Martyred Mexican-American superstar Selena, shot to death by her ex-fan club president outside a Corpus Christi, Texas, motel this past March, loved dressing skimpily onstage so you could see her navel and cleavage. But she was still wholesome enough to be praised as a role model for Latina teens, and though her Tex-Mex pop roped in everything
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from reggae toasting to cowboy-polka oompahs, it often came off as too wholesome. Any of her five English-language ballads on
Dreaming of You could've made for a sweet VH1 crossover, but they all seem fairly generic as well. Give or take some whispered Spanish-seduction nothings at the end, Selena's pretty confession of secret infatuations in "I Could Fall in Love" might as well be Vanessa Williams'. And the horn-section-driven "I'm Getting Used to You" begs to be belted by somebody fleshier and more brazen – say, Taylor Dayne.
Selena actually grew up speaking English; the lyrics that made her rich were learned phonetically. Though her Spanish-ballad hits could be as indistinct as her English attempts, faster Latin dance rhythms allowed her to really exercise her voice.
Dreaming's bilingual samba duet, "God's Child," has David Byrne reciting mystical mumbo jumbo as Selena reaches for a womanly Celia Cruz huskiness; she reaches even higher rafters in the bullfight mariachi "El Toro Relajo." In the Latin-chart-topping novelty "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom," Dreaming's one truly irresistible cut, Selena's chant regresses beyond rapping into pure baby talk. (RS 716)
CHUCK EDDY
Dreaming of You was released after Selena's murder, and chances are not every song was finished when she died. But no album shows her versatility so clearly: originally a Tejano star, she had the emotional and vocal chops to penetrate the American pop and R&B charts. This spawned the hits "Amor Prohibido," "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" and "Como La Flor.
