Los Lobos "La Bamba"

Turn back the clock to June 20, 1987 and you'll hear "La Bamba" playing all over the radio. Not long after, the song went to #1 on the Hot 100 (#4 on the Adult Contemporary Chart). No, it wasn't the Richie Valens version, but rather a remake from Los Lobos. Released 32 years ago today, the song with all-Spanish lyrics coincided with the release of the movie La Bamba -- a box office hit from the summer of 1987.

Michael Bolton "Go the Distance"

What do Michael Bolton and Ricky Martin have in common? Well, aside from being loved by ladies of the '90s, the two shared the ballad "Go the Distance" for the Disney-animated movie Hercules. Bolton performed the English version of the song that played over the movie's final credits while Martin performed a Spanish version of "Go the Distance". The song marks the last time Bolton turned up on the Top 40 Chart.

JR "Goin' Krazy"

So you're telling me that Jose Feliciano of "Feliz Nevidad" fame scored a dance hit called "Goin' Krazy" using the pseudonym JR? Alrighty then. The song played at nightclubs throughout the world during the summer of 1994 and (surprisingly) on Adult Contemporary radio stations.

Ricky Martin & Christina Aguilera "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely"

It was 2001 and the only way to get a copy of Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera's monster duet "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" was to buy the song's album or record it off the radio.  Why?  The song was never released as a CD single -- meaning you couldn't go out and buy the song (or in today's terms: you couldn't just download the single from iTunes).  The song wound up being one of the biggest songs of the year and a real head-scratcher as the record companies who would soon lose their grip on CD sales with the rise of Napster and illegal downloads.

Gloria Estefan - "Don't Wanna Lose You"

Isn't it interesting how British performers manage to sing so clearly yet speak with a thick British accent?  In the case of Gloria Estefan, she effortlessly flips a switch in "Don't Wanna Lose You" and completely loses her Spanish accent.  She flipped that switch back in a Spanish version of the ballad called "Si Voy A Perderte".

Toni Basil - "Mickey"

Being the low man on the totem pole at the radio station, I was assigned the 8pm to midnight shift on New Year's Eve in 1996.  I was all of 19 years old and (believe it or not) didn't drink, so me and my girlfriend manned the controls that evening.  My role was quite simple as the entire shift was voice-tracked (meaning someone else had already recorded all the intros to the songs -- my job was to play back those tracks).  The shift opened with an hour of 80s music ("The 80s at 8") followed by three hours of music.  I learned what happens when the music director schedules the music long before the commercials are merged -- as there was about 45 minutes of music scheduled and only about 5 minutes of commercials.  That meant I had 10 minutes to fill.  So, I quickly hurried to find music.  I found an 80s compilation CD and cued up the first song.  It was "Mickey" from Toni Basil.  Fine.  I hated the song, but I needed a song (or three) to fill out the hour.  After I started the song, I lowered the volume of the speaker in the studio and went back to finding another song to use as a time filler.  At some point, the hotline to the radio station started to ring.  The hotline is a special phone number for employees of the station to call if and when they need to speak to the DJ (I would later learn the Program Director only calls this number to yell at the on-air talent).  A strobe light illuminates whenever someone called this number, so it always got your heart racing as your inner voice screamed "What?!? What did I do?!?".  The person who called the hotline that New Year's Eve was the woman who did traffic for the station.  Our traffic folks worked at a remote facility and could hear the station through their headphones.  She told me how happy she was to hear the song playing while she was stuck working on New Year's Eve and how it was making her laugh.  Laugh?  Why would "Mickey" make her laugh, I wondered?  Anyway, I explained to her how I needed to fill some time and then she informed me that I was playing the SPANISH version of "Mickey"(!).  WHAT?!? (¿Como?)  I quickly raised the volume and sure enough...I was playing the damn Spanish version of the already awful song ("Mickey tu eres bien").  This was one of my first major freak outs in radio and I was convinced I would be fired or, at the very least, never find my name on the schedule again.  Thankfully, luck was on my side that night as none of the bosses happened to be listening (or they were already drunk) and it was never mentioned (until today).

Gerardo - "Rico Suave"

Early -90s rap took on an entirely different tone than that of today.  Let's see: there was a white guy named Robert Van Winkle who we all knew as Vanilla Ice.  "Yo Vanilla, kick it one time, boooooyeee!"  Then, there was the Ecuadorian rapper who went by the name Gerardo.  His "Rico Suave" described the struggles of dating all while teaching us a little Spanish.  It's probably the only rap song I know whose lyrics are in both English and Spanish.

Gloria Estefan - "Christmas Through Your Eyes"

Being the newbie at the radio station, I had the dubious task of working on all the holidays.  The first Christmas that I worked was in 1996 when my shift started at the pleasant 4am hour and lasted until 10am.  When I arrived that Christmas morning, the DJ who was on before me told me that we were running two hours early.  That meant that we were already playing music from the 6am when it was still 4am.  Today, you would typically pick up the phone and call your Program Director or Music Director and they would add some more music for you.  Since it was Christmas morning in 1996 and the Music Director was on vacation, I just chose my own music and prayed that the song wasn't in Spanish.  Most Christmas songs are short, so it was a struggle to find two hours worth of music to get us back "on time".  I played many Christmas songs that I had never heard of and probably shouldn't have played (because they were just plain bad ).  With my best efforts, that cold Christmas morning in 1996 saw a Christmas miracle happen on the 15th floor of the John Hancock Building: I managed to get us back "on time".