Ralfi Pagán: Wonderful Thing

I’ve been listening to a lot of music by Ralfi Pagán since discovering him a few days ago. He was born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican and Cuban parents, and that heritage defines his sound. He started out as an R&B artist in the late 1960s, with a style that combined his Latin roots with ’60s soul and a voice reminiscent of Johnny Mathis and Curtis Mayfield. His tragic, unsolved murder while on a promotional tour through Colombia in 1978 means that it doesn’t take long to work through his complete discography. If one does so, they will find a strong collection of soul and R&B tunes, including well-selected covers, that evolve along with the sounds of the times. He recorded for Fania Records, and this allowed him to include a lot of Spanish language tunes on his albums, even on his earliest recordings. He was one of the first Latino artists to appear on Soul Train and his Latin-influenced cover of Bread’s “Make It With You” hit #32 on the Billboard R&B charts. By the time of his death, he had evolved his music into a more Nuyorican sound. His final album was a very Nuyorican affair, featuring artists from the Fania label grooving out one salsa number after another. “Wonderful Thing” is from his 1973 album Ralfi and presents a great Latin groove reminiscent of Santana and Ray Barretto.

To learn more about Ralfi Pagán, check out his official website or watch these videos.

To listen to all of the songs of the day, check out the Radio Faux Show Song of the Day playlist.

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