Santa Esmeralda starring Leroy Gomez
Santa Esmeralda is an American-French-Spanish disco group formed in the 1970s; perhaps best known for their hit disco remakes of the 1960s hits "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "House of the Rising Sun". The group featured original lead singer Leroy Gómez in 1977-1978 and singer Jimmy Goings from late 1978 until 1983, and once again original lead singer Leroy Gómez from the 1990s to this day.
"Santa Esmeralda" was formed in 1977 by French producers Nicolas Skorsky and Jean Manuel de Scarano, singer-songwriters who had launched their own label with the aim of producing artists who would record their compositions. Upon meeting singer Leroy Gómez in Paris, the duo recruited him for the group's first record, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", which debuted on the independent French label, Fauves Puma. A sudden success in Europe, the record was picked up for worldwide distribution by Casablanca Records.
Originally written in 1964 for Nina Simone, her version had failed to chart, and the song was picked up by rock group The Animals the following year. The essential nature of the song is Latin and flamenco, which combined with that urgency lent itself to the disco sensibility in the 1970s. The song became a hit all over again, first topping the U.S. Disco chart and then matching the #15 peak of The Animals' version on the Billboard Hot 100.
It reached #5 in the Dutch Top 40 on 17 September 1977.
The music is composed by Bennie Benjamin, Jean De Scarano, Gloria Caldwell, Nicolas Sharsky, Raymond Donnez, Sol Markus.
The song was featured in a famous sword fight scene by Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's film 'Kill Bill' from 2003.
This Toppop recording was made on 20 August 1977.
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Broadcast date: 1977-08-20
This is to let you know that the video recording of the video clip was originally recorded by AVROTROS Broadcasting. AVROTROS Broadcasting hereby warrants and represents that it is the sole and exclusive owner of the physical film and/or videotape footage in this video clip.
The performance of the artist(s) in the clip was filmed and recorded with the written consent of the artist(s) and their representatives.
AVROTROS is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster, founded in 2014 from a merger of AVRO and TROS. From January 1st, 2014 the name of the merged broadcaster was used in joint programmes. AVRO was founded in 1923 as the Netherlands first public broadcaster. TROS started broadcasting in 1964. Toppop was a weekly AVRO pop program that was aired between 1970 and 1988.
AVROTROS Broadcasting
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1200 JA Hilversum
The Netherlands
TopPop was the first regular dedicated pop music TV show in the Dutch language area. Dutch broadcaster AVRO aired the programme weekly, from 1970 to 1988. Presenter Ad Visser hosted the show for its first fifteen years.
World famous music artists performed on TopPop: ABBA, 10CC, Bee Gees, The Jacksons with Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Earth & Fire, Queen, Golden Earring, Boney M, KC & The Sunshine Band, Chic, Donna Summer and many many more.