1100 Bel Air Place [Remaster] (CD - 1984)

Personnel includes: Julio Iglesias, Diana Ross, Willie Nelson, The Beach Boys (vocals); Michael Landau, David Williams, Paul M. Jackson Jr., George Doering (guitar); Stan Getz (tenor saxophone); Jerry Hey, Gary Grant, Larry Hall, Chuck Findley, Charles Davis (trumpets); Richard Todd (French horns); Les Benedict, Bill Reichenbach (trombones); David Foster, Greg Phillinganes, James Newton Howard, Rafael Ferro, John Barnes, John Van Tongeren, Steve Mitchell, Nicky Hopkins, Michael Boddicker (keyboards, organs, synthesizers); Abe Laboriel, Nathan East (bass); Carlos Vega (drums); Paulinho Da Costa, Luis Conte (percussion).

Engineers: Humberto Gatica, Terry Christian.

Personnel: Julio Iglesias (vocals); The Beach Boys, Willie Nelson, Diana Ross (vocals); Michael Landau, Paul Jackson, Jr. , David E. Williams (guitars); Gerald Vinci, Assa Drori (violin); Dave Schwartz, Allan Harshman (viola); Stan Getz (saxophone); Gary Grant, Jerry Hey (trumpet, brass); Richard Todd, Brad Warnaar (French horn); Charles Loper, Lew McCreary (trombone); Michel Colombier, Robbie Buchanan, Randy Kerber (Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards, synthesizer); Abe Laboriel, Jr., Mike Porcaro, Nathan East (bass guitar); Carlos Vega (drums); Luis Conte, Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); Richard Page, Steven George, Tom Kelly (background vocals).

1100 Bel Air Place was designed as Julio Iglesias' breakthrough to the American audience, finding the Latin superstar recording with producer Richard Perry -- the architect behind blockbusters by Barbra Streisand, Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson -- and duetting with such established American superstars as Diana Ross, Stan Getz, the Beach Boys and Willie Nelson. The latter, of course, provided Iglesias with the key to his crossover with a duet on Hal David and Albert Hammond's "To All the Girls I've Loved Before," a song that became ubiquitous in 1984. If 1100 Bel Air Place is a bit too tied to that year -- not just through the presence of its blockbuster hit, but also through Perry's cavernous '80s production, a brittle affair where even studio pros sound like synthesizers -- it is nevertheless a testament to the commercial savviness of all involved. Perry captured the sound of adult contemporary radio circa 1984 just perfectly, creating the ideal vehicle for Iglesias' smooth vocals, which skirted just on the edge of being schmaltzy but never went over that edge. The material was well selected -- heavy on Hammond songs, including his other signature song "The Air That I Breathe" and "Moonlight Lady," and it was expertly executed according the conventions of mid-'80s soft rock. As a matter of fact, apart from "Me Va, Me Va" (also written by Hammond) and the accent in Iglesias' voice, this could pass as a straight-up adult contemporary record from the '80s -- which is why it was a hit, turning Iglesias into a true star in America, the one market he hadn't conquered -- but it's also why 1100 Bel Air Place may sound a little too dated to some ears: it is truly, thoroughly, an artifact of its time. But according to those standards, it works very well, and even if the sound of the record don't necessarily hold up, it's still easy to listen to this and realize exactly how it made Julio Iglesias a star in 1984. [1100 Bel Air Place was reissued in 2006 in a remastered version containing a bonus track, "I Don't Want to Wake You."] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

By 1984, Julio Iglesias was the biggest star in Latin music, but he was still pretty much unknown to mainstream American audiences. Much as they would with Ricky Martin a generation later, Columbia broke Iglesias, at least temporarily, with a concerted promotional effort. Unlike the music of Martin (and Iglesias's own son Enrique), 1100 BEL AIR PLACE largely downplays Latin influences in favor of a north-of-the-border blend of easy listening and MOR pop.

Bracketed by a pair of duets--with Diana Ross on a flirty version of Cole Porter's "All of You" and Willie Nelson on the immediately epochal "To All the Girls I've Loved Before"--most of 1100 BEL AIR PLACE consists of smooth pop songs co-written by producer Albert Hammond (himself the father of a next-generation pop star, the Strokes' lead guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.) and featuring ultra-slick semi-orchestral arrangements. After this commercial bid, Iglesias returned to his Latin crooner roots, welcomed back by his core audience, augmented by a few new fans. minimize