A complete list of Jake’s tango translations, shown in the order of their posting. (These English versions are meant to be singable, and follow the rhythm and melody of the originals.)
Homero Manzi brought to tango lyrics a certain genius for scene painting and portraiture, giving a realness of place and a sense of tender nostalgia to his songs. Among his greatest creations is this number, “Barrio de tango,” which evokes the old neighborhood of Pompeya…
Hollywood’s favorite tango by a considerable margin is the 1935 screen hit “Por una cabeza,” which Gardel sang in his last movie Tango Bar. In its original setting…
Leaning close to his friend with a swell of emotion and a wag of the thumb, he asks: “You know the words to this song?” And as the small band plays in the dingy saloon, Carlos Gardel cracks a sad smile, settles in, and sings himself into eternity.
Fans of the song “Sin palabras” have long speculated about the personal story behind the lyrics, ascribing to E. S. Discépolo all sorts of fears that his companion Tania was having an affair. Perhaps because the song works so well, or perhaps because the tango in general deals with such raw emotions, we see similar speculations arise with many numbers that were, in fact, written to order for the screen.
One stylish aspect of 1920s lunfardo was a liberal use of foreign terms, and those from England had a certain appeal…
One of the few tangos to present race as a theme is this gem of a song by Horacio Sanguinetti, whose lyrics portrayed the black experience in Buenos Aires alongside his other preferred themes, the sea…
Francisco Gorrindo specialized in lyrics that confront hard topics. When dealing with romance…
In the early 1900s, the sainete was a short theatrical form in one or two acts, which in Buenos Aires became very popular as the demand for inexpensive entertainment grew with the city’s populace. Alberto Vaccarezza was one of the form’s most successful writers…
Just as the lyrics for “Charlemos” bring the telephone into the world of song, “Si tú quisieras” revolves around the metaphor of photographs. Luis Rubistein, who penned the words for both tangos…
One of my favorite tunes in the songbook is the beautifully written tango “Una pena,” familiar to most dancers in the delicate D’Agostino-Vargas rendition…
This week’s translation is an update to “Volver,” a text I reworked directly from the sheet music to achieve a more singable version in English.
While the tango “Canta, pajarito” is not among the best works of lyricist Oscar Rubens, it has won a lot of fans on the dance floor, being popular with dancers as well as DJs…
Songs can come from just about anywhere when they’re in high demand, and “Como dos extraños” offers an interesting case in point…
The tangos of Homero Expósito strike a special balance in the songbook, achieving the highest measure of poetic quality while remaining firmly grounded in the genre.
The tango “Dandy” came out of a successful trio that toured Europe in the 1920s, with Lucio Demare on piano, accompanying the two singers Agustín Irusta and Roberto Fugazot.
This week’s tango “Por la vuelta” represents a sweet little corner of the songbook, where things are not tragic but ironic, even urbane. The story is of a casual romance, only the song leaves most of it out…
There are many tangos that take place over a glass of something terrible that happened in life, but it’s surprising that nobody wrote this one until Héctor Marcó absolutely nailed it to the wall in 1957.
If you know this song well on the dance floor, Carlos Bahr’s lyrics might come as a surprise: for such a tragic sounding strain, they are pretty positive!
The Argentine journalist and author Julio Nudler wrote glowingly of the poetic quality with which Homero Manzi enlarged the tango world. In one summary of the lyricist’s career, he singled out this tango “Fuimos”…