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.
Early life
Santiago was born in the Santurce district of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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.
Roberto Angleró
In 1969 Santiago left Chicago and returned to Puerto Rico where he joined Johnny "El Bravo" López's group and toured with them briefly. 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.
Bobby Valentín
Late in 1970 Bobby Valentín, another type 1 diabetic, hired Santiago as the lead singer of his band after Frankie Hernández left his group. 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" & "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".
Drug Arrest And Sentence
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. The albums were not received as well as previous albums due to a combination of factors. Among those factors were; arrangements that were not at the same level as the ones provided by Millet produced albums, Santiago's spiritual reawakening and the considerably cleaned up lyrics on his later work, something that his hardcore fans did not approve of, and the surge of merengue groups such as the Puerto Rico-based Conjunto Quisqueya and Freddie Kenton Orchestra, as well as new local talent such as Eddie Santiago, Gilberto Santa Rosa, and Frankie Ruiz who popularized the so-called "Romantic Salsa", which eventually displaced more urban-based subject matter in Salsa songs.
Later life
Santiago played several shows outside prison while he served his sentence. Santiago earned over $100,000 from those presentations. By the time he left prison, the bank account holding the earnings of his presentations while in prison had about $2,500 left.
In August 2000, Santiago participated in Tommy Olivencia's 40th anniversary celebration as a bandleader at the Tito Puente amphitheater, in San Juan, P.R. The concert was recorded and released on CD the following year.
In July 2001, a few of his musical colleagues organized a tribute concert to Santiago. The concert was held at the Tito Puente amphitheater and some of the performers sharing the stage with Santiago were Vitín Avilés, Carlos "Cano" Estremera, Meñique, Guillo Rivera & Luigi Texidor
In 2002 Santiago joined the all-star roster of singers and musicians that took part of Bobby Valentin's 35th anniversary live concert held at the Río Piedras State Penitentiary. Among the all-star lineup were Rubén Blades, Cheo Feliciano, Pedro Guzmán, Giovanni Hidalgo, Papo Lucca, Roberto Roena & Luigi Texidor. The concert was filmed and released on DVD.
For a few years until early 2003, Santiago shared a popular radio program every Saturday night with JC "El Babalao" Cordero. The program, "Salsa Gorda", featured Salsa music from the 1970s and 1980s.
In March 2004 a tribute concert was held at the Tito Puente amphitheater, in San Juan, P.R. by several musicians to celebrate Santiago's musical career. Among the performers were Luisito Carrión, Oscar D'León, Elías Lopes, Andy Montañez, Luis "Perico" Ortíz & Domingo Quiñones. The concert was filmed and released on CD and DVD.
Santiago, who adopted Marvin Hagler's "Marvelous" nickname (both because of their common first name and the fact that, at one time, his head was shaved bald like Hagler's), had begun conversations to join a Fania All-Stars comeback as a tribute to Celia Cruz by the summer of 2004, but then, he became severely ill.
Death
Santiago's diabetes started taking a toll on his health during the 1990s. In October 1996 Santiago had his right leg amputated after having three toes amputated in three separate occasions a few months earlier.
Santiago left a legacy of songs still heard and popular phrases still in current use in Puerto Rico. One phrase was an affirmation: "¡O-fi-cial!". Another was a stream of references to Puerto Rican towns: "¡Baya-móntate, Barran-quítate, Vega Bájate, Ad-júntate!", roughly translated to "get on, get out of the way, get down, get together!", mentioned along the names of Bayamón, Barranquitas, Vega Baja and Adjuntas. A third one was: "¡Linda Melodía!" (Beautiful Melody!), which he uttered when a musical arrangement was particularly complex or remarkable.
He also used code phrases to refer to drugs: "¡Guayacol, con uña rallá!" was his code phrase for cocaine, and "¡Acetileno!" his reference for heroin. After his religious conversion, however, Marvin affirmed that the only substance in his life from that moment on, besides the insulin he needed daily for his diabetes, was "Cristomicina", a portmanteau of the name of Christ and erythromycin.
Discography
Singles
{| class=wikitable
! Artist
! Títle
! Release Year
! Record Label
|-
|Roberto Angleró Y Su Combo Candela
|Rosa Blanca/Chan Con Chan
|1970
|GEMA 1662
|-
|Bobby Valentín
|Pobre Soy/Copas De Soledad
|1971
|FANIA 600
|-
|Bobby Valentín
|Beso Borracho/Papel De Payaso
|1971
|FANIA 608
|-
|Bobby Valentín
|Vete Pa'lla/Besos Brujos
|1971
|FANIA 629
|-
|Bobby Valentín
|Soy Boricua/Aquella Mujer
|1972
|FANIA 654
|-
|Bobby Valentín
|Guaraguao/Cuando Te Vea
|1974
|FANIA 684
|-
|Bobby Valentín
|Safa Diablo/Siempre Junto A Tí
|1974
|FANIA 717
|-
|Bobby Valentín
|Bella Mujer/ Porque Te Fuiste
|1974
|FANIA 728
|-
|Marvin Santiago
|Mujer De Cabaret/Caliplena
|1977
|Discologro 210
|-
|Marvin Santiago
|De Los Soneros/Novia Mía
|1977
|Discologro 712
|-
|Marvin Santiago
|Fuego A La Jicotea/Si Dios Me Quita La Vida
|1979
|THS-527
|-
|Marvin Santiago
|El Mangoneo/Me Mata O Lo Mato
|1979
|THS-538
|-
|La Solución/Marvin Santiago
|Una Canita Al Aire/Estaca De Guayacán
|1981
|TH-709
|-
|Marvin Santiago
|Me Está Que Se Hace/Sonará Una Voz
|1982
|TH-799
|-
|Marvin Santiago
|La Campana Del Lechón/El Aroma
|1982
|TH-814
|-
|Marvin Santiago
|El Regreso De Mambrú/Explicame Tú
|1987
|TH-1246
|-
|Marvin Santiago
|Cúbreme/Después
|1988
|TH-1350
|-
|Marvin Santiago
|Corazón Desesperado/Aquella Primera Noche
|1988
|TH-1396
|-
|Víctor Manuelle, Miky Woodz, Marvin Santiago
|Vamo’ a Ver Si el Gas Pela (feat. Miky Woodz & Marvin Santiago)
|2022
|Sony Music Latin
|}
LP's
{| class=wikitable
! Artist
! Títle
! Release Year
! Record Label
|-
|Rafael Cortijo y Su Bonche
|Ahí Na Má! Put It There
|1968