Marvin Santiago Informations

Marvin Santiago (December 26, 1947 – October 6, 2004) was a Puerto Rican salsa singer who became famous all across Latin America during the 1970s. He was also a part-time comedian on Puerto Rican television.

Santiago was born in the Santurce district of San Juan, Puerto Rico. In his younger years Santiago lived between the Bólivar and Sánchez streets in the Parada 22 area of Santurce. At the age of 13, Santiago and his family moved to the Nemesio Canales public housing project where he was eventually nicknamed "El Grifo de Canales" ("The kinky-haired of Canales") by close friends and fans. Santiago was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at a young age.

During his youth, Santiago would participate in jam sessions in his neighborhood as well as in school. His first professional job as a singer was in 1966 with Roberto Valdés group "Los Trotamundos".

Upon a recommendation from conga player Celso Clemente, famed Puerto Rican composer Tite Curet Alonso met Santiago and brought him to an audition for Rafael Cortijo's group. Santiago was hired to sing with Cortijo's group and in three weeks time learned the bands repertoire and started touring with them throughout Dominican Republic, New York City and Chicago. On an impulse, Santiago decided to stay in Chicago. During breaks from Cortijo's group, Santiago played with local bands "Gilberto Y Su Sexteto" and "La Sonora De Felipe Rodríguez".

Santiago's first recorded tracks appeared on Rafael Cortijo Y Su Bonche's album "Ahí Na Má! Put It There", released in 1968. Two of the tracks recorded where Santiago provided lead vocals, "Vasos En Colores" and "La Campana Del Lechón", were later recorded by Santiago as a solo artist. Santiago provided background vocals on other tracks from the album.

In 1969 Santiago left Chicago and returned to Puerto Rico where he joined Johnny "El Bravo" López's group and toured with them briefly. On one engagement with López in Coamo, Puerto Rico, Santiago met Roberto Angleró and offered his services as a backup singer if he ever needed one. Soon after that meeting, Angleró needed a background singer and called López to see if he could lend Santiago to do some background vocals for his group and López told Angleró "you can keep him if you want to". Santiago joined Angleró's group and in 1970 recorded an album with them. The album had a minor hit with the track "Chán Con Chán". The track "Salao" from the album was later recorded as "Safa Diablo" by Bobby Valentín's group with Santiago on lead vocals. Another track from the album, "El Pantalón", was later recorded as "El Filo Del Pantalón" by Santiago as a solo artist.

Late in 1970 Bobby Valentín, another type 1 diabetic, hired Santiago as the lead singer of his band after Frankie Hernández left his group. Valentin was one of the original members of the Fania All-Stars, an exclusive Salsa conglomerate of Fania Records musicians that showcased other performers such as Celia Cruz, Rubén Blades, Hector Lavoe, Roberto Roena and many others. Santiago would become an impromptu member of the group, and later a member in his own right.

Santiago's first recording with Valentin's group was the album "Rompecabezas", released in 1971. The songs "Amolador", "Beso Borracho", "Papel De Payaso" and "Vete Pa' llá" were big hits from that album.

Santiago's second recording with Valentin's group was the album "Soy Boricua", released in 1972. Many considered the album a classic and the title track, written by Roberto Angleró, an informal patriotic anthem for Puerto Ricans. The album's title song, and the Curet Alonso written "Pirata De La Mar", became major international hits.

Santiago was part of the band when Valentín played a concert at the Río Piedras State Penitentiary. The concert was recorded and released as two separate albums in 1975."Préstame Tu Caballo and "Dos Soneros" were the most popular tracks performed by Santiago on the recording.

On Valentín's 1976 album, "Afuera", Santiago had a few hits. Among them "Son Son Chararí" (Written by Angleró) and "El Jíbaro Y La Naturaleza". The latter a nostalgia/protest song with environmental overtones, which featured Fania All-Stars member Barry Rogers in a trombone solo. Valentín was forced to drop Santiago off his band due to Santiago's drug addiction at the time.

Late in 1976, Santiago provided background vocals and was the lead singer for the track "Los Tambores" on Puerto Rico All Stars self-titled first album. Puerto Rico All Stars featured Puerto Rican musicians exclusively and was a rival to NY based Fania All-Stars.

In 1977 Santiago recorded and released his first solo album "De Los Soneros". Tito Valentín and Wito Morales produced the album. The recording had the hits "Al Revés" and "De Los Soneros".

After that album, Santiago joined Tommy Olivencia's group for about a year and recorded tracks destined to appear on Olivencia's album "Sweat Trumpet Hot "Salsa"". During the recording sessions Olivencia found out that Santiago was still under contract with his previous label and had Simón Pérez re–record Santiago's vocals. Three tracks from those sessions with Santiago's vocals, "Que Dichoso Es", "La Pela" and "Del Montón", later appeared on Santiago's compilation "15 Éxitos De Marvin Santiago" released by TH Records in 1984.

Famous arranger and producer Jorge Millet knew Santiago well and their friendship could be traced back to the late 1960s when they met while both lived in the city of Chicago. Millet was aware of Santiago's potential and as a friend wanted to lend him a helping hand by giving him the opportunity to record as a solo artist. As producer and talent scout for TH Records, Millet was able to provide the arrangements, musicians and artwork for Santiago's debut album with the label. The album, "Fuego A La Jicotea", was released in 1979. The album was very successful and considered a classic for many music fans. The album's title track, written by Cortijo, was a major hit in Puerto Rico and Venezuela. The song was a thinly-veiled ode to marijuana. Santiago's remake of a song from his days in Cortijo, "Vasos En Colores", was also a major hit from the album and remained in his live repertoire throughout his career. Other hits from the album were "La Picúa", a veiled homage to the female anatomy, and "El Mangoneo" (a Mozambique very much in the style of Cortijo's "Sorongo").

Santiago's follow-up album, "Caliente Y Explosivo", released in 1980, was another success. It also had Millet as arranger, piano player and musical director. Millet also designed the cover art for this album. The album contained the hits "Al Son De La Lata Baila El Chorizo" (Originally played by Ismael Rivera when he was part of Cortijo Y Su Combo), "El Tiburón De Agua Dulce" (Written by Millet and the longest studio track Santiago ever recorded at just over seven minutes with an amazing piano solo by Millet), "La Buruquena De Doña Inés" and "Esta Noche Sale El Lobo".

Many of the songs in Santiago's solo albums were fast paced, full of intensity and laden with humor and double entendres. Santiago was a master improviser that used "soneos" (rhyming verses common to Salsa music) with a strong sense of alliteration, consonance and rhythm that was described once by Rubén Blades this way: "(Rhythm-wise) Marvin is capable of fitting a Mack truck into a parking space where a Volkswagen Beetle won't fit." He also used strong Puerto Rican figures of speech and slang that eventually granted him the moniker of "El Sonero del Pueblo".

In 1980, at the height of his popularity, Santiago was arrested and imprisoned for cocaine possession. He served in prison a little over five out of the ten years he was sentenced due to good behavior. Ruben Blades visited Santiago while in prison something for which Santiago was eternally grateful to Blades.

Shortly after he entered prison, Santiago became a born-again Christian and stopped using drugs. As part of his rehabilitation program, Santiago became the director of a group of prisoners that dedicated their efforts towards drug prevention awareness programs (Confinados En Acción Y Prevención). Santiago went to universities and public schools to give talks about drug prevention.

In July 1981 Millet died from a massive heart attack. Santiago was allowed a prison pass to attend the funeral home where Millet's body rested and pay respects to his friend.

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