This is a great song, but Billy does not play it live and it is not played on the radio anymore. I don't recall if it was released as a single, but it did get some airplay when 52nd Street was released. Billy has said it is the song that his dad would have or should have written about his mother, Rosalind. His parents, Howard and Rosalind (not Rosalinda), did live in Cuba for awhile, or at least one of them did, before immigrating to the US. They are ethnically Jewish and German I believe (definitely not Cuban). Now, that said, it's not a biography by any means. Billy' dad did not play in a Puerto Rican band, though he was a talented pianist.
The sentiment behind the song is beautiful. Here is a talented guy, trying to make it as a musician, but he can only get gigs at weddings or for "union wages". But Rosalinda gives him the strength and inspiration to keep trying. He yearns for his homeland or the homeland of his parents, or perhaps more accurately for a "home", and while he may never get there, he can see it in Rosalinda's eyes.
I think today, as we are more politicaly correct, some people might cringe at or be upset at the "Crazy Latin" reference, but at the time it was probably not as offensive.
This is a great song, but Billy does not play it live and it is not played on the radio anymore. I don't recall if it was released as a single, but it did get some airplay when 52nd Street was released. Billy has said it is the song that his dad would have or should have written about his mother, Rosalind. His parents, Howard and Rosalind (not Rosalinda), did live in Cuba for awhile, or at least one of them did, before immigrating to the US. They are ethnically Jewish and German I believe (definitely not Cuban). Now, that said, it's not a biography by any means. Billy' dad did not play in a Puerto Rican band, though he was a talented pianist.
The sentiment behind the song is beautiful. Here is a talented guy, trying to make it as a musician, but he can only get gigs at weddings or for "union wages". But Rosalinda gives him the strength and inspiration to keep trying. He yearns for his homeland or the homeland of his parents, or perhaps more accurately for a "home", and while he may never get there, he can see it in Rosalinda's eyes.
I think today, as we are more politicaly correct, some people might cringe at or be upset at the "Crazy Latin" reference, but at the time it was probably not as offensive.