Selena's Dreaming of You album turns 25 today

[AmorProhibido]

When Selena Quintanilla was tragically ******** on March 31st, 1995, she had recorded seven songs -with only five of which being usable- for her fifth studio album, slated to be her English language crossover record. However, both her family and label understood the importance of this album; not just to Selena herself, but for the fans, both those who had been listening to her for years and the ones who had yet to discover her discography. With what little material Selena had left behind for the new album, as well as songs recorded years prior, EMI Records, EMI Latin, and the Quintanilla family released Dreaming of You on July 18th, 1995. Dreaming of You would go on to be an undeniably major success and propelled Selena’s fame to even greater heights. 

Dreaming of You’s history goes back to 1989 when a then eighteen year old Selena was signing with EMI Latin. Her father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., thought it best to sign with EMI Latin with the intent of his daughter being able to record an English language album. For the time being though, the Quintanillas’ hopes were dashed as Selena was denied her crossover album with the issue being that Selena needed to strengthen her fanbase first. Being the optimist she was, Selena threw herself into her music and went to work on her self-titled debut album. She ultimately met her label’s requirement within five years.

Following her Grammy win for Selena Live! in 1993, she signed with EMI subsidiary SBK Records in November of that year. Selena confessed to feeling guilty in 1994, as she had told interviewers that her English language album was expecting to release soon despite her not having recorded a single track for it. At this, Jose Behar, head of EMI Latin, demanded that Selena be given her crossover album, going as far as to lie and say that Selena would leave the label if she was not allowed to record it.

Once EMI relented, the recording process began, albeit incredibly differently than Selena was used to. For one, she would no longer be performing under the name Selena Y Los Dinos. Instead, Selena would be singing alone without being backed by her band of family and friends. The Quintanilla family felt it would be best if Selena worked with professional pop music producers and chose to take a step back. A.B Quintanilla III, Selena’s brother and principal songwriter and producer of her music, was given a choice of who should produce her next release. In the end, Quintanilla III picked Keith Thomas. 

In December of 1994, Selena and Quintanilla III flew to Nashville, Tennessee, where Thomas had crafted the song “I Could Fall In Love”, though the song wasn’t complete. Selena and her husband, Chris Perez, returned on March 24th, 1995, to finish the recording. 

When “Dreaming of You” was recorded on March 5th, 1995, at the family owned recording studio Q-Productions, Selena was suffering from a bout of bronchitis. Though the singer originally declined to perform that day, her father encouraged her to simply try as producers from Los Angeles had flown in to watch her record the track. The first take was used as the final take due to the producer’s liking her sound - bronchitis and all. 

Fan favorites “Captive Heart” and “I’m Getting Used To You” were recorded afterwards. The last track Selena was ever able to officially record was “God’s Child (Baila Conmigo)”, a duet with Talking Heads’ lead singer, David Byrne. The day of her death, Selena was scheduled to record the song “Oh No (I’ll Never Fall In Love Again)”, as well as “Are You Ready To Be Loved?” on an unspecified date. Only low quality rehearsal recordings exist of these songs.

Though the album was intended to release sometime during September and October of 1995, the album was given a much earlier release following March 31st. With the album only having five complete songs to it’s name, the label scrambled to fill the remaining slots. Quintanilla III decided to remix some of her earlier hits, including “Missing My Baby”, “Amor Prohibido”, “Techno Cumbia”, “Como La Flor”, and “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom”. A previously unreleased cover of Pedro Infante’s “Tú Solo Tú” and “El Toro Relajo”, a cover recorded for the film Don Juan DeMarco, were both included as well. The Barrio Boyzz, who had recorded the duet “Donde Quiera Que Estés” with Selena, was asked to record a bilingual version with the English translation “Wherever You Are”. 

Tracks “I Could Fall In Love” and “Tú Sólo Tú” were released simultaneously as the first and second promotional singles on June 26th. “I Could Fall In Love” peaked at number eight on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart and at number one on the U.S. Latin Pop Songs chart, with “Tú Sólo Tú” occupying the second place on the latter chart. “Techno Cumbia”, “El Toro Relajo”, and “I’m Getting Used To You”, were also given the single treatment, however, the lead single, “Dreaming of You”, fared much better. The title track peaked at twenty-two on the U.S Billboard Hot 100 and sold 25,000 copies in its first week. 

Upon it’s July release, Dreaming of You sold 175,000 copies on it’s first day alone, a then record for a female artist. It topped the U.S. Billboard 200, making it the first primarily Spanish language album to do so. As of January 2015, Dreaming of You has sold over five million copies worldwide and remains the best selling Latin album of all time in the U.S. It acquired many awards and accolades, including Album of the Year at the 1996 Tejano Music Awards and Female Pop Album of the Year at the 3rd Annual Billboard Latin Music Awards.

It has now been twenty-five years since that historic day has come and gone, and the album is just as important now as it was then. Whether you’re a longtime fan or new to Selena, take this day to commemorate not only Dreaming of You, but Selena’s discography and life as a whole. Dreaming of You is the dying wish of an insanely talented individual on the cusp of her crossover album, and though granted posthumously, her wish came true.

RIP La Reina and happy birthday to Dreaming of You.

 

Here is Dreaming of You track by track on a playlist, as well as the rehearsal tapes of “Oh No” and “Are You Ready To Be Loved?”
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by Roxxy
Featured. TEEHEE 💛🧡💜

[RadicalOptimism]

Iconic song and still makes me cry every time I listen to it 

[Towelney]

I’ve never listened to her before 

But I really like those songs!  I’ll check her out in the AM! 

