"I Like It Like That" is a song written by
Tony Pabon and Manny Rodriguez. It was initially a hit for
boogaloo
Boogaloo or bugalú (also: shing-a-ling, Latin boogaloo, Latin R&B) is a music genre, genre of Latin music and dance which was popular in the United States in the 1960s. Boogaloo originated in New York City mainly by stateside Puerto Ricans with ...
musician
Pete Rodriguez in 1967, and was one of the most influential boogaloo songs of the era. Rodriguez released an album in 1967 with the same title.
Background
Tony Pabon and Manny Rodriguez originally wrote "I Like It Like That" in 1967. Tony Pabon sang the vocals for the song, while the instrumentals were performed by Pete Rodriguez Orchestra. The recording was engineered by
Fred Weinberg at National Recording Studios in New York City and produced by Roulette Records producer Morrie Pelsman, also known as Pancho Cristal, for Roulette Records. Part of the recording used many of the musician's kids chanting "Ahh Bibi!" which seemed to add to the excitement of the song. At the request of Pancho Cristal, Weinberg delivered a copy to Roulette Records' owner,
Morris Levy
Morris Levy (born Moishe Levy; August 27, 1927 – May 21, 1990) was an American entrepreneur in the fields of jazz clubs, music publishing, and the independent record industry. Levy was cofounder and owner of Roulette Records, founding partner ...
. According to Weinberg, "Levy wanted the kids that were singing on the song removed as they sounded out of tune", however, by that time a copy of the song was also delivered to a disk jockey named
Symphony Sid
Sid Torin (born Sidney Tarnopol; December 14, 1909 – September 14, 1984), known professionally as "Symphony Sid", was a long-time jazz disc jockey in the United States. Many critics have credited him with introducing bebop to a mass audience.
E ...
at
WEVD
WEVD was the call sign held by three New York City commercial radio stations, with related ownership, from 1927 until 2003. This call sign was formed from the initials of recently deceased Socialist Party of America leader Eugene Victor Debs.
H ...
. Symphony Sid's show had a huge diverse audience. The record had hit the airwaves at WEVD and requests by listeners poured in. At the suggestion of Weinberg, Morris Levy left the kids singing in the recording.
The Blackout All-Stars version
The song was covered by Latin
supergroup The Blackout All-Stars, under the title "I Like It", from volume 1 of the soundtrack to the 1994 film ''
I Like It Like That''.
The song was the group's only recording, as well as their only release to chart, peaking at #25 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in the United States.
It was also used in the French movie ''
Les Dalton'' when the Dalton brothers travel to Mexico to face a super machine gun to (El Tarlo) for removing the magic hat.
Background
The Blackout All-Stars was a one-off musical
supergroup, consisting of various
Latin music
Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and ) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America, which encompasses Music of Latin America, Latin America, Music of Spain, Spain, Mu ...
artists:
Ray Barretto
Raymundo "Ray" Barretto Pagán (April 29, 1929 – February 17, 2006) was an American percussionist and bandleader of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout his career as a percussionist, he played a wide variety of Latin music styles, as well as Lati ...
,
Sheila E.,
Tito Puente
Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – May 31, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. He was also k ...
,
Tito Nieves
Humberto "Tito" Nieves (born June 4, 1958; also known as "El Luciano Pavarotti, Pavarotti de la Salsa") is a Puerto Rican musician who became one of the leading Salsa music, salsa singers of the 1980s and the early 1990s.
Early life
Humberto "Ti ...
,
Paquito D'Rivera
Francisco de Jesús Rivera Figueras (born 4 June 1948), known as Paquito D'Rivera, is a Cuban-American alto saxophonist, clarinetist and composer. He was a member of the Cuban songo band Irakere and, since the 1980s, he has established him ...
,
Dave Valentin
David Peter Valentin (April 29, 1952 – March 8, 2017) was an American Latin jazz flautist of Puerto Rican descent.
Life and career
Valentin was born to Puerto Rican parents in The Bronx in New York City. He attended The High School of Mus ...
and
Grover Washington Jr. The group was originally formed in 1994 to record the song "I Like It", the title song for the film ''
I Like It Like That''. Lead vocals were done by Nieves, while the rest of the group provided instrumentals or background vocals to the song. The song was later placed in volume 1 of the soundtrack to the film, and released as a single to promote the soundtrack.
12" and
CD maxi
A maxi single, maxi-single, or maxi CD (sometimes abbreviated to MCD or CDM) is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an A-side song and a B-side song. Maxi singles are often mistaken for extended plays (EPs), especiall ...
singles were released, but the song failed to gain any popularity.
