💃 Charo, Salsoul & the Disco That Shouldn’t Have Worked (But Did)

The Twelve Inch 170 : Stay With Me (Charo)

Usually, the research for these posts starts with a solid base. That wasn’t the case here. I stumbled across Charo’s 1977 single with the Salsoul Orchestra, “Dance a Little Bit Closer.” A modest hit on both sides of the Atlantic, but what caught me first was the accent. It was amusing, and it pulled me in. I wanted to understand the backstory, but the deeper I looked, the more tangled and contradictory it all became. Charo has spun a web of conflicting stories around nearly every part of her life and career.

Still, I stuck with it. And what you’ll read in this week’s episode is probably as close as we’ll ever get to the real story of Charo, the talented woman who turned what many saw as her biggest disadvantage (her accent) into her greatest strength.