Dreaming of You (album) - Production

Production

Selena began recording the first song for the album, "I Could Fall in Love", in late 1994. She was paired with Grammy winning music producers. Her sister Suzette Quintanilla stated that she would take a very long time before deciding if a song represented what "Selena was all about"; however, SBK Records controlled the entire project and allowed her to choose only one song. Recording sessions for the album took place at several recording studios during 1994 to 1995, including: her father's Q-Productions studio in Corpus Christi; The Bennett House in Franklin, Tennessee; Bananaboat Studio in Burbank, California; Oakshire Recorders in Los Angeles; Conway Studios in Hollywood; Clinton Studios in Clinton, New York; and Levosia Entertainment in Hollywood. Producers and songwriters who collaborated with Selena on the album included Keith Thomas, Trey Lorenz of Epic Records, Mark Goldenberg, Kit Hain, Guy Roche, Donna Delorey, Diane Warren, Rhett Lawrence, David Byrne of Luaka Bop Inc., Franne Golde, Tom Snow, Full Force, Brian "Red" Moore, A.B. Quintanilla III, Barrio Boyzz, K.C. Porter, Felipe Bernmejo, Jose Hernandez and Felipe Valdes Leal. Dreaming of You was the first album that Selena's family did not produce. They had decided to step down prior to the recording sessions, since they wished to allow professional pop producers to work with her. Selena felt that this decision by her family was forced on them partly with the intention of commercial success in mind.

The songs for the album were in a different style from those she had previously sung, being mostly pop love songs. Selena co-wrote with David Byrne, former lead vocalist of Talking Heads, for his Gospel song "God's Child (Baila Conmigo)"; her vocals were later used in the song after Byrne recorded it in Clifton, New York. Before choosing the song "Dreaming of You" for the album Selena's husband Chris Pérez and brother Quintanilla, then her producer, told Selena that they both disliked the song. However, Selena on the contrary, took a liking to "Dreaming of You". Selena began recording songs in late 1994 and had recorded six songs by 20 January 1995. Selena was scheduled to record "Oh No (I'll Never Fall in Love Again)" on the morning of 31 March 1995, but was killed on the same day by Yolanda Saldivar, a friend and manager of her boutiques. Saldivar had shot the singer in the back, while she was trying to get our of her motel room. Quintanilla Jr was waiting for Selena to show up and noted that she had always liked to be late and did not believe anything was out of the ordinary. Within a few hours, a recepitanst told Quintanilla Jr that Selena is in the hospital. Believing it was a car crash she was involved in, Selena's family arrived to the hospital to only be confronted by one of the doctors that Selena had died from a single bullet.

"Oh No" was later recorded in Spanish by her brother's band, Kumbia Kings, on their album Amor, Familia Y Respeto (1999). The composer Keith Thomas, who wrote "I Could Fall In Love", never finished his second song intended for Selena to record and revealed the song's fate when he made an appearance on a show which talked about Selena's life and death for the A&E series Biography . Amy Grant and Vanessa Williams were both in the process of writing songs for Selena to be included on the album, but did not get to finish any lyrics because of Selena's death. In 2008, freestyle singer Brenda K. Starr, revealed that she was supposed to guest starred in two unrecorded songs slanted for Dreaming of You. In June 2011 Dominican American Latin soul singer TeCheetah Lopez was given a demo of "Love Me Now", which was intended for Dreaming of You. The song was never produced and was written by Christopher Troy and Zac Harmon. According to Jose Behar Dreaming of You was projected to be released in September or October 1995. In April 1995 EMI Latin decided to only release four out of the six English-language songs Selena had recorded for her crossover album; the song "Siempre hace frio" ("It's Always Cold") was pulled from the album for unknown reasons.