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…
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1930s
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.
One stylish aspect of 1920s lunfardo was a liberal use of foreign terms, and those from England had a certain appeal…
Francisco Gorrindo specialized in lyrics that confront hard topics. When dealing with romance…
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.
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…
Enrique Cadícamo’s 1930 tango “Anclao en París” was a hit for Carlos Gardel (one of whose regular guitarists, Guillermo Barbieri, supplied the music). The song delves into the Bohemian themes of the early tangos…
This second set of lyrics for “El choclo” was penned in 1930 by singer Juan Carlos Marambio Catán. He wrote them at the request of Irene Villoldo, the sister of the tune’s composer Ángel Villoldo…
Taking its place in the tradition between “Milonguita” and “Griseta,” two formative tangos of the 1920s, Cadícamo’s “Madame Ivonne” adds another name to the memorable list of tragic young women portrayed in the tango songbook.
The stirring tango “Soledad” features in the 1934 film El Tango en Broadway (directed by Louis J. Gasnier), a movie shot in New York, starring Carlos Gardel and scripted by lyricist Alfredo Le Pera.
Francisco Gorrindo’s pessimistic but memorable lyrics for “Las cuarenta” elevated the song into a classic of the genre almost immediately. Singer Azucena Maizani premiered the song in 1937 at the Teatro Nacional, and numerous recordings quickly followed.
The tango “Tormenta” is one of Discépolo’s most searing lyrics, figuratively situating its speaker in the middle of a lightning storm, during a crisis of faith. Like many of his songs, God and morality lie at the center. Also like many of his songs, this cry of the soul amid the wilderness occurs in the middle of comedy…
The tango known as “Hotel Victoria” (or “Gran Hotel Victoria”) began as an instrumental number, first performed to celebrate the 1906 reopening of a hotel by that name in Córdoba.
The late 1930s were a transitional period in tango, marked by the rise of the hard-hitting D’Arienzo band and the explosion of dancing as the center of popular culture. The tango songbook was changing too…
As the new style of tango romanza emerged in the 1920s, tango melodies took on a more emotive role and the genre’s heavy dance rhythms subsided, allowing the tango to emulate, for brief moments it had not risen to before, the soaring notes of the opera.
Hard times call for straight talk, and the early tangos by Enrique Santos Discépolo deliver the goods with their unflinching pictures of desperation. “Yira, yira,” the greatest song of his early phase, wields its trashcan lid of street slang like a shield against sentimentality, conjuring up a grim humor that borders on the horrifying.
The 1935 film El día que me quieras is not just famous for its title number: the song “Volver” also stands among the all-time classic tangos of the silver screen. Carlos Gardel’s performance of the song shows off his unmistakable phrasing, and the clear, moving, effortless tone of his voice carries the melody at its very best.
This 1937 tango from the Cadícamo-Cobián duo—the songwriters who also joined forces for “Nostalgias” and “Los Mareados,” among others—conjures up a melancholy scene of the docks shrouded in mist…
E. S. Discépolo created this touching title song for the 1935 film El Alma Del Bandoneón from director Mario Soffici. The film also features Discépolo’s epoch-making protest tango “Cambalache.”
Unlike most tangos, “Madreselva” brings a woman’s experience into the limelight. Debuted on stage in 1931, it became the title song of the 1938 film Madreselva starring the great Libertad Lamarque, and directed by lyricist Luis Cesár Amadori.