Released in 1974, “Elkin & Nelson” added unique flavours to the Spanish pop music of the time: Latin American songs and rhythms (plus The Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’) performed with freshness and intensity. The LP features the duo’s first radio hit, ‘A caballo’, and was brilliantly produced by the most misunderstood musician among the Spanish beat pioneers: Juan Pardo, briefly singer in Los Pekenikes and founding member of both Los Brincos and Juan & Junior. Brothers Elkin and Nelson Marín Pérez arrived to Spain some time in 1973. They were from Medellín (Colombia) and along with their luggage they brought their own compositions and South American, Caribbean and even American songs, many of them unknown in Europe. Merely playing acoustic guitars and with an exuberant way of singing, they put on an energetic show around the clubs in Madrid. Juan Pardo was fascinated by their strength and took them to CBS, at the time the most audacious record company in the Spanish market. “Elkin & Nelson” is a great example of the top class productions by CBS in 70s Spain. The best studio musicians in Madrid were hired and the result was lovingly packaged by the company’s art department. For the photo session, the brothers were styled in a glamourous way, close to the look associated with the “Gay Power” movement. It was a very risky move which didn’t gain them a lot of sympathy. Even in the later years of Franco’s regime, homosexuals were persecuted in Spain and extravagant looks weren’t allowed on the public TV channel. It’s well known the anecdote about the cancellation of a performance by the British band Sweet after the censors saw their looks a few minutes before coming on air. However, Elkin & Nelson did create a stir: they were the only Spanishsinging artists featured in “Gay rock” (Ediciones Júcar, 1975), the influential book by Eduardo Haro Ibars. Although the author and poet was disappointed when he interviewed the Colombians and found out that they weren’t even interested in playing with their sexual ambiguity. In later decades, the Marín Pérez brothers briefly reappeared in Spain with records as a duo or solo releases by Elkin. Diego A Manrique