Any recommendations?

[AmorProhibido]

2 minutes ago, Towelney said:

I’ve never listened to her before 

But I really like those songs!  I’ll check her out in the AM! 

Any recommendations?

She's great! If you've never listened to her and/or you don't speak Spanish, I would recommend some of her bigger hits, both in Spanish and English. Dreaming of You, Amor Prohibido (), Como La Flor, La Llamada, etc. There's a lot so it's just about going through all of it and taking the time to really listen. 

[Midnight]

Baila Conmigo and I Could Fall In Love are top but Dreaming Of You is a gem nothing will ever be as beautiful as that song  

 

[ColdAsFire88]

I feel like our community still mourns her to this day. She had sooooo much potential and was an amazing performer. No one can replace her but I feel like the only person that has come close to her is Jenni Rivera, but shes gone too 

Anyway, thanks for posting. Viva Selena! 

*I tried to post the pic I have of me at her memorial but this site is such a size queen. IDK how to resize the photo either *

 

[Roxxy]

Dreaming of You is the only Selena song I can sing on karaoke.

[Blackout2006]

Happy birthday

Spoiler

but 5 million is kinda lil, i thought it shouldve sold 12 million

 

[AmorProhibido]

1 hour ago, Blackout2006 said:

Happy birthday

  Hide contents

but 5 million is kinda lil, i thought it shouldve sold 12 million

 

For one thing, those numbers haven't been updated since 2015. Also, five million is huge for someone who before this album, was only well known in certain parts of the world. She became a bonafide superstar with this album.

[AmorProhibido]

1 hour ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

I feel like our community still mourns her to this day. She had sooooo much potential and was an amazing performer. No one can replace her but I feel like the only person that has come close to her is Jenni Rivera, but shes gone too 

Anyway, thanks for posting. Viva Selena! 

*I tried to post the pic I have of me at her memorial but this site is such a size queen. IDK how to resize the photo either *

 

To be honest, I feel like certain parts of the world will mourn her for a long time, like Corpus Christi. It was just such a senseless and shocking death, so it's understandable why people are still so sad by it. I've never heard of Jenni Rivera,  but I'll definitely check her out!

 Exhale being so picky about size pisses me off all the time. if you still want to upload it, I would suggest downloading an app that resizes the photo. 

[ColdAsFire88]

6 minutes ago, AmorProhibido said:

To be honest, I feel like certain parts of the world will mourn her for a long time, like Corpus Christi. It was just such a senseless and shocking death, so it's understandable why people are still so sad by it. I've never heard of Jenni Rivera,  but I'll definitely check her out!

 Exhale being so picky about size pisses me off all the time. if you still want to upload it, I would suggest downloading an app that resizes the photo. 

Downloaded an app hehe. Check it out

[AmorProhibido]

2 minutes ago, ColdAsFire88 said:

Downloaded an app hehe. Check it out

I love that!  As soon as Miss Rona dies out, my a.ss is going to Corpus Christi. 

[ColdAsFire88]

5 minutes ago, AmorProhibido said:

I love that!  As soon as Miss Rona dies out, my a.ss is going to Corpus Christi. 

Corpus Cristi is a small *** town so I would def plan a trip to san antonio, stay on the river walk and go to corpus for the day then go back to san antonio. We did stay in corpus for a night but it was kind of boring lol

[Blackout2006]

1 hour ago, AmorProhibido said:

For one thing, those numbers haven't been updated since 2015. Also, five million is huge for someone who before this album, was only well known in certain parts of the world. She became a bonafide superstar with this album.

Ironically it was posthumous release that made her huge 

[AmorProhibido]

2 minutes ago, Blackout2006 said:

Ironically it was posthumous release that made her huge 

Yes, she reached true stardom after her death. She was suddenly all over the news because of the ****** and the trial. We all know this. 

However, if Selena had survived, she would've achieved the same stardom, most likely even greater. I know you didn't mean it as an insult, but it's a disrespectful thing to say, especially on a thread commemorating her. Let's not forget Jennifer Lopez has a career because of Selena. Selena did so much in her very short life and even more afterwards, and I will not let people speak of her in any way other than recognizing her as the legend she is.

[Blackout2006]

1 hour ago, AmorProhibido said:

I know you didn't mean it as an insult, but it's a disrespectful thing to say, especially on a thread commemorating her. Let's not forget Jennifer Lopez has a career because of Selena. Selena did so much in her very short life and even more afterwards, and I will not let people speak of her in any way other than recognizing her as the legend she is.

Oh dear, no NO! No way did I mean it that way, there is no bias towards Selena, because many artist have become superstars after their deaths. For example- I and many people to come to know of XXtentacoin because of his personal problems and death, and only after that he become highly huge. So I didn’t mean to disrupt this threads theme 

I know this is a thread meant for celebration of the one of the greatest Latin albums of all time, but I just said that I founded it ironic that her superstardom only entered after her death but no way did I mean it as a way to disrespect her legacy.

[AmorProhibido]

No way am I letting this flop. You b.itches better pay your respects 

[PokemonSpears]

[princessmimi]

Wow I cant believe its 25 years old, it seems like it just got released a while ago.

Its shocking that she's been dead for 25 years, thats almost my whole life.

I love Dreaming Of You and I Could Fall In Love, those songs are amazing.

Its just sad to think of what could've been, she would've been HUGE!
RIP 

[PokemonSpears]

My favorite Selena song, El Chico del Apartamento 512, was released as a single a day before she was ********, so a music video wasn't filmed for it.