Legendary Producer and Songwriter Rudy Pérez Reflects on Working with José Menendez in his Memoir
Rudy Pérez is a producer, songwriter and musician who got his first big break by being signed to RCA Records by José Menendez. Over the course of his career, Rudy produced more than 300 hit songs (50 of them were #1 on billboard, the rest made it to the top 10), won 5 Grammys and worked with the likes of Beyonce, Gloria Estefan, Luis Miguel, Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera and many more.
José and Rudy first met in 1983 after Jose listened to one of his records. Impressed by his talent, Menendez, then an executive at RCA Records, wanted to meet him. The following are excerpts from Rudy Pérez’s memoir, “The Latin Hit Maker: My Journey from Cuban Refugee to World-Renowned Record Producer and Songwriter”:
A couple weeks later, I was in my control room when Pablo and Papito walked in.
With huge smiles on their faces, they announced, "Rudy, RCA Records heard your song, and they want you to come to New York tomorrow to meet with them. Go pack your bags." I was blown away. RCA? New York? Tomorrow? Part of my shock was that RCA was the label home of one of my biggest musical heroes, José Feliciano. The thought of being on the same team with him was beyond incredible to me. I felt like I was suddenly living in a dream.So the very next morning, I was on a plane from Miami to New York City. When I arrived at RCA's building, I was first taken to meet with José Menendez, a top executive at that time for their international artists. Like me, José had come from Cuba to escape Castro's dictatorship. He had obviously found great success in America.
After we talked for a while, José had me perform in front of a large group of RCA employees. They had a grand piano set up, and I played and sang for them. Next, they asked me to sing a song with a prerecorded track. Later that afternoon, they told me they didn't want me to leave their office without signing a record deal. I agreed, and RCA recorded my first Spanish album, Rudy, to be released the next year, in 1984.If you think for some reason you recognize José Menendez's name, unfortunately most people have heard about him and his wife because of their deaths. On August 20, 1989, after they moved to Beverly Hills, California, their two sons, Lyle and Erik, gunned down José and Kitty in their own home. Both sons are serving life sentences without parole.
Rudy Pérez with Jose Menendez in 1984
Menendez shared Rudy’s record with his greatest musical inspiration and fellow RCA artist, José Feliciano. Feliciano loved his record so much that he asked Rudy to produce his next album. The album went on to receive two Grammy nominations but ultimately lost:
At the Grammy Awards, I was sitting with José Menendez and his executives from RCA Records. Since the album had sold so well and had held the charts for so long, I thought we had a strong chance of winning. I was so excited, waiting for our category to come up. I had my acceptance speech ready to go. Suddenly the announcer said, "And to present the award for Best Latin Pop Performance, please welcome Ruben Blades and Herb Alpert." José Menendez immediately turned to me and said, "Rudy, you can kiss our Grammy goodbye." I knew from his comment that José suspected there might have been some politics involved with the Grammys choice of matching presenter to award to create a dramatic TV moment. I was new at this and didn't know what to think yet.
After the devastating loss, José Menendez invited Rudy to an RCA after-party:
José Menendez had invited me to the RCA after-party. There I had the privilege of meeting the legendary record mogul Clive Davis. Mr. Davis was walking around in the crowd, introducing a very young and beautiful African American girl. He was telling everyone, "This girl is going to be the next big thing." His prediction came true. The girl's name was Whitney Houston.
And yes, it’s the same Clive Davis that launched P-Diddy’s career.
In 2017, Mikey Pérez, Rudy’s son, posted an image of his dad with José to his Instagram. After Netflix’s Monsters was released, a couple of people found that picture and left hate comments about Jose, Mikey liked two of them:
Which does not say much since he liked every comment on that post, I just thought it was funny to include.