Resurgence in popularity
In 1996, roughly three years after the song's original release,
Burger King
Burger King Corporation (BK, stylized in all caps) is an American multinational chain store, chain of hamburger fast food restaurants. Headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida, the company was founded in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacks ...
used the song in a commercial promoting their "Have it your way" slogan. Following its inclusion in these commercials, a remixed version of the song started to pick up
radio airplay
Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...
. The song then started to climb the U.S. ''Billboard'' charts, peaking at #25 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. The song's accompanying music video started to gain rotation on music video networks such as
MTV
MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
and
VH1
VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Y ...
.
CD single
A CD single is a single (music), music single in the form of a compact disc (CD). Originally the ''CD single'' standard (as defined in the Rainbow Books, Red Book) was an 8 cm (3-inch) "mini CD" (''CD3''); later on the term referred to any si ...
s were also released. In 1997,
Tito Nieves
Humberto "Tito" Nieves (born June 4, 1958; also known as "El Luciano Pavarotti, Pavarotti de la Salsa") is a Puerto Rican musician who became one of the leading Salsa music, salsa singers of the 1980s and the early 1990s.
Early life
Humberto "Ti ...
, the lead singer of the song, re-recorded the song on his album, ''I Like It Like That''.
Aftermath of the group
The Blackout All-Stars remained one-off, despite the song's renewed popularity. Grover Washington Jr. died on December 17, 1999, of a heart attack. Tito Puente died of heart failure on May 31, 2000, as did Ray Barretto on February 17, 2006. Dave Valentin died in 2017.
Critical reception
Jeremy Helligar of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American online magazine, digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, ...
'' gave the song a B, saying it was a "swinging number" and that "only a hopeless couch potato could possibly not like it."
Formats and track listings
;12" 45 single (Columbia, 1994)
# "I Like It" (Reefa! extended mix) — 5:39
# "I Like It" (Reefa! 12" remix) — 6:56
;12" single (Columbia, 1994)
A1 "I Like It" (D'Ambrosio club mix) – 7:03
A2 "I Like It" (D'Ambrosio dub mix) – 6:19
B1 "I Like It" (Flipsquad mix) – 4:51
B2 "I Like It" (Album mix) – 3:47
;12" promo single (Columbia, 1994)
A1 "I Like It" (D'Ambrosio club mix) – 7:03
A2 "I Like It" (D'Ambrosio dub mix) – 6:19
B1 "I Like It" (Jason Nevins Turbo Beat remix) – 8:01
B2 "I Like It" ('97 Master Blaster) – 8:16
;CD maxi single (Columbia, 1994)
# "I Like It" (Reefa! 7") – 3:28
# "I Like It" (Reefa! extended mix) – 5:39
# "I Like It" (Reefa! 12" remix) – 6:56
# "I Like It" (album version) – 3:48
;CD single (Columbia, 1996)
# "I Like It" (edit) – 4:20
# "Joy/Reach/I'm Gonna Get You" (by
Staxx of Joy/Robi Rob's Club World featuring
Deborah Cooper
Deborah Cooper is an American professional dancer, musician, singer, backup singer, award-winning composer and entertainer, with several number one and top charting dance music and house music hits.
Biography Early career
Cooper started as a f ...
/
Bizarre Inc.)
Charts
Year-end charts
Sampling
*In 2018, the song was sampled in the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 number-one song "
I Like It" by
Cardi B
Belcalis Marlenis Cephus (; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper. Noted for her unfiltered public image and lyrics, Cardi B is one of the most successful female rappers. From 2015 to early 2017, she ga ...
from her debut album ''
Invasion of Privacy
The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 185 national constitutions mention the right to privacy.
Since the global ...
''.
Use in pop culture
* It is part of the
soundtrack
A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
of the 2014 film ''
Chef
A chef is a professional Cook (profession), cook and tradesperson who is proficient in all aspects of outline of food preparation, food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term (), the di ...
''.
* It is played in the video game ''
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories'' from its fictional in-game Latin music radio station "Radio Espantoso".
* It appeared on the soundtrack of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 2019 computer-animated film ''
The Addams Family
The Addams Family is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 standalone single-panel comics, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' between 193 ...
''.
* It was used by
Odeon Cinemas
Odeon Cinemas Limited, trading as Odeon (stylised in all caps), is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and Greece, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsi ...
in one of their bumpers in 2002.
* It was used in the opening scene of the 2022 film, ''
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
''Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile'' is a children's book written by Bernard Waber first published in 1965. It is the sequel to '' The House on East 88th Street'', published in 1962.
The book is the second in the ''Lyle the Crocodile'' series, which fo ...
''.
References
{{authority control
1967 songs
1994 singles
1996 singles
1997 singles
Tito Nieves songs
1967 debut singles
Song recordings produced by Sergio George
Columbia Records singles