Arriving in 1996 after several years of alternating English-language adult contemporary pop albums with contemporary Latin pop albums,
Tango was a back to basics move of sorts for
Julio Iglesias. Back to basics might be stretching it a little, because
Iglesias always was a contemporary pop singer, so this was more of a roots move, finding
Iglesias tackling 12 of the most famous tangos, many of which date back to the '30s and '40s, if not earlier. If the production did not exactly sound timeless -- it was a contemporary big-budget recording, so it was very clean and polished -- it nevertheless wasn't nearly as slick as his English language records, and the execution of these tangos modernized these classic songs, bringing them to new audiences.
Iglesias responded in kind, giving them some of his most passionate performances in years, and the result was one of the highlights of his '90s work. [In 2006,
Tango was reissued by Columbia/Legacy in remastered sound with new liner notes.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine