Selena (Green) Serrano “Get On Up” / “He Can’t Let Me Go”

A bright, spicy, even-tempo dance song, pretty minimal, with prominent bass, and a woman singing about how she wants her partner to get on up, off his ashtray, or, more specifically, dance—shake, throw his hips around, keep on shaking, and so forth. There’s a point where you instinctively expect an instrumental break, a solo, maybe a bridge, but it’s just relentless partner dissing for 3:30, which is fine, because even if he isn’t dancing, you are! The B-side is a soul ballad with sax intro, and starts out, “It’s a known fact, that when my man comes back from…” Then it sounds like… “Texas”—she really draws out the word, like it’s to blame… but I’m not entirely sure. Then she sings, “He’ll be ready to settle down in a great big old house with an open fireplace.” But is he coming back, that’s the question, even though he calls from day to day… but I don’t know. Still, she’s singing about how he can’t let her go—which is a fine thing, I suppose, at least up to the point where you want to go—or, as I’m getting from this wistful lament, he’s no longer around. It’s a very nice melody, and I really like her singing, soulful and worldweary, and here there is a bridge, though it doesn’t, lyrically, add any insights, really. But there’s that sax again, brief, understated, and that says it all. When she says the weather is getting colder, you really feel it in her voice, especially when you feel the weather getting colder here, in Milwaukee (or would be if the weather was doing what it’s supposed to). So… I wonder where this record came from?

I bought this 45 in Milwaukee and then forgot I had it until the magic random-counter needle fell on it. The recording artist and composer (and producer and arranger) apparently is Selena (Green) Serrano, both songs. The label is unadorned, just a dusty shade of light blue-green, “Serrano Records” (incidentally) on top. The only other info (besides “Produced and Arranged by Selena Serrano”) is “Managed by Peggy and Johnny Pittman.” No date, but a Discogs listing says 1985, which maybe comes from the pressing info—Rite Record Productions, in Cincinnati. It sounds enough like 1985 to me, I guess, though it could be earlier, or timeless. Anyway, none of these credits go any deeper on Discogs than just this record. So it’s a mystery, and I like mysteries, because of the challenge of solving them. But once you do, you no longer have a mystery. I could leave it alone. But no… I had to try searching some more, for Selena (Green) Serrano, but I got nothing. There’s another singer, much younger, named Serena Serrano, and that’s mostly who comes up—besides Serrano peppers. I mean, Selena (Green) Serrano only comes up in relations to this record. What’s with the “Green” in (parentheses) anyway? Does anyone have a name with parentheses in it? Well, I guess when it’s a nickname. So, it could be that—kind of like “The (Red) Hot Chili Peppers”—but this is much, much better. As we know, the Serrano pepper is green when it’s young, and significantly hotter. It’s got a Scoville rating of up to 25,000—hotter than the Jalapeno!

10.23.26