Malagueña Salerosa

Malagueña Salerosa — also known as La Malagueña — is a well-known Son Huasteco or Huapango song from Mexico, which has been covered more than 200 times^[1] by recording artists.

The song is that of a man telling a woman (from Málaga, Spain) how beautiful she is, and how he would love to be her man, but that he understands her rejecting him for being too poor.

Malagueña Salerosa is attributed to Elpidio Ramírez^[2] and Pedro