Let's Tango. Tangos Argentinos (1992)

In the realization of this album I gave all of my heart to the memory of Astor Piazzolla and Jorge Luis Borges. Throughout the whole performance I have tried to reflect Astor Piazzolla’s intense and inimitable style. For that, I had a qualified group of Argentine musicians who contributed all their art to join me in this great project. Jairo’s singing and Lito Cruz’ voice reading poems finish up the framework for this wonderful work by Borges and Piazzolla, which was composed in the 1960’s.

Conductor, composer, violinist, and pianist Mantovani was one of the most popular and prolific easy listening artists of all time. His trademark "cascading strings" (or "tumbling strings") effect gave him an instantly recognizable sound, and his heavy reliance on the string section in general helped map out the blueprint for much of the light orchestral music that followed in his wake. His repertoire did feature original compositions, but was built chiefly on lush adaptations of familiar melodies: TV and movie themes, show tunes, pop hits (chiefly of the MOR variety), classical material, and the like…

Arriving in 1996 after several years of alternating English-language adult contemporary pop albums with contemporary Latin pop albums, Tango was a back to basics move of sorts for Julio Iglesias. Back to basics might be stretching it a little, because Iglesias always was a contemporary pop singer, so this was more of a roots move, finding Iglesias tackling 12 of the most famous tangos, many of which date back to the '30s and '40s, if not earlier. If the production did not exactly sound timeless – it was a contemporary big-budget recording, so it was very clean and polished – it nevertheless wasn't nearly as slick as his English language records, and the execution of these tangos modernized these classic songs, bringing them to new audiences. Iglesias responded in kind, giving them some of his most passionate performances in years, and the result was one of the highlights of his '90s work.