The Popular Lecuona

My recent post of a few Morton Gould recordings of the music of Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963) led me to seek out recordings that would demonstrate how the Cuban composer’s music became popular in America during the 1930s into the 50s.

This post is the result. It compiles 24 versions of Lecuona’s most popular compositions, drawn from 78s and soundtrack recordings. These include different interpretations of the songs that Gould orchestrated: "Andalucía" ("The Breeze and I"), "Malagueña," "La Comparsa" and "Jungle Drums."

Alfredo Brito

Perhaps the first Lecuona melody to become popular in the U.S. was his 1929 composition "Siboney.” (Siboney is a town in Cuba, and by extension can be understood to refer to Cuba itself.) The song gained notice in 1931 via a record by Alfredo Brito and His Siboney Orchestra, the first item in our collection.

Many artists have since recorded “Siboney,” often with the English lyrics written by Dolly Morse that have nothing to do with Lecuona’s original words. Bing Crosby recorded the English version in 1945 with Xavier Cugat and his Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. Cugat was prominent in America at the time and recorded many Latin songs, but nonetheless his was not considered an “authentic” Cuban band, even though he spent much of his youth in that country.

The young Cugat. He later grew hair.

Cugat in fact popularized the second Lecuona composition in the set, "Para Vigo Me Voy” (“I’m Going to Vigo,” a town in Spain), which became known as "Say Si, Si" after acquiring Al Stillman’s English lyrics. Cugat recorded it in 1935, the year of its composition. The English version became a hit in 1940, with the Andrews Sisters having the best-selling disc. The download includes both the Cugat and Andrews records.

The next song, “Jungle Drums,” was called “Canto Karabali” by Lecuona when he published it in 1933. I believe “Karabali” refers to African slaves brought to Cuba from a particular region of Africa. Both versions in the playlist come from 1939, the first by Artie Shaw and his band, the second from Cugie again, with an unlikely vocal by Dinah Shore, making one of her first appearances on record. Dinah presents the English lyrics written by Carmen Lombardo, of all people. “Jungle Drums” went on to become one of the theme songs of the exotica movement of the 50s.

“The Breeze and I” is one of Lecuona’s most recognizable and enduring melodies, originally published as “Andalucía” in 1928. With Al Stillman’s new English lyrics, the song became an American hit in 1940 through the single version by Jimmy Dorsey’s band, with a vocal by Bob Eberly. This is another Lecuona song that is still heard today.

Jimmy Dorsey and Bob Eberly

After “The Breeze and I” and “Say Si, Si” became hits, Lecuona wrote the title song for the 1942 film Always in My Heart, which starred Kay Francis and Walter Huston. The song was nominated for an Academy Award, losing to "White Christmas." Dorsey and Eberly, recognizing a good thing, recorded a version with Kim Gannon’s English lyrics, and it became a hit as well.

One of Lecuona’s most popular melodies, "Malagueña" (that is, a type of dance from Málaga, Spain), comes from his 1933 Suite Andalucía, to which he added lyrics in Spanish. Our first interpretation comes from Del Campo and His Orchestra, with a piano solo by arranger Jose Esteves. Luis Del Campo was a former Cugat singer who formed his own band in the 1940s, continuing until his death in 1950. This record, from about 1947, appeared on the short-lived Coda label.

Dorsey and Eberly struck again in 1942 with a vocal version of "Malagueña" called “At the Cross-Roads,” with English lyrics by Bob Russell.

It’s been said that Lecuona lifted the melody of "Malagueña" from a section of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s 1851 composition Souvenirs d'Andalousie. I think it’s more likely that both Lecuona and Gottschalk were drawing upon the same indigenous melody.

Next we have a record by the Lecuona Cuban Boys, confusingly named because the group did not include Lecuona himself. He did, however, start the group in the early 1930s after seeing the success that Alfredo Brito was having with his music. The song “Panama” comes from a 1937 Columbia album by the group.

The Cuban Boys also contribute a rendition of one of Lecuona’s best-known melodies, “La Comparsa,” taken from their early Victor album Melodias Cubanas, with a piano solo by Armando Oréfiche, the group’s leader. I've also included a 1946 recording of "La Comparsa" from Camilo Lentini and His Latin-American Orchestra on the Pan-American label. Lentini was active in the Los Angeles area in the 1940s.

Hollywood called on Lecuona once more for a title song for the 1946 film One More Tomorrow, an Ann Sheridan-Dennis Morgan-Alexis Smith love triangle in which Morgan has to choose between his principles and his rich friends. (In other words, it has a plot you have seen a hundred times.) The version of the song in the playlist comes from Tex Beneke’s revived Glenn Miller Orchestra, with a sensitive vocal by Artie Malvin, who later became the king of the budget-label cover records.

Also in 1946, Lecuona provided the music for Carnival in Costa Rica, a musical starring Dick Haymes and Vera-Ellen. I am particularly fond of the music from this film, so I have included the main songs directly from the soundtrack and from Haymes’ Decca recordings.

Vera-Ellen’s singing voice was dubbed by Pat Friday, a superb vocalist who appeared on several radio shows, did some film dubbing and made a very few records, including a version of Carnival in Costa Rica's “Mi Vida." My other blog will soon have a post of the few 78s she made in 1946 for the small Enterprise label.

Dick Haymes and Vera-Ellen in Carnival in Costa Rica

In this collection, we have soundtrack versions of “I’ll Know It’s Love” (Friday solo and Haymes/Friday reprise), “Mi Vida” (Haymes/Friday duet) and “Another Night Like This” (Haymes solo). Also included are Haymes’ Decca 78s of “Another Night Like This” and “Mi Vida,” which have backing by Gordon Jenkins.

The Lecuona Cuban Boys return with a 1946 single on the Majestic label – “Rumba-Bomba,” with a Manyo Lopez vocal, and “Maracas,” vocal by Ernesto Ojea.

Lecuona’s music continued to be popular into the 1950s. The playlist concludes with two versions of “The Breeze and I” from that decade. The first is a Vic Damone vocal recording, which became a hit in 1952. Finally, there is a George Shearing instrumental from 1951 that demonstrates the influence of Shearing’s sound on the exotica bands that were soon to emerge.

The sound on these records ranges from good to excellent. Most were sourced from lossless needle-drops on Internet Archive.