Latin Dance Party (uncredited release on Gateway Records)

Latin Dance Party was an uncredited collection of Latin standards released by the Pittsburgh-based independent label Gateway Records. The album's first release came on LP and cassette in the late 1970s. It was reissued on CD in 2000.

Gateway was founded in 1961 by Robert Schachner, releasing jazz, folk, rock, polka, world and strict tempo dance recordings. Gateway's best-selling artist in the 1960s was jazz trombonist Harold Betters, who played at the Encore night club in Pittsburgh for 17 years.

Gateway's last releases from Pittsburgh were in 1967. Schachner moved to New York and later to Florida, where he continued releasing records on Gateway. In 1980, he scored a major success by producing and releasing an instruction record, Barbara Ann Auer's Aerobic Dancing. It was reputed to have sold one million copies.

The tracks on Latin Dance Party were likely leased or bought outright from another company. There are no credits on the album. Here's a sample track.

Perfidia



Latin Dance Party on CD is available for literally pennies in the Amazon Marketplace and elsewhere. A download version, using the same cover art as the CD but credited to the Latin Dance Blasters (perhaps to appeal to a younger audience), is for sale almost everywhere on the web.

Footnote: Gateway's first success came in the jazz field when trombonist Betters had a regional hit in 1962 with a version of Stand By Me. Here it is.