Fans of Panamanian/Spanish/Italian/Colombian singer Miguel Bosé agree that “Amiga” (“Friend” – or maybe “Girl Friend”?) is one of the biggest hits in his career and perhaps one of the most beautiful ballads in Spanish ever recorded, courtesy of Spanish songwriter Luis Gómez-Escolar. I bought Miguel Bosé’s debut LP in early 1978 mainly because of this song, and recently had the chance of getting an original Spanish pressing of the album. It was a big surprise for me to find out that “Amiga” is the only track in this LP that, while still being essentially the same song, bears noticeable differences unrelated to the common and expected pressing/mastering quality differences with the original Colombian LP. First, the song in the Spanish pressing runs at slower speed/lower pitch. Speed/pitch differences between international versions of the same album are not so uncommon, so there’s nothing surprising here. But the thing is, this is the ONLY track from the album with such difference. The rest of the album runs at the same speed on both versions (checked track by track after recording both copies in their entirety), so it’s not a matter of an LP cut at the wrong speed. And one would think that the “correct” version is the Spanish one, but truth is that the slightly faster version in the Colombian copy is the one you hear on any video of this song found on YouTube.

And the most striking difference is the vocal track. It’s not just way more upfront on the Spanish version, but also a different take. According to Discogs, the first Spanish reissue of this album was released in 1985, but I wonder if the track was “fixed” (sped up and vocal take replaced) on subsequent Spanish pressings shortly after the album’s first release in 1977 (maybe I got a very first pressing of the LP?). I searched for info about this on the web to no avail, so if there’s a Bosé connoisseur that can clarify this in the comments section, it would be highly appreciated ( maybe Mr. Bosé himself? 😀 ). Again, the rest of the album sounds exactly the same on both copies, putting aside manufacturing-related sound differences.

Here you can hear both versions of the song. First the original Colombian pressing with the common, faster version of the track, followed by the original Spanish pressing with the unknown (to me until a few days ago) version of “Amiga” included in this LP.

(00:00) Video intro

– (00:14) 01. Amiga (original Colombian pressing)
– (05:18) 02. Amiga (original Spanish pressing)

Numark TTXUSB turntable – Nagaoka MP-500 phono cartridge – ART DJPRE II phono stage preamp – Vinyl record vinilo LP