Songfacts®:

• In this song, Gerardo (last name: Mejia) plays the "Latin Lover," a very arrogant guy who juggles two or three women at a time, shows up hours late for dates, and splits when he doesn't like her mother's food. It's a character: Gerardo has also been a successful actor and record executive. His movie credits include Colors and the Songfacts favorite "Can't Buy Me Love." As a record executive with EMI, he helped sign Enrique Iglesias in 1998.
• Roughly translated, "Rico Suave" means "Tasty and Smooth." Since the title also sounds like a name, many people thought Rico Suave was the name of the singer. This became a joke on MTV, as comedian Paulie Shore would refer to Gerardo as "Rico."
• This was the first pop hit sung in "Spanglish," a combination of Spanish and English. In later years, as Latin dance music became more popular, artists like Ricky Martin often crossed languages with their songs.
• Gerardo followed this up with "We Want The Funk," which is based on the Parliament song "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)." It made a respectable showing, reaching #16 in the US. His next single, "When the Lights Go Out," reached #98, his last chart appearance.
• Weird Al Yankovic recorded a parody of this called "Taco Grande," which describes a visit to a Mexican restaurant and features a short Spanish monologue by the comedian Cheech Marin. The parody was re-recorded by Tim Buppert for the Disney film Ratatouille: What's Cooking?.
• Gerardo's real-life father played his girlfriend's father in the video. (Thanks to Ed Pearce for his help with this. Ed is author of Food for Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World, where you can learn that Mexican food was popularized in the US by a Los Angeles restaurant: the El Cholo Spanish cafe which opened at 1121 South Western Avenue in a courtyard with a mission-style fountain in 1930. The Proprietress Rosa Borquez's menu included food such as enchiladas and tacos. Another popular item they sold was the burrito, meaning literally "little burro or donkey," which originated south of Los Angeles.)