Miami Sound Machine - Eyes Of Innocence

Miami Sound Machine

Eyes Of Innocence

1984

Dancepop Latinpop EDM

USA

Tracklist:


01. "Dr. Beat"
02. "Prisoner of Love"
03. "OK"
04. "Love Me"
05. "Orange Express"
06. "I Need a Man"
07. "Eyes of Innocence"
08. "When Someone Comes into Your Life"
09. "I Need Your Love"
10. "Do You Want to Dance"


     Started by then, bandleader and accordion player, Emilio Estefan, Jr., as the Miami Latin Boys, in 1975, as a weekend job.
     The group name changed a year later to Miami Sound Machine, when Emilio invited a female singer, Gloria Fajardo and her cousin Merci Navarro, to join the band after a well performed audition on stage. In 1977, the group recorded their first album for a local label, Audiofon Records. Emilio would marry Gloria, a year later.

     Starting in 1977, the Miami Sound Machine with Gloria Estefan began recording and releasing various albums, 45s, and 12"s on the Audiofon Records label in Miami. The first album from 1977 was entitled Live Again Renacer and was released with two different covers. After several more releases on the Audiofon label as well as the RCA Victor label and Miami Sound Machine's own label MSM Records, the band was signed to Discos CBS International and released several albums, 45s, and 12"s beginning with 1980s self-titled album Miami Sound Machine. Growing in popularity in both the United States and around the world, the group would continue recording and issuing various works for Discos CBS International through 1985. In 1984, Miami Sound Machine released their first Epic/Columbia album, Eyes of Innocence, which contained the dance hit "Dr. Beat" as well as the ballad "I Need Your Love". Their more successful follow-up album Primitive Love was released in 1985 launching three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "Conga" (U.S. #10), "Words Get In The Way" (U.S. #5), and "Bad Boy" (U.S. #8) became follow up hits in the U.S. and around the world. "Words Get in the Way" reached #1 on the US Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, establishing that the group could perform pop ballads as successfully as dance tunes. The song "Hot Summer Nights" was also released that year and was part of the blockbuster movie Top Gun.
     Their next album, 1987's Let It Loose, went multi-platinum, with six million copies sold in the US. It featured the following hits: "Anything for You" (#1 Hot 100), "1-2-3" (#3 Hot 100), "Betcha Say That" (#36 Hot 100), "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" (#5 Hot 100), and "Can't Stay Away From You" (#6 Hot 100). "Can't Stay Away From You", "Anything for You" and "1-2-3" were all #1 Adult Contemporary hits as well.
     In 1988, Estefan took top billing and the band's name changed to Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. Beginning in 1989, the group's name was dropped altogether. Estefan was credited as a solo artist, though the ever-changing line-up of Miami Sound Machine continues as her backing band to this day.
     In 1989, after the worldwide chart success of single "Anything for You", her Let it Loose album was repackaged as Anything for You. It became the band's first UK #1 album, selling over a million copies. It was the biggest selling album of the year in The Netherlands, staying at #1 for 22 weeks. The album also took top honors in Australia and Canada, launching Estefan to superstar status.
     Eyes of Innocence is the 8th studio album released by the Miami Sound Machine, and their first English language studio album, released in 1984.
     This release was the first mainstream release by the Miami Sound Machine. The album was filled with dance-oriented music and became the band's breakthrough album due to the success of the lead single, the dance hit "Dr. Beat", a top ten hit in the United Kingdom and other places in Europe.
     "Dr. Beat," a dance-pop song was the most successful cut from the album; the song utilizes synthesizers and dance rhythms of the time, but distinguished itself from other pop music of the era through the inclusion of Latin sounds.
     The second single "Prisoner of Love" was released exclusively to the European market, which was responding much better to the album than the American market had. However, the song, which had a similar sound to the past single, was not a hit like the lead single and was a commercial failure only reaching the Top #98 of the UK singles chart.
     Due the failure of the single "Prisoner of Love", another single was released to the American market, "I Need a Man" (a different song from the Eurythmics hit), but it too bombed, failing to even enter the dance charts.
     With the failure of the last two singles, no more singles were released to promote the album except in the Philippines, where "I Need Your Love" was issued as a promo single only; again, it failed to impact any chart.
     Many of the songs from the album were originally written in Spanish and translated into English, including "Orange Express", which was the main theme of the band's previously album A Toda Máquina, and "I Need Your Love", a translation of the song "Regresa a Mí".
     As of 2008, the album has sold more than one million copies worldwide.