The first 35 minutes of "Hey You Loca" are so strong and perfectly paced that they come across more like a suite than a succession of individual tracks. After the opening fireworks of "Quítate" and the title track, Calzado segues into a warm, melodic groove by turning to Leo Vera's rich, smooth voice and the incomparable writing of Giraldo Piloto, who had written the band's first hit, "Me Sube la Fiebre". The arrangement of "Mi Estrella" is fully equal to the two tracks before it. In fact any of the first four songs could arguably be considered the album's best.

The intro of "Mi Estrella" shows the thoroughly assimilated influence of American pop -- there are no direct quotes, but blended into the texture are little harmonic fragments such as the opening notes which are vaguely reminiscent of The Eagles' "Desperado". Also note that the first phrase of the intro ends with a standard suspended chord -- G major with A in the bass; but when the progression repeats behind the brass, the G major becomes a haunting G minor, recalling the work of Michael McDonald, the Yellowjackets and others. The cuerpo itself is vintage Piloto, a mixture of down-to-earth pop hooks and surprisingly original harmonic creations such as the descending piano and bass lines which harmonize "al ver tu saludo o ese simple adiós". [audio example 25] Piloto re-recorded the song as a ballad in 2000 on Klimax's "Oye Como Va" CD with a dramatic different set of harmonies. [audio example 26].

One of the most important elements of the magic of the early CH is the quality of the guías. Calzado made sure that each was meticulously crafted and contained a unique musical hook. One of the very best comes just after the cuerpo of "Mi Estrella". The first coro enters in sweet 3-part harmony at 2:18, accompanied only by piano, güiro, clave, and the backbeat kick drum pattern. Vera's entrance, "la que ha llenado mi vida, mi cuerpo, mi corazón", is bursting with emotion and melodic intensity and sets up a spectacular percussion break which wraps itself perfectly around "eres algo sin igual". [audio example 27] The next guía continues the flood of melodic invention. The real genius of the early Charanga Habanera stemmed from this seamless marriage of funky, aggressive rhythms with an unabashedly emotional, almost Burt Bacharach-esque pop lyricism..

From this point on, the flow of creative ideas is relentless. In the previous example, a melodic guía set up an incredible bloque. After the mambo at 2:40 it's the bloque which sets up the guía, and also, with a deft stroke of "Clave License", throws us into 3:2 clave, which, in the early Charanga, was almost always a sign of impending greatness. [audio example 28]. At 3:40, without interrupting the flow of coro and guía the rhythm section plays a subtle bloque and Vera changes his tone, introducing a new character, Perucho, to his narrative. [audio example 29] Even if you were able to correctly translate the three makes of blue jeans in "Quítate el Disfraz", the following example is likely to stump even the most adept expert on the Spanish language. Your linguistically-challenged but highly-determined author was on the virge of using his 800,000 word Spanish dictionary for kindling when the elusive lyrics of the next section were finally explained to him: "tú no eres Donna Summers, tú no eres Whitney Houston, por eso Perucho, se puso como se puso". 4:39 marks the buildup to still another wicked bloque. There are as many bloques in one of these arrangements as there are in the whole repertoire of many salsa groups. This one comes at the end of the coro -- "por eso Perucho, se puso como se puso" and then continues aggressively against the next guía "oye, por eso Perucho, se ve compuso". Note the dramatic synth chord inserted here. Then at 5:03 the hilarious one-liner "le pregunté es español y me contestaba en ruso" ("I asked him in Spanish and he answered in Russian") [audio example 30] One more great bloque ramps up the energy for the final push to the ending. We've completed a long and wonderful journey from the mellow opening, and the tempo has been skillfully incremented from to 83 to 106 beats per minute, bringing us to "Para el Llanto".

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