Charlie Rodríguez is a Dominican merengue singer who led his own orchestra in the nineteen-eighties, working the street end of the genre rather than the polished one.

Cójelo León

The album came out in 1985 and gave him El Palacio, written by Ramón Díaz, which is the record his name is attached to. La Campiña, Picaflor, Fuego Namá, María Veloz, El Retrato de Mamá, No Tengo Tiempo, Todavía and Vuelve Conmigo make up the rest.

Danilo and Moreno Rodríguez sang at the front of the orchestra with him. He debuted the group on El Show del Mediodía that same year, which in 1985 was the only television that mattered for a merengue act.

The other hit

Oye Muchacha, which he also sang, was one of the merengues that carried through the decade. Its author has said in interview that he wrote it for him.

Very little else about him is written down. The eighties produced dozens of orchestras like his — a leader, a horn section, a year or two of records — and the documentation stopped when the orchestras did.