El Papá de la Salsa: Frankie Ruiz Artwork

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El Papá de la Salsa: Frankie Ruiz

March 18, 2023 • Nancy Pinto • Episode 29

Talented. Charismatic. Self-destructive. We’re talking about award-winning salsa legend Frankie Ruiz, who remains in our hearts nearly 25 years after his death at only 40 years old. His songs were sexy and daring (as in “Desnúdate Mujer”), honest and raw (as in “Mi Libertad”). He was born and died in New Jersey, and was Boricua through and through (check out his megahit “Puerto Rico”).

Take this ride as we discuss his early rise to fame, his demons, his comebacks, and his legacy.

Talentoso. Carismático. Autodestructivo. Estamos hablando del premiado leyenda de la salsa Frankie Ruiz, quien permanece en nuestros corazones casi 25 años después de su muerte con tan solo 40 años . Sus canciones eran sexy y atrevidas (como en “Desnúdate Mujer”), honestas y puras (como en “Mi Libertad”). Nació y murió en Nueva Jersey, y era boricua de pies a cabeza (escuche su megaéxito “Puerto Rico”).

Tome este viaje mientras discutimos su temprano ascenso a la fama, sus demonios, sus regresos y su legado.

Links to sources in transcript.

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Big thanks to Santos Cornier for composing our intro and outro music. Check out his music here: / Muchas gracias a Santos Cornier por componer nuestra música de intro and outro. Escuche su musica aqui:

https://www.reverbnation.com/santoscornier?fbclid=IwAR1_flS4Dy8i9t6JFhrCkzW220URLKJMVPfndmi0wl7idlA82ECx6Q-wW2Q

Thanks also to the following sites for music and sound effects:
https://freepd.com/
https://pixabay.com/
https://freesound.org/
https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/

I want to preface this by saying that the internet has fuzzy accounts of his early career since it was the late 70s-early 80s and record keeping was sh*t, and I came across at least 2 versions of several stories. So if we get any dates or details wrong, please forgive us and please feel free to reach out to us so that we can get the right info. But we did our best to present this as accurately as possible.

If you know anything about salsa, you’ve heard the name Frankie Ruiz, the self-proclaimed “El Papa de la Salsa”. He was a major influence in the salsa romántica subgenre that was popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, a musical style that included artists such as Eddie Santiago, Lalo Rodríguez, Tony Vega, Gilberto Santa Rosa and Tito Nieves.

Today we’re going to talk about Frankie's life, including his rise to fame, his years of drug and alcohol abuse, a 4 year stint in prison and his eventual passing due to complications from liver disease.

I’m sure that many babies were conceived to Frankie Ruiz songs!

Frankie Ruiz was born Jose Antonio Torresola Ruiz on March 10, 1958 in Paterson, NJ to Frank Torresola Ruiz and Hilda Estrella Ruiz, who was only 15 years old. He would later become big brother to Victor “Viti” and Juan Felix “Juanito” Ruiz.
From a very young age, Frankie showed musical aptitude, being a natural at both singing and percussion. He actually enjoyed the whole drumming thing so much, he said he would have pursued that had he not become a singer. As a kid, he would perform in local parks and theaters. As he got older, he continued performing with the support of his parents, his mother having been a dancer and wanting her boys to be in the biz. She even went so far as to have all 3 sons' tonsils removed in order to prevent their voices from changing as they got older. By the way, this is not a thing. What she was trying to achieve was something called “castrato” where young boys would be castrated in order to preserve a soprano or alto voice. This practice was outlawed in 1903. So she was very misguided, to put it nicely.

When Frankie was about 13 he joined a group called Charlie López y la Orquesta Nueva as a bongo player. Before one of their shows, the lead singer failed to show up so Charlie let Frankie take the mic and he was so good, Charlie offered him the lead vocalist position. Charlie said he could always find another dude to play the bongos, but Frankie's voice was impossible to duplicate. Frankie was a part of this group for about 3 years when, in 1975, his parents divorced and his mother moved him and his brothers to Mayagüez. While there, he became a fan of a salsa band called La Solución, directed by Roberto Rivera. He had tried multiple times to get Rivera to let him sing with the band, but was always turned down. Even his mother, Hilda, asked once, to which the answer was still no. One night Rivera decided to give Frankie a shot, so he pulled Frankie aside and said (and I’m paraphrasing here), “I'm not gonna let you sing with us yet because you don't know our songs but during the instrumental parts, just sing something. Make up words. Let's see what you can do.” So he went up there while the band played and he riffed some random lines, and Rivera was so impressed with him, he let Frankie join the band. He would eventually go on to become the lead singer of La Solucion and together they recorded the hit single "La Rueda" at which point the band was renamed Frankie Ruiz y La Solución. He also re-recorded a new version of his first song "Salsa Buena" which he had recorded with Charlie Lopez y La Orquesta Nueva. They toured together for three years.
In 1980, Ruiz went on to join Tommy Olivencia y Su Orquesta as lead singer. His first major hit was the song “Lo Dudo”, which had previously been recorded by José José. In total, Ruiz recorded three albums with Olivencia.

