On today’s “turn back time” album, we are going back to 1994 with former Menudo member, Charlie Masso’s “Inevitable” CD. I recently made my first trip to the island of Puerto Rico and as a Menudo fan, I don’t know why it took me so long to get there. If I would have gone earlier in my life, I would have been able to find a lot more Menudo music than the handful that I purchased. One of the CDs I was able to find was a used copy of this album. Apparently, it used to be a jukebox CD as the tracklisting used in the jukebox was inside the CD. It had been a long time since I had listened to this and I had previously owned a copy before the digital age had me selling off very sought-after CDs. While it made me very profitable at the time, I long to have some of the music I once owned, especially Charlie’s first and second albums too.
Charlie Masso’s vocals in his solo work should have swooned the women who grow up loving him.
I often think about Menudo’s life and history and it always fascinates me the lack of super megastars Menudo has compared to say a group like Timbiriche. While many Menudo members have had short-lived careers as soloists, there are truly only Ricky Martin and Robi Rosa, who are regularly turning out new music and when you count the number of members Menudo had, you would think there would have been more. And oddly, Ricky Martin wasn’t one of Menudo’s strongest singers or members. During his time in the group, Charlie Masso had been part of the main core singers and had some of the strongest vocals. Who can deny that songs like “Acercate” couldn’t have been sung by anyone else but Charlie? Charlie perfected the art of mesmerizing his adoring female fans.
So why did Charlie not make superstardom status like his fellow mate, Ricky Martin? It is hard to say, but what I do know is that Charlie’s vocals in his solo work should have swooned the women who grow up loving him. While “Inevitable” contained more ballads than upbeat pop songs, the quality of the music and writers were on par with some of the greatest vocalists at the time. Mariano Perez wrote the title track, Inevitable, and when you question who is Mariano Perez, well… He wrote Fuego Contra Fuego for Ricky Martin. Perez is a great songwriter and producer who has worked with greats like Yuri and Ana Gabriel, too.
I can’t find a fault with this album and musically, it is way superior to Charlie’s first two albums. My favorite song off the album has to be Te Me Vas, which starts off like background more to a classic Noir film. Charlie’s seductive vocals make me want to go straight for just a moment. If you want an album that you can chill out with and just enough some seductiveness, give “Inevitable” a listen, but you might have to hunt for it a little bit. The CD is currently out of print and seldom shows up on eBay.
Since that day, I have been study Latin pop and rock music and have become a Latin pop music historian through the publishing of articles, fanzine, and websites. My goal is to teach people about Latin pop music and the history behind it with my website, Siempre En Domingo.
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