One rainy night, while walking down a street in the Bronx, I was captivated by the harmonic sounds of a vocal group pouring out of a building lobby. I walked over and listened to them for a while as they sang some doo-wop tunes. I spoke to them about having them do some work with me and they excitedly agreed. We got together nights and rehearsed some of my songs which I had planned to use on recordings. I named the group “The Latin Chords” and made plans to use them on upcoming boogaloo recordings, 

1968 was a busy year for my writing partner Louie Ramirez and I. We set up a meeting with Jerry Masucci of Fania Records with the idea of recording a new Louie Ramirez album, featuring Louie’s salsa arrangements and some of my boogaloo and ballad compositions. 

Jerry liked the idea but was reluctant to release another ‘Louie Ramirez’ album. Since Louie had been arranging for so many Fania bands, he had no identifying sound of his own. Jerry was a hands-on label director who liked to make his own decisions. He wanted to use Louie’s talents without using his name. He felt Louie’s name appeared on too many Fania albums and he wanted to create a fresh, new image for Louie. 

Jerry agreed to have us produce the album and had Louie photographed as an Arabian Prince for the cover and call him Ali Baba. So we produced the record for Fania’s Vaya label. Louie’s band did a fantastic job on the salsa tunes, as usual, and we mixed in some of my material, sung by The Latin Chords. One of the Latin Soul tunes on the album was titled “What Can I Do,” with me on lead vocals. Upon release, the tune became a favorite among young lovers, as specified by requests from callers to the Dick Ricardo Sugar radio show. 

What Can I Do