Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club is the debut and only studio album by Cuban musical esemble Buena Vista Social Club, directed by Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist Ry Cooder. Produced by Cooder, it was recorded at Havana's EGREM studios in March 1996 and released on June 23, 1997, through World Circuit internationally. Release in the United States followed on September 16 by Nonesuch Records. It is the only standard studio album exclusively credited to the Buena Vista Social Club.

Buena Vista Social Club was recorded in parallel with A toda Cuba le gusta by the Afro-Cuban All Stars, a similar project also promoted by World Circuit executive Nick Gold and featuring largely the same lineup. In contrast to A toda Cuba le gusta, which was conceived as a revival of the son conjunto, Buena Vista Social Club was meant to bring back the traditional trova and filin, a mellower take on the Cuban son and bolero, as well as the danzón.

The album was a critical and commercial success and is one of the best-selling Latin albums of all time. Its release was followed by a short concert tour in Amsterdam and New York's Carnegie Hall in 1998. Footage from these dates, as well as from the recording sessions in Havana, was shown in the 1999 documentary Buena Vista Social Club directed by Wim Wenders. In 2022, the album was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally historically or aesthetically significant". In the same year it was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the best-selling world music album.