Dreaming of You (album) - Release

Release

Dreaming of You was scheduled to be released some time in 1994, but it was delayed until after the release of Selena's last studio album sung entirely in Spanish, Amor prohibido. In an interview on 20 January 1995, Selena said the album would be released in July. EMI Records and EMI Latin released Dreaming of You on 18 July 1995. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, displacing the Pocahontas (1995) soundtrack and Michael Jackson. The album was among the ten best-selling debuts ever, and was the best-selling debut by a female artist. Fans in Dallas, Texas, began lining up to purchase the album hours before stores were due to open. The album sold more than 331,000 copies in its first week. It became the biggest first-week seller by a female artist since SoundScan began monitoring US sales in 1992, and the first album by a Hispanic artist to debut at number one, according to EMI Records. EMI estimated that sales exceeded 400,000, because many copies were sold at small stores that were not tracked by SoundScan.

Dreaming of You was well received by critics. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Latin Albums and Billboard Latin Pop Albums music charts, staying on the charts for nearly two-hundred weeks. Stores across Austin, were sold out of Dreaming of You within minutes on the day the album was released, even though Austin stores limited purchases to two copies per costumer. Fans in Corpus Christi began celebrating the release of Dreaming of You at 19:00 in the parking lot of "Craig's Record Factory" the day before the release of the album. Some lip-synced and danced to Selena's music that was being played and when the doors opened at midnight, fans swarmed in and bought all the album copies in the store.

The album was sold in approximately fifteen countries, and in the months following its release, Selena became more widely known. "Dreaming of You" and "I Could Fall in Love" were extensively played on major English speaking radio stations, preferably Adult contemporary music radios. Dreaming of You sold half a million copies in Texas.

Within ten months of release, Dreaming of You was nearing triple-platinum status. The album was certified 35 times platinum (Latin field) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for shipping more than 3,500,000 copies in its first year. Billboard named "I Could Fall in Love" and "Dreaming of You" the number one and two spot, respectively, in the Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. Upon the release the album sold over 2,000,000 copies, and EMI Latin was inundated with orders of 500,000 units from retail stores, such as Abdelsayed's Counterfeit Factory, who were unable to fill their back-orders. The Counterfeit Factory, and another small Providence, Rhode Island music store, were broken into by fans who stole approximately 35,000 cassettes, which were mostly of Dreaming of You. The criminals were arrested and charged with felony offenses. The album was the highest selling Latin album since Julio Iglesias recorded his first English-language record, 1100 Bel Air Place (1984).

In July 1995, Dreaming of You joined five of Selena's studio albums that remained in the top ten of Billboard Top 50 Latin Albums simultaneously, making Selena the first female artist to do so. The album peaked at number one, and is the first album that was mostly recorded in Spanish to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, making Selena the first Latino artist to accomplish that feat. Two years after Selena's murder, Dreaming of You and Siempre Selena (1996) occupied the third and fourth slots respectively on the Billboard Top 50 Latin Albums. Dreaming of You was certified gold in Canada, selling 50,000 copies. Some Texas retailers criticized sale figures for their state as Dreaming of You had sold poorly at their music stores.