Spoken Liner Notes By The Family (Ven Conmigo)

Ven Conmigo. I love this album. It was one of my favorite and

Still is one of my--I can't say "one of"--it still is a favorite

Album for me. 'Cause there was a little song on this album called "

Bailas Tu Cumbia," which just really broke down the door for us

As far as getting us to airplay as far as cumbia was concerned

The second album we recorded for EMI Latin was... it was titled

Ven Conmigo. It was released in 1990. As Selena and the group Los

Dinos grew in popularity, I always insisted that we do a little

Variety of music. I've always felt that the buyer, the listener

Would enjoy this and they would not get bored, you know, hearing

Just one particular style of music. So we always put a variety

Rancheras, cumbias, ballads, a little pop. We always mixed it up

That album was really, really something for us too because it was

A, you know, a year later after our first release, which was in

1990, I believe, and the photo shoot was something really special

And fun. And I'll let everybody in on a little story, that Selena

Had cut her hair and dyed it black black, you know, the night

Before the photo shoot. And not too many people know this, but

If you really look, I think that's one of the reasons why it's

Black and white, is that if you look really close behind her ear

You can see a trace of black dye on her skin where we couldn't

Get it off. And if you really look close enough, you'll see it

And that's one of the funny stories about the Ven Conmigo album

And "Ya Ves," I think that was probably my favorite

Song on the album. I remember even when they wrote it

When we were practicing, I was thinking, "Man, this is

Cool." The words were cool. The melody was real good

I know that, you know, even "Aunque No Salga El Sol"

Was another song that was played a lot on the radio

One song that really, really sticks out in my mind was a song that was

Written by Johnny Herrera, a local writer from Corpus Christi, who

Had written a huge hit for Lisa Lopes, "Si Quieres Verme Llorar." In

Fact, from the story that I hear was this song, "Aunque No Salga El

Sol," was supposed to be Lisa Lopes' follow-up song for the hit "

Si Quieres Verme Llorar." For some reason that

We don't know, they turned it down, and Selena

Recorded it. And it was--it's a beautiful ballad

Like the "Aunque No Salga El Sol" arrangement, for us, that

Was something new. It wasn't just basically like all the

Other slow songs. You know, we used a lot more percussion

And sequencing in that one. And that one came out real nice

Ven Conmigo was a song that really, really surprised me. I didn't

Think it was going to do anything. But it got tremendous airplay

On Ven Conmigo, finally we got an actual accordion player

Abie and Pete wrote the song. And I remember me and Abie drove

Up to Poteet, and he showed it to David Lee Garza. And they

Practiced it a little bit, him and his dad was playing bajo

Sexto. His brother played the drums. And anyway, we ended up

Recording it with David Lee, and that one came out real cool

Out of all the duets that Selena done with Pete, I would have

To say "Yo Te Amo" was my favorite one to do live, and I believe

We got a really great response. Not saying we didn't out of

The other songs, but that song just had a lot of emotion to it

There was a period of time where we were doing a lot of

Duets between Selena and Pete. "Yo Te Amo" was one that was

A beautiful Tejano ranchera. It got a lot of airplay also

I remember the "Yo Te Amo" song. That was when we were starting to

Go into, you know, not the traditional chord progressions. You

Know, we had a little bridge interlude thing in there. We were

Changing. I guess we were growing. Evolving, I guess. I don't know

For anybody that just listened to the album for "Bailas Tu Cumbia,"

They're missing out on a lot more, because on the album, a special

Song that comes to mind for me is "Enamorada De Ti," which is our

First attempt at doing something hip-hop or R&B. And the song really

Really came out great. Originally, my father had talked to José

Bejar, and José had told him they were coming down to a show and they

Were bringing some major people from the pop market. So Dad told

Selena and told myself and said, "Look, this is a great opportunity

For you guys to impress these people and possibly land yourself an

English contract." So unfortunately for the guys who had to put it

Together, which was myself and Ricky Vela, we did it at a Motel 6

It was snowing, and it was somewhere, I think, in Albuquerque

I believe it was, New Mexico, in a Motel 6. We had to--and back then

We didn't have, like, the fancy computers with all the sequencing

We actually had everything sequenced through a keyboard. And we

Had eight keyboards. You had to bring all your keyboards down

Your sound console, all your monitor systems. So we basically had

To unload all our equipment into one of the rooms. All of our stage

Equipment, all our--what we would call our back-line equipment--

It would all have to come inside the room. And I remember we didn't

Sleep. I worked on the song all night with Pete Asodio and with

Ricky Vela. The song that came about was "Enamorada De Ti," and we

Recorded the song. And I remember sitting at the Tejano Music Awards

With Pete Asodio. When Selena came out and she had her dancers and

She danced the song, it was one of the best moments of my life

I mean, I'll never forget that. It was just--

I was so high. I was out of the universe, I was

So high from the emotion and just being able to

One song that comes to mind on this album was "No Quiero Saber"

. Originally my dad said, "Why don't y'all do 'Guantanamera'

And do it like in a house version?" So I started working on it

And dad said, "Man, the music sounds so great!" And he goes, "

A.B., you've been working on your songwriting skills. Why don't

You go ahead and write a song to the music?" And that's what

Happened. "No Quiero Saber" came to life and I'm glad dad guided

Me on that advice on the song, 'cause it's a real pretty song