Amazon.com essential recordingThe midcareer Spanish-language album From a Child to a Woman features Madrid-born crooner Julio Iglesias during his tenure as the most popular Latin singer of the 1980s. What this point, however, too often forgets is that Iglesias isn't only a pop vocalist along the lines of top-40 showboaters. Rather, the man (particularly in the early years, and then of late) has written some of his own best compositions along the lines of the emotive and romantic "Y Pensar," "Despues de Ti," and "Si, Madame" all of which appear here on one of his best recordings. Perhaps most noteworthy, however, is that From a Child to a Woman includes the (oft-self-recorded and performed) Iglesias treatment on Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine," from the 1935 Broadway musical Jubilee. In his hands, Porter's classic becomes "Volver a Empezar" and is filled with all the longing, bittersweet beauty of the original. --Paige La Grone