Ralfi, a Bronx-based Latin soul and salsa singer with Puerto Rican parents, was born in 1947. He was active from the mid 1960s through the mid 1970s. His specialty was soul ballads, sung in English and Spanish. He released five albums in the 1970s. His duet with Sylvia, Soul Je’Taime, and his solo reworkings of Make It With You that were previously recorded by Bread and David Gates are perhaps his most well-known works. It was during a South American tour while visiting Colombia that he was killed.
Ralfi Pagan, a Puerto Rican born Rafael Pagan, first became famous in 1969 when he released the album Ralfi Pagan on Johnny Pacheco’s Fania label. Pagan’s falsetto tenor preferred ballads and was first issued with all Spanish lyrics. He was a popular figure among young Hispanic Americans, especially in New York and Los Angeles where he had a major cultural impact. His favorite songs were ballads like Who Is The Girl for Me, Don’t Stop Now (originally recorded and produced by Eddie Holman), I Can’t See Me without You. His cover of Oscar Brown’s Brother, Where are You? was a great example of his ability to do uptempo salsa.
Ralfi made national waves in 1971 with a Latin version of Make It With You. It reached the Billboard R&B charts on the 10th of July 1971 and remained there for eleven weeks, peaking at #32. The album sold 250,000 copies nationally and Pagan was a guest on Soul Train, a nationally syndicated television show. Pagan’s popularity among urban chicanos and hispanics was further consolidated by the second album With Love, which was produced by Harvey Averne with Jerry Masucci. His last national chart appearance was in 1973 when he had a R&B hit with Soul Je T’Aime (a duet with Sylvia Robinson) on Vibration records. The Ralfi album, which featured a familiar mix of Latin-Soul songs and salsa-influenced numbers, was also released that year. He released his fourth and final Fania album, I Can See, in 1975. It featured his unique take on Smokey Robinson’s Ooh Baby, Baby, and the bittersweet Stay Out of My Life. Although his voice was less powerful and lighter than Smokey’s, it has been compared to him.
Ralfi had moved to Los Angeles in 1976. His reputation as a sensitive Latin lover and a good friend won him favor. He was a regular at the thriving salsa and club dance circuits that included The Gold Dust in Montebello, The King’s Table, The Monterey West, East Los Angeles and The King’s Table, Pico Rivera.
Pagan continued a parallel career in salsa singing and, after a disco album, Girl From The Mountain, on Coco records in 1976 he released El Flaco De Oro in his fifth album. He sang entirely in Spanish, which was the language of salsa singers. He also produced an album by Johnny Nelson, entitled Ralfi Pagan Presenta Johnny Nelson -El Principe de La Salsa. Pagan’s last known release was the disco-sounding Take Me With You (b/w Heaven Sent You), also available on Pumpkris. Pagan was supposed to release Take Me With You, but his early death prevented it from being released. Pagan enjoyed a huge following in Latin America, and he regularly performed in South America. He was performing on a tour through Colombia 1978 as a substitute for Joe Bataan, a fellow Fania performer. His murder occurred in circumstances that are not known.
Since the mid-’90s, most of Pagan’s back catalogue has been available. He is probably more well-known to the music public than he was in his lifetime. The Gambler, a Fania track from 1972, was featured in the Leon Ichaso film Pinero (2001) starring Benjamin Bratt as the poet-playwright-actor Miguel Pinero.