Just as his career was starting to take off and things were going well for Frankie, he received the horrible news that his mother Hilda was killed in a car accident. According to his brother Viti, who was in the car with her, two cars were racing down the road, somehow causing Hilda’s car to crash. He says that she basically threw herself in front of him to protect him and died as a result of her injuries. This tragic event was extremely traumatic for Frankie and is what led him down an unhealthy path of drug and alcohol abuse.

I believe it was the same year, 1980, that Frankie met a woman named Judith Vasquez, who managed a nightclub in Miami. According to an interview she gave to FJ Directo (link in show notes), she said it was love at first sight. They dated, fell in love and eventually got married and had two kids, Cristina and Frankie Jr. He also had a daughter named Yaritza from a previous relationship, but according to Judith, things did not end well with the girl's mother and communication between father and daughter was scarce.

According to Judith, she made sure to let Frankie know that even though he was a star, when he walked into their home, he was just a dude…a father, a husband, the guy who has to take the garbage out… She was basically like “you ain’t special.” And by her account, he was a great father and decent husband. Although she stated that for the first year or two of their relationship, she was afraid to even look at another guy because Frankie was crazy jealous but eventually she was like “dude, i’m with YOU. Knock it off.” And he chilled out. Judith also said she was jealous at the beginning of the relationship because women everywhere threw themselves at him (she added that he would tell them he was married).

As a family man, Frankie always made a big deal out of celebrating holidays, and apparently LOVED Halloween. He loved dressing up, having been Batman and Spiderman on two separate Halloweens. He was strict though, and would never let his kids sleep at other people’s homes (sound familiar?) but he always allowed the kids’ friends to sleep over, so Judith said at any point, there might be 9 extra kids in their house!

Side note: If you listen to a great number of Frankie’s songs, you’ll hear him mention “Mi China” which was a reference to Judith, China being a term of endearment. They were very much in love.

Ok so back to Frankie’s career. Judith saw so much potential in Frankie and encouraged him to go solo, and after some thinking, he went out on his own.
In 1985, Frankie released his debut album “Solista pero no Solo” which included the major hits “Tu Con El” and “La Cura.” This album made it to the number one spot on the Billboard Tropical Album Chart that year. Solista pero no Solo ended 1986 as the best-selling Tropical/Salsa album of the year in the United States.

His second album, Voy Pa' Encima, was released in 1987 and performed well. Led by singles "Desnúdate Mujer" and "Mujeres", the album sold over 300,000 copies and earned Ruiz the Latin Artist of the Year at the Billboard Music Awards. Like the preceding album, it would reach the top of the Billboard charts three times. A compilation album titled Historia Musical de Frankie Ruiz also reached the top of the Billboard list. His third album, En vivo... y a todo color, was released a year later and managed to sell over 200,000 copies.

In 1989, his record label TH Rodven, released his fourth album, Mas Grande Que Nunca, featuring the hit song “Deseandote '' (which is my favorite song of his btw). The label had plenty of unreleased material saved so they had plenty to work with. Plus they wanted to make sure Judith and the kids were taken care of financially, royalties and all. Why did they need taking care of? Because Frankie was in jail!

So let's talk about his jail time. As with half the stories we have told, there was more than one account of what happened to land him in jail. We’ll mention both because both are plausible, but only those who were there actually know the truth. The first story i found was as follows: In 1988 or 89, he and Judith were flying to Puerto Rico. (Incident occurred June 10 1988 on an AA flight from Miami to San Juan)
Frankie apparently HATED to fly, so during the flight, anytime the beverage cart went by, he’d steal a small bottle of rum, y so puso un poco ahuma’o. Not exactly sure what happened that led to this, but he wound up hitting a flight attendant mid-flight! So the captain is called, and the captain tells him he needs to remain seated or there’s gonna be a problem. So from what I could understand, they basically put zip ties around his wrists (or some sort of plastic handcuff thing), but he wound up getting out of them. So he’s now loose, and he tells the flight attendant that when they land, his people will be waiting and they’ll kill him! So they land, everyone is allowed to leave the plane except Frankie and Judith. The FBI comes on board and arrests Frankie. The 2nd version (long story short) was that a flight attendant caught him doing drugs in the bathroom on the plane and he wound up hitting her.

In any case, he clocked a flight attendant, which was a federal offense, for which he served 4 years in a federal prison in Tallahassee. While there, he made the best of his time, working out, playing sports and even forming a salsa group with some of the other inmates. The name of their band was “Salsipuedes”. They would even put on performances for the other guys! Don’t get it twisted, he was NOT happy about being locked up for 4 years for punching someone. He revealed in an interview that he felt the punishment did not fit the crime and he felt his sentence was excessive. At this point, the interviewer asked him if he felt he was above the law, and he didn’t quite answer that!

This was not his first time in jail though. Prior to this, he had spent some time in jail in Rio Piedras (I think it was Oso Blanco) which was maximum security. I believe this was drug related but Frankie didn't care to elaborate during this particular interview. All he said was he had no idea why he was in there, but that he was fine. Ok then.

Anyway, upon his release from Tallahassee in 1992, he was sort of on parole and was living at a halfway house (I believe it was with Hogar CREA, which is a drug rehab organization founded in PR). He was given a fair amount of freedom while living there, including extended visitation hours from his family (they were allowed to spend basically the whole day with him, and there was a play area for the kids). Plus he was allowed a free pass one day a week to leave and do whatever he wanted, as long as he was back by 8 pm. Of course, he was regularly tested for drugs and alcohol so he had to stay clean, which according to Judith, he would be in and out of rehab for the duration of their relationship. He’d go in, sober up, detox, come home, be straight for a few weeks, and then fall right back into his old ways.

Ok so before he was released from prison, Ruiz began working on promoting a new version of himself. He wanted to express his new, healthy, sober lifestyle, and upon his release, he was ready to go with a new album entitled "Mi Libertad" (which includes a song by the same name, as well as the hit “Bailando”), released in 1992. (Can I just say, there is a quick cuatro solo after the first chorus that makes me wanna cry. I guess it just makes me think of Puerto Rico and there’s that inexplicable tie lol). This album may well have been his greatest musical accomplishment, as it was the first salsa album to go platinum in under two months! Platinum status is selling a million copies. A million copies in UNDER TWO MONTHS. I read somewhere that the album had 50,000 presales, so it’s no surprise that it did so well. The following year, Frankie received two nominations at the 1993 Lo Nuestro Awards: “Bailando" was nominated for Tropical Song of the Year, and Frankie himself was nominated for Male Artist of the Year, Tropical/Salsa.

His next album Puerto Rico Soy Tuyo, was released in 1993, and included the songs “Puerto Rico” and “Hablame.” In December 1994, Ruiz released the album Mirandoté, with the single of the same name becoming his first to become the number one song on the Billboard Tropical Songs chart. Between 1995 and 1996, a two-album compilation called Oro Salsero was released.

While Frankie’s career was going super well, his health was a completely different story. In 1995, he was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and hepatitis. His only choice was to stop drinking, so he did, and he continued working on his music. His final album Tranquilo was released in 1996. Its lead single, "Ironía", became another number one song on the Tropical Songs chart and won the award for "Tropical/Salsa Hot Latin Track of the Year" at the 1997 Billboard Latin Music Awards.

Unfortunately by this time in 1997, Ruiz's health continued to decline and he was hospitalized once again. Doctors told him that his condition was so advanced that a transplant would not be feasible. Ultimately, this was going to kill him. To add insult to injury, Frankie had to be intubated during his hospital stay, and his vocal chords were damaged during the intubation process, rendering him temporarily unable to speak. When he got his voice back, it was a much different voice than the one he had before. His voice was now rough, raspy. He thought his career was over and he said that if he had to choose between death and never singing again, he would choose death.

Ok this next part is fuzzy because in the interview I saw with Judith, she made no mention of splitting from Frankie, but I read online that they did split up in 1997 and that he started a relationship with a woman named Rosemary Salvador. During an interview his father gave after his passing, he made mention of Rosemary and how she never left Frankie’s side at the end, and how they were supposed to get married. But I couldn’t find much more info on her so we’ll leave it at that. Besides, Judith was the mother of his children and the woman who was ultimately responsible for helping shoot him into stardom.

In November of 1997, Frankie began working towards a comeback. On November 8, he made a return appearance at the Tropicana club in North Bergen, New Jersey, drawing a pretty sizable crowd. He continued performing in local clubs in the NY/NJ area.

Most of his songs were about romance, but a few telling ones were about his struggles and changing his ways (Voy Pa’Encima, Mi Libertad, Vuelvo A Nacer). Frankie converted to Christianity around this time, and his pastor, Charles Ornelas and his gf Rosemary Salvador wrote a book about him called Vuelvo a Nacer, Que Rico! (not currently available although their website says it should have been available for purchase last fall).

In 1998, he recorded his last song “Vuelvo a Nacer”, where he describes the mistakes he made throughout his life and essentially declaring that he’s been reborn (the song literally means “I am reborn”). Listening to that track, you can hear the difference in his voice as compared to how he sounded prior to his vocal chords being damaged.

July 11, 1998, Frankie made one final appearance at MSG where a local radio station (probably La Mega) had organized a tribute show for him. (We’re including a link to him singing; there is no video, just audio, and you can hear how different his voice was.)

On July 17, 1998, just a week after his final performance, his condition worsened and he was again admitted to ICU at University Hospital in Newark. News of his condition drew fans and the media to the hospital. (Fun fact, me, my cousin and our church friends were trying to figure out a way to visit him in the hospital but we were teenagers and no one had a license so we never made it.) During his stay, he received tons of visitors, from fans to friends & family, basically anyone who was let in to pay their respects.

August 9, at 11:40 pm, Frankie Ruiz quietly passed away at University Hospital. Cause of death was reported as cirrhosis of the liver. He was 40 years old.

A memorial service was held at Ortiz Funeral Home in the Bronx before he was flown to Mayagüez for a huge memorial service. Thousands of people followed the procession as Frankie’s casket, draped with the Puerto Rican flag, was carried to Martinez Funeral Home. It looked more like a parade than a funeral! People were waving flags, there was complete media coverage, and his music was blaring out of speakers for everyone to hear. He had wanted music playing, it was one of his requests before he passed. Artists such as Tito Rojas, Ismael Miranda, Roberto Roena and his former bands La Solución and the Tommy Olivencia Orquesta were in attendance and performed his songs in tribute. All flags were also flown at half mast as Puerto Rico mourned.

After the memorial in Mayaguez, his body was flown back to NJ and he was interred at Fair Lawn Memorial Cemetery in his hometown of Paterson, New Jersey.

I just wanted to include a quote from his dad that he gave during an interview the day after Frankie died. He said, “En Puerto Rico nosotros tenemos una fraz que decia…los hombres no lloran, pero…los padres si, los padres lloran…”

Two weeks after his death, a compilation containing "Vuelvo a Nacer" called Nacimiento y Recuerdos was released on August 25, 1998. The album debuted at #8 on Billboard's Hot Shot Debut Chart, wound up going platinum, and became Ruiz's biggest chart success, his final single going on to become a hit.

Discography:
From the beginning of his solo career until his death:
1985: Solista pero no solo
1986: Mi Historia Musical
1987: Voy Pa’ Encima
1987: Historia Musical De Frankie Ruiz
1988: En Vivo...Y a Todo Color...!
1989: Mas Grande Que Nunca
1992: Mi Libertad
1992: Reencuentro
1992: …La historia continua
1993: Puerto Rico Soy Tuyo
1994: Mirandote
1994: Los Ruiz Señores
1994: Serie Platino: Frankie Ruiz
1994: Oro salsero: 20 éxitos
1996: Tranquilo
1997: Colección mi historia
1997: Grandes Exitos
1998 (posthumous): Nacimiento y recuerdos

These include originals as well as compilations and collaborations. Nacimiento includes the huge hit “Vuelvo a Nacer,” Frankie’s last single, recorded shortly before he died in 1998.

http://slamanater.com/legends/departed-legends/a-h/frankie-ruiz/