Menudo (group)
Menudo was a Puerto Rican boy band formed by producer Edgardo Díaz. Referred to as the "most iconic Latino pop music band", they have been ranked as one of the biggest boy bands of all time by several publications, including Billboard, Us Weekly, Seventeen, and Teen Vogue, being the only Latin band on their lists.
The band had several radio hits during its career. They acted in a television film and two feature films, An Adventure Called Menudo and Menudo: The Movie, in three mini series entitled "I Want to Be", "It's for Love" and "Forever Friends" and another television mini-series named Panchito and Arturo.
Due to changes in puberty-related vocal range and timbre becoming permanent at around the age of 17, Menudo was distinctive in that members of the band were let go at that age, and younger vocalists took their place. In fact over the course of the band's history, it had run through more than fifty members, for this very reason. At any one time however, the Menudo band was usually, except for two isolated eras, composed of five male teenagers.
Menudo's original lineup consisted of five boys: brothers Fernando and Nefty Sallaberry ; the Melendez brothers, Carlos Meléndez,, Óscar Meléndez,, and Ricky Meléndez, ; the latter three are Díaz's cousins. The band's golden-era lineup consisted of members Ricky Meléndez, Johnny Lozada, René Farrait, Miguel Cancel, Xavier Serbiá, Charlie Masso and Ray Reyes. It was also a starting point for popular international stars like Ricky Martin and Draco Rosa, who were members of the band in the mid-1980s.
Entering the 1990s, their popularity started to wane amid allegations of drug use. In 1997, the rights and the name Menudo were sold. The remaining members continued to perform as MDO until their official disbandment in 2002. However, this iteration has continued to perform sporadically since. New management of Menudo formed a new line-up in 2007, releasing an EP but disbanding in 2009. Some of the members of the "golden era" of the band reunited in 1998 under the name El Reencuentro, and in 2019 for the "Súbete a Mi Moto" Tour.
Menudo is estimated to have sold 20 million albums worldwide and has generated over 300 million US dollars.
History
Beginning and rise to fame
Menudo was formed in 1977 by music producer Edgardo Díaz. The original line up consisted of 5 members, the Sallaberry brothers, Fernando and Nefty, and Díaz's cousins, the Melendez brothers, Oscar, Carlos, and Ricky. They were signed to Padosa Records and released their first album Los Fantasmas in 1977. It featured "Teach Me To Sing", a song by Spanish singer Micky. In 1978 they released another album called Laura. Fifteen-year-old Nefty was the very first member to leave and was replaced by 12-year-old René Farrait. In 1979, they released an album called Little Girl. At the end of 1979, Carlos left the band at age 15 and was replaced by 12-year-old Johnny Lozada, after which they made their first Christmas album, Congratulations.In the early 1980s, Menudo had several hits, including "The Ghosts" and a cover version of ABBA's "Do You Want". They filmed three music videos for the song "Little Girl", including one with Puerto Rican music star Ednita Nazario. The group then released several moderately successful albums, including Fuego, which yielded hits "Ella A-A", "Fuego", and "A Bailar". They also made "Fui Hecho Para Amarte", which itself was also a cover, in that song's case of Kiss's '"I Was Made For Lovin' You", but that song was not included in Fuego, and was released on their Xanadu album instead. Producciones Padosa translated the popularity of the group into Menudo en apuros, a chronicle series.
During 1981, the group, which by then consisted of René Farrait, Johnny Lozada, Xavier Serbiá, Miguel Cancel, and remaining original member Ricky Melendez, released "I Want to Be". The album would launch Menudo into international stardom. It included hit songs such as "I Want to Be", "Get on My Motorcycle", "Rock on TV", "Clarity", and "My Band Plays Rock". They also had their own telenovela series entitled I Want To Be
.
In the same year, the group hosted a television show on Telemundo entitled Menudo Young People. They hosted a yearly beauty pageant, "Menudo's young girl" and the winner of the pageant would sometimes appear in the band's videos or join them onstage at their concerts throughout the United States.
Menudo became very popular throughout Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina, and Brazil. They also became the first boy band to own their own private jet. Díaz, their manager, purchased a Lockheed JetStar that had belonged to American President Richard Nixon and the Shah of Iran. He had Menudo's name emblazoned on both sides of the fuselage. In 1982, Charlie Masso, then age 12, replaced René Farrait, age 14. Masso's first album with Menudo was "For Love". During this boom of popularity, fans started calling themselves contagious to the "Menuditis", similar to Beatlemania and Bieber Fever, or the "Menudomania". They were so popular that they starred in their own feature films: Menudo: The Movie and An Adventure Called Menudo. Aventura starred Gladys Rodríguez as Miss Mia and included songs such as "Clara" and "Fly".
