Six Degrees of Grillo

02009-04-28 | Uncategorized | 6 comments

After hearing the duet between Stephen Duros and Jason McGuire, I googled Jason McGuire and found a whole bunch of YouTube videos featuring him. Some of the videos showed performances of a group that included Jose Blanco. Ring a bell?

Jose “El Grillo” Blanco sang our Spanish version of “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” on the album The Hours Between Night + Day. Did I tell you the story about those lyrics? Well, we contacted Sony Mexico about a Spanish version of Marvin Gaye’s lyrics, assuming that somebody must already covered that great song. We didn’t get a definite answer until the day Grillo arrived at the studio in Santa Barbara – no, there is no Spanish version, none.

In the evening I welcomed Grillo to the studio, showed him around and gave him the news. I also gave him a printout of the original English lyrics, a copy of the music we had recorded, a bottle of vino tinto, a pad of paper and a pen and asked him to write the Spanish version.

The next morning Grillo arrived with Spanish lyrics and sang what you hear on the album.

I always felt the song should have been serviced to latin radio, but Sony/Epic did not agree with me. It received some airplay from radio stations that listened to the album, but it could have been much more. Anyway, I still enjoy our version a lot.

So, sixteen years later Stevo records a piece with Jason, who peforms with Grillo.

6 Comments

  1. Carol

    It’s so interesting to hear the story behind the music.

    Reply
  2. LindaW

    Indeed, it is interesting to hear the story behind the music, and yet again see that our “big world” becomes a bit smaller.

    Six degrees does tend to ring true more frequently than one would expect ;-)

    Reply
  3. dave

    It’s come full circle.

    Reply
  4. Kaz

    Six Degrees of Grillo;
    I agree!! Very interesting story. Thank you. I think Stevo’s on the right path!!
    Timmy! :)

    Reply
  5. Adam

    I’ve seen Grillo’s name around here + there – always thought I remembered the name from “Ten Piedad de Mí” but I’d seen it so long ago I wasn’t sure… :)

    Reply
  6. Michael C

    One of my favorites from that album and reminded me of this back in 2006.

    Reply

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