You're My Everything: The Best of Santa Esmeralda

by Santa Esmeralda

Overview

The Best of Santa Esmeralda: You're My Everything reveals that the group's recordings have held up quite well. The disc wisely chooses the full-length album versions of the group's tracks, thus allowing the listener to get the full effect of the lush, epic arrangements that characterized the recordings. The up-tempo cuts effectively pit pop hooks and melodies against insistently danceable rhythms and are delivered with brio by the studio musicians: "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" effectively layers staccato handclaps and horn arrangements out of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack over its stomping dance beat, and "Another Cha Cha" is a bravura disco epic where serpentine horn arrangements duel with percolating salsa rhythms to create dance track that is as suspenseful as it is thrilling. Elsewhere, Santa Esmeralda takes the intensity down a few notches to create some lovely ballads: "Sevilla Nights" is a lush instrumental that creates a mellow, tangibly nocturnal mood, and "You're My Everything" is a heart-tugging ballad highlighted by a gorgeous, lilting flamenco guitar solo. Special note should also be made of the group's vocalists, Leroy Gomez and Jimmy Goings, who keep the music's slick sound from becoming impersonal with their impassioned, rich vocal stylings. In the end, the listener's tolerance for disco will determine how much they get out of The Best of Santa Esmeralda: You're My Everything, but anyone who appreciates Euro disco at its most lush and romantic will enjoy this disc. ~ Donald A. Guarisco

Product Details

Release Date:	12/15/1994
Label:	Hot Productions
UPC:	0053993004326
Rank:	110220

Tracks

1. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
2. The House of the Rising Sun/Quasimodo Suite
3. Another Cha-Cha/Cha-Cha Suite
4. You're My Everything
5. C'est Magnifique
6. The Green Talisman
7. Street Fighting Man
8. The Wages of Sin
9. Sevilla Nights
10. Gloria
11. Eternal Light

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Santa Esmeralda   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Jose Souc   String Arrangements,Arranger,Horn Arrangements,Vocal Arrangement
Slim Pezin   Score,Arranger
Sol Marcus   Composer
Bennie Benjamin   Composer
Dominique Poncet   Engineer
Lee Garrett   Composer
Jean Manuel de Scarano   Composer
Van Morrison   Composer
Nicolas Skorsky   Arranger,Composer,Producer
Paul Northfield   Engineer
Keith Richards   Composer
Don Ray   Horn Arrangements,String Arrangements
Mick Jagger   Composer
Alan Price   Composer
Gloria Caldwell   Composer
Ron Slenzak   Photography
Philippe Puig   Assistant Engineer
Gribbitt!   Art Direction
Jean-Louis Labro   Engineer,Assistant Engineer
Raymond Donnez   Composer
Jimmy Goings   Composer
H. Lousteau   Engineer
Ana Maria Restrepo   Design
Celmar Engel   Synthesizer Programming
Paul Houdebine   Engineer
Paul Klein   Compilation Producer