WATCH: Gloria Estefan Reveals To Chris Wallace Just What Was Originally ‘Gonna Get You’ Before She Forced Title Change — And Why

CNN anchor Chris Wallace got the inside scoop on legendary singer/songwriter Gloria Estefan’s insistence that her soon-to-be hit song undergo a title change.

In Wallace’s Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace interview, the host asked about several of Estefan’s hit songs — but disappointingly did not sing along. One surprising anecdote was the reason behind “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You”‘s title change from a more disturbing one:

WALLACE: All right, you started in the 1970s with a group called the Miami sound machine. And here is one of your signature songs.

(Music Video Clip — Rythm Is Gonna Get You)

WALLACE: Is it true that the original name of that song was ‘Boogie man’s gotta get you’?

ESTEFAN: Absolutely. My drummer had come to me with the idea of the hook. Because then I co-wrote it with him and I go ‘I have a small child. I am not singing the boogeyman is gonna get you. This is insane.’ So one night we were in a little hotel. I think it was somewhere near Chicago on tour. And I kept thinking what can we do that’s not the Boogeyman. And I thought what our music does– the rhythm it’s gonna get you because wherever we went whatever language they spoke… they were able to appreciate the rhythm, and I changed it Thank the Lord because

WALLACE: I’m not sure boogeyman is gonna get would be the classics.

ESTEFAN: Unless it was for a horror movie which happened to be above but you know that that song is one of only 611 songs that have been saved in the in the National Archives in some vaults or something because the Library of Congress said that it has changed the cultural fabric of the nation and they choose songs that they put away for posterity. (It’s a classic) It’s a big honor what it is for me because imagine an immigrant that came to this country to have one of our songs, forever protected is really…

WALLACE: Well it’s a nation of immigrants.

The latest interviews from Wallace’s series Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace feature Gloria Estefan, Professor and author Anita Hill, and journalist Malcolm Gladwell.

Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace drops new episodes Fridays on HBO Max, with a highlights show on CNN Sunday night.

Watch the full exchange above via HBO Max and CNN.