Each Friday I pick a song–new, old, borrowed, blue–that’s been on my mind and in my ears, and write a short post about it.
This is “El Relojito” by Gloria Ríos:
A couple of weeks ago I read Refried Elvis by Eric Zolov. It’s a really interesting history of the culture and politics of rock ‘n’ roll music in Mexico. When rock ‘n’ roll first hit Mexico, one of the forms it almost immediately took was the “refrito,” in which American, English-language rock ‘n’ roll hits were performed by Mexican artists in Spanish (or, as here, a slightly odd mix of Spanish and English). This version of Bill Haley and the Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock” by dancing up a storm Gloria Ríos is one of the best.