During their first visit to New York in early 1983, Ray Reyes, 12, replaced Xavier Serbiá, 14. Their American fanbase grew, especially among the young, as evidenced by Menudo on ABC, a
series of four minute music spots that aired during the Fall 1983 season of ABC's youth-oriented Saturday-morning programming block. They also sang the theme song for ABC's Rubik, the Amazing Cube. Miguel Cancel became the first member to voluntarily quit the group. According to a 1998 interview, he was unhappy that a sudden voice change rendered him unable to sing his songs, so he opted to leave before his scheduled departure. He was replaced by Roy Rosselló, 13. Menudo signed a six-year multimillion-dollar contract with RCA International and released their Spanish album A Todo Rock. According to Time magazine, at the end of July, the group had already sold 3 million copies worldwide, 750,000 in USA only.
Around that time, Menudo merchandise began to be mass-produced. Merchandise included Menudo dolls, which appeared in the United States and Latin American toy markets in 1984, Menudo Topps trading cards, wristwatches, fotonovelas, fanzines, T-shirts, a 1981 board game named "Menudo Karshow" and other clothing accessories and school supplies. In 1984, Robby Rosa, 14, replaced Johnny Lozada, 16, just in time for Menudo to release their first English-language album, Reaching Out, which featured the theme track "Like a Cannonball" for the Hollywood movie Cannonball Run 2; and their first Portuguese album, Mania, both featuring versions of some of their Spanish hits. During the first half of 1984, Menudo toured the U.S. and Brazil. The Spanish version "Como Cannonball" was used in the Filipino youth movie Bagets 2 and also featured the song "Fly Away".
On September 16, 1984, Ricky Melendez, 16, the sole remaining original member, left the group. Up until then, he was the only Menudo member to remain with the group for seven years. He was replaced by Ricky Martin, then 12, who debuted on the album, Evolución . During this time, Menudo's popularity reached parts of Asia including Japan and the Philippines, and the group made English-language commercials for Pepsi, Scope, Burger King, McDonald's, and Crest. They also made a guest appearance on the popular American children's program Sesame Street. By the end of September, sales of their records surpassed 8 million copies worldwide. Then, much to the surprise of fans and himself, Ray Reyes, 15, departed the group earlier than expected, due to internal conflicts between Ray's father and the manager. In a 1998 interview, Reyes stated he was surprised when during a Menudo interview in 1985, the interviewer asked who would leave the group next and Edgardo Díaz named Ray. The group also had a weekly television show called "Menudo Mania".
Raymond Acevedo took over Reyes' spot in 1985 and Menudo sang vocals for the Spanish-English song "Cantare, Cantaras" with various Latin artists to raise money for UNICEF. This song was the Latin American version of "We Are the World". "Cantare, Cantaras" was recorded on April 9, 1985, at the A&M Studios. The group released their second English-language album, Menudo which contains the songs "Hold Me" and "Explosion", both with lead vocals by Robi Rosa. They also released their next Spanish album, Ayer Y Hoy , and their second Portuguese album A Festa Vai Comecar . They successfully toured Brazil, performing before hundreds of thousands of fans, but there were allegations of the tour being poorly organized: the capacity for a concert in Rio de Janeiro was 60,000 but 70,000 tickets were sold, and 2 women died. In São Paulo, a 100,000-capacity stadium was sold-out with 200,000 people, and in the São Paulo city of Campinas, rain delayed a concert for 4 hours.
In 1986, the song King Holiday was recorded. Later in the year Roy Rosselló was replaced by Sergio Blass but no farewell concert was held. According to a book written by Raymond Acevedo's father in 2012 titled "Papi, Quiero Ser Un Menudo," Roy threatened to expose management irregularities to the press and was given a huge sum of money to leave the group due to his behavior as it was deemed by creator Edgardo Diaz as "uncontrollable." At this time, Menudo's management started bending the rules a little and started allowing members to remain in the group after reaching the age limit. Sergio had been in two Puerto Rican groups prior to joining Menudo; the first being Concepto Juvenil from 1983 to 1985, and then Los Chicos de Puerto Rico, for a few months in 1985. The group released several albums that year, starting with their only Italian album, Viva! Bravo!, which they showcased in Italy in the San Remo Music Festival. The Spanish album Refrescante , the English album Can't Get Enough, and the Portuguese album Menudo followed respectively, then came tours of the U.S., Latin America, and the Philippines.