Songoftheday 2/11/16 - They tell me you're a shy boy but I want you just the same, don't play innocent with me you know it's not just fun and games...

"1-2-3" - Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine
from the album Let It Loose (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's song of the day comes from Cuban-American pop stars the Miami Sound Machine, whose first album including equal billing for lead singer Gloria Estefan, Let It Loose, had spun off four top-40 hits so far with "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You", "Betcha Say That", "Can't Stay Away From You", and the #1 ballad "Anything For You". For the fifth and final single from the album, the band sped up the pace again for the bubbly pop song "1-2-3". Written by Gloria with bandmate Enrique "Kiki" Garcia, the flashily-produced track used the numerical series to anchor the melodic hook of the song...

"1-2-3" became the fourth top-10 pop hit from Let It Loose in America in August of 1988. It was their third consecutive (and fourth all-around) #1 hit on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, and even crossed over to #54 on their R&B chart. Internationally, the song made it to #9 in the UK, #10 in Canada, #7 in Sweden, and top-20 in Ireland and the Netherlands.

It would be Gloria's final single with the Miami Sound Machine, with the band including Garcia leaving in 1988. 

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's Gloria performing the song for British TV in 1988 (the visuals were put to the studio version for the MTV video...)

...and on her 1991 tour in the Netherlands...

Gloria appeared on the Live By Request call-in concert program in 1998...

I'll end with her energetic show in Las Vegas from 2003...

Up tomorrow: A song from the first full-length album from Berry Gordy's label gets a revival in the Catskills.