, on the other hand, is a masterwork and one of the best high-energy pop dance albums you can buy: it's got tons of stuff that will work for a club mix. (Read entire album review.)
Paulina Rubio - Top Hits (2000): Paulina's had a lot of big, high-energy hits in the 6-7 years since this album hit the stores, but for a solid collection of her early pop hits, this is a tough disc to top.
Ricky Martin - Historia (2001): Martin has really not had many big hits in the past 6-7 years, and the sound of his most recent album is decidedly muted compared to his over-the-top megawatt energy of his late 90s era. This hits album captures several of the tunes that defined the ultimate call of moving hips as it was understood in the late 90s: La Copa de la Vida, Maria, and a version of the obnoxious (but powerful) She Bangs. Gotta love it! (or hate it...) (Read entire album review.)
Elvis Crespo - Suavamente (1998): Don't mess with compilation discs when it comes to merengue...go straight to Suavemente. No other album before, or since, has totally captured the soul of merengue or come close to dominating the genre. Of course the title track is the biggest merengue hit of all time, and while some cads complain that several of the other tracks sound like remixes of Suavemente, that's not necessarily a bad thing when you're looking for dance tracks that will pound the club, move the hips, and scorch the floor. (Read entire album review.)
Gloria Estefan - Exitos (1999): I adore Gloria Estefan's latin CDs. Can't stand most of her disco stuff from the Miami Sound Machine era though, but of course, that's the body of work where you find so many HUGE club dance tracks. Almost as annoying as a Village People disco hit are tracks like Estefan's Conga and Dr. Beat (annoying, but very danceable). (Read entire album review.)
Marco Antonio Solis - Mas De Mi Alma (2001): These are the songs that bore me to tears, but if you want some solid slow dance numbers, this is a great little CD to have sitting in your collection. I'd bring it to my desert island on the chance that a lifeboat of romantic-minded young women would ashore and need a little seducing. Sure hope there's electricity and a DVD player there and not just the discs! (Read entire album review.)
Bottom Line...
I think the hottest dance music in ANY club are the latin dance tracks, and this review lists my favorite tracks of all time and a few albums that I'd want to have with me if stranded on a desert island (assuming the presence there of DVD player, speakers, and a sexy young latina to dance with...)
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