Joe Nick Patoski > Quotes

“I’d rather not answer. You know, because I don’t answer any political questions or religious. I’m Jewish. No — just joking. No, everybody seems to know now in the business that we’ve made it a rule because we’ve had some problems in the past,” she said cryptically. “We stay away from political or any religious [issues] because, you know, we are here to sing music. And it can create problems, put it that way. Everybody has their differences in religion and politics and those seem to be really touchy situations for everyone.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Selena’s death and legacy galvanized the Hispanic community in Texas in a way that no movement, including La Raza Unida, nor any person, including César Chávez, had ever accomplished.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“But for thirteen-year-old Maricela García, it was more than that. The blind girl knew many of Selena’s songs by heart and competed in talent contests singing her music. Before the show, Maricela said, ‘“I can’t see her, but I want to touch her.” Selena got the message and came out to meet the girl, taking her hand and letting her feel the texture of the black leather motorcycle jacket she was wearing.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Coca-Cola honored her with a limited-edition eight-ounce commemorative contour bottle of Coca-Cola with Selena’s signature and a label stating 5 AÑOS CONTIGO . . . SIEMPRE SELENA, SIEMPRE COCA-COLA (Five Years with You . . . Always Selena, Always Coca-Cola).”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“This day will go down as Black Friday,”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Her concert was so upbeat — old people, young people, everybody was dancing. It’s so easy to like her music because it makes you feel so good. She really put on a show.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“For that reason alone, she continued to give many people hope who had no reason to hope before.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“For the year, Selena y los Dinos had grossed more than five million dollars. Tejano music sales in general for 1994 exceeded twenty million. Spanish radio gross expenditures for 1994 were $226.7 million in the United States.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Daniel Glass, the CEO of the EMI Records Group, was not shy about hyping the deal to Billboard. “I don’t like to compare artists, but Selena is the closest artist I’ve got to Madonna. She has that same control, and I love artists that know where they want to go and how to get there. She’s definitely a pop star.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“For that reason alone, she continued to give many people hope who had no reason to hope before. Her star shone brighter than ever.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“She was much better than Madonna or Gloria Estefan, the singers she was compared to, or Paula Abdul. This girl could bury them. She was a very good singer. Like Elvis Presley, Selena had the talent to transcend subpar material.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Money can buy you a fine dog,” he liked to say. “But only love can make him wag his tail.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Austin to ATX: The Hippies, Pickers, Slackers, and Geeks Who Transformed the Capital of Texas

“Predictions abounded that 1995 was the year that Tejano would break into the mainstream. Billboards end of the year tally ranked “Amor Prohibido” as the number one on the Hot Latin Track chart for 1994, Amor Prohibido as top Mexican-regional album, and Selena as top Mexican-regional Latin artist.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Sales were unprecedented. The album lingered at the top of Billboard’s Latin top-fifty album charts at the number-one or number-two position for the rest of the year. By December, it was certified quadruple platinum, which in the Tejano field translated to four hundred thousand units sold, a figure exceeded only by La Mafia.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“All”
― Joe Nick Patoski, The Dallas Cowboys

“He’d made his point, managing to get both gun-shop employees to admit that guns do misfire, judging from the bullet holes on the walls and ceilings of the gun range.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“the bottler kept her signed and working even after 1992, when Coke strategists dropped celebrities from the ad campaigns, keeping only Selena, Elton John for Diet Coke, and Christopher Cross for Sprite.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“This has never happened in the history of the recording industry, especially by a Hispanic.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Meanwhile, recording for her English-language pop crossover was under way, using a scattershot method of pairing her with several different producers.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“At the Billboard Latin Music Awards in Miami, held May 18, Selena won the best regional-Mexican album category for Selena Live, as well as best regional-Mexican female artist. On the following day, at the Premio lo Nuestro a la Musica Latina awards ceremonies, also in Miami, she walked away with Best Female Vocalist in the regional-Mexican category.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“The mystery would not be solved. She would have plenty of time to contemplate when to reveal it.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Since 1979 when I began selling records, I have not seen this happen,” he said.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Selena told Marcie about a previous visit to the same place. She’d seen a little old lady eating by herself and felt sorry for her. Selena paid for the woman’s meal but told the waiter not to let the lady know. “I want you to give her one of those little cakes you give people on their birthdays. Put it in a bag so she can take it home.” Marcella felt so proud of her daughter; she was so giving, so generous with her love, as well as with her material wealth.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“There’s still times that I think she’s alive and I can call her or I’m going to have to pick her up from the airport,” he told newspaper reporter Karen Lister”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Two weeks later, when the ring was ready, Yolanda returned in the Cadillac. Her passenger, Selena, waited in the car while her assistant finished business inside. Again Yolanda paid the bill, this time with an American Express card with her name embossed above SELENA’S DESIGN HOUSE. “She sort of made that a point, not to let Selena know how much it cost and how it was paid for,” Randolph said.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“I have done some very serious thinking and I am gonna try to line up my life with God. Not fanatically, but with the knowledge, understanding . . . I believe in the Resurrection, and I want to be there when Selena’s resurrected to receive her back.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Afterward, a friend that Barrios had brought along said the writing was on the wall. “I don’t see this marriage lasting more than one year.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“I’m getting a lot of the English-only listening audience calling up and asking for it. I think it’s going to go platinum the first day.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Selena told Celia Solís that she was going to fire Yolanda as soon as she got some missing financial records from her.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor

“Yolanda was always very possessive,” observed Albert Dávila of KEDA-AM radio in San Antonio, one of the stations that Yolanda kept in touch with on behalf of the fan club for updates on Selena’s live gigs and record releases. “She’d keep you away. Selena was possessed by her. One of our employees went to [Yolanda’s] house to pick up some materials and freaked out because one room had an altar, candles, everything. It was a Selena shrine.”
― Joe Nick Patoski, Selena: Como la Flor