ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260014
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: NIKO PRICE ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
THE FAB FOUR get the Latin treatment in yet another oddball tribute.
They came to town with a foreign sound, singing ``I Want to Hold Your Hand'' and ``Day Tripper,'' enthralling a New York crowd with a musical hybrid the American pop scene had never heard.
A generation after the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan show five blocks away and inserted themselves forever into the American consciousness, this ``Fab 30'' came to Radio City Music Hall to begin a world tour - a Latin homage to the four of yesterday.
The riffs may be a little jazzier, the horns a little tighter, the guitars notable by their absence. But it's hard to mistake ``With a Little Help From My Friends'' or ``Obladi Oblada'' in any language.
In the ``Tropical Tribute to the Beatles,'' and on an album by the same name released earlier in the year, a cavalcade of salsa and merengue stars take turns singing Beatles tunes, half in Spanish and half in English, then come together in the finale for - what else? - ``Come Together.''
Opening night was hit and miss. ``Let It Be'' moved smoothly from a rousing, gospel-laden ballad into a grooving, call-and-response sonero session; ``Hard Day's Night'' fell somewhere between Wayne Newton and Muzak.
Backing the 12 singers was an 18-member band - joined on two of the songs by Tito Puente, master of timbale drums - and a troupe of Puerto Rican dancers straight out of ``Dance Fever.''
Oddball Beatles tributes have a long history. Countless artists have recorded Beatles' songs, and entire albums range from ``Beatles on Hammered Dulcimer'' by Joemy Wilson to ``Bugs & Friends Sing the Beatles: The Furry Four Sing Their Fab Four Favorites'' featuring the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and the Tasmanian Devil.
The Beatles themselves were famous for experimenting with music from other traditions. They used an Indian sitar beginning in 1965's ``Rubber Soul,'' introduced bossa nova chords in several songs and tried full orchestras and large choruses in their later recordings.
But where the Beatles found musical possibilities, the ``Tropical Tribute to the Beatles'' seems more like a commercial gimmick.
The show and the album were put together by RMM Records, the label that pioneered - and still dominates - the salsa pop heard on Latin radio across the United States and Latin America.
``This is music,'' RMM President Ralph Mercado said in an interview. ``We're making it danceable and it's about having success at the bottom line.''
The artists themselves were a bit reluctant about the project. The night before the show opened, salsa-in-English crooner Tito Nieves cautioned that ``I don't know if Beatles fans will like this like the original,'' and mambo queen Celia Cruz said she was ``expecting a half-rejection.''
``We can't please everyone,'' she said.
Mercado said the project was a recognition of Latin music's heavy influence on the Beatles, and was intended as a bridge to help introduce salsa to new fans.
But most of the fans at the concert seemed to know a lot more about salsa than about the Beatles.
``That was before my time, you know,'' said Armando Malave, 24.
An exception: Phil Rucci, a 32-year-old thrash band drummer from Edison, N.J. He came to the concert in shorts, sneakers, black terrycloth wristbands and a Beatles T-shirt.
His clothes and his long chestnut hair - parted in the center - seemed out of place in the sea of well-dressed, dark-haired salsa fans. But Rucci didn't mind; he danced in the aisles.
``I didn't understand a word he was saying, but the music was great,'' he said.
Then again, Rucci was an easy sell.
``I heard Hendrix doing `Day Tripper,' Vanilla Fudge doing `Ticket to Ride.' Any kind of re-creation of Beatles' music is phenomenal,'' he said. ``Nothing could ever be better than the original. But it came close.''
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB