The band’s eponymous debut album, released on Aug. 27, 1984, on Discos CBS, laid the groundwork for Sodamania — a passion characterized by hordes of screaming fans wherever the trio went, not unlike the frenzy surrounding the band’s Liverpudlian idols, The Beatles. On the strength of their sophisticated songcraft and high-energy live shows, Soda Stereo’s fame spread throughout Latin America; tours would take them as far north as Mexico and even into the U.S., where the band was the first Latin rock act to headline a tour in the country.
For many Latin rock fans, their first concert experience was seeing Soda Stereo live. “Back in the early ‘80s, we had a huge musical void in Latin America,” recalls Miguel Gálvez, a former radio journalist in Mexico who launched a petition to get Soda Stereo inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.