She'll make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain

Continuing my trip back through the 1999 album charts.

15/08/99 : Ricky Martin - Ricky Martin

Not an album I've ever heard or owned (8/20) but I have a sneaking suspicion that, whilst I'd like to scoff at it, I'm actually not going to mind it at all.

Yeah, I didn't mind it but it's very much not my sort of thing - it does a lot of checking the Latinx stereotype boxes, but I have to admit it does it well.  It also doesn't hurt that it opens with "Livin' La Vida Loca" which is indeed a bangin' track but there's enough variety across the rest of the album to keep even the least interested listener (ie me) engaged enough.  I was also surprised at how much I liked "Be Careful (Cuidado Con Mi Corazón)" and even more surprised when I found out it was Madonna on there with him - it's a very understated performance by any-era Madonna, but doubly so for slightly-desperate-era Madonna.  It's not an album I'd rush back to, but it was inoffensive enough and I'm sure a load of people LOVED it (and, for once, I don't feel the need to question their sanity).  He does look a bit like a killer robot on the cover though...

We're at #4 in the charts this week on his twelfth week of a 36 week run, with it having peaked at #2 in the three previous weeks (kept off the top by Boyzone on each occasion) - but he managed another 35 weeks on the chart across '00 and '01.  The rest of the top five this week were Boyzone, Travis, Shania and an Elvis Costello best-of and the highest new entry is Machine Head (#13) who I don't remember in the slightest, but I wasn't surprised to see they're a US heavy metal band.

Wikipedia has a MASSIVE amount on the album (460 milliPeppers - the most we've seen for quite some time).  However, most of it is "just" about how successful it was - I'm not begrudging it its success, but it doesn't make for fascinating reading.  It was his fifth album but his first English language album and it's interesting how it really exploded for the lad.  I was a bit surprised at how much the critics loved it, but in a good way - it just feels like something they'd be sniffy about.  The other major surprise for me was exactly how many musicians were involved with the album and believe me when I say Wikipedia lists them all - there are over 60 violin players, 20+ viola players and 20ish cello players.  Yes, I got bored counting but that's a lot of strings!  It all came together nicely though because this album was simply MASSIVE - and not always in the places you'd expect with it getting to #1 in Australia, Canada, Finland, Norway and Spain (OK, maybe the last one isn't such a surprise).  It also did OK (I guess) in the US, getting to #1 and selling 8 million copies.

"Customers also listened to" Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Lou Bega and Enrique Iglesias - no massive surprises there!  It's not my area of expertise and I'm sure plenty of people did a lot of work beforehand to enable Ricky to break through, but break through he very much did and it feels like he left the doors open for many others (although I'm not quite sure I can agree with Wikipedia that he paved the way for Santana).

08/08/99 - Better than expected
21/08/99 - Probably, but not definitely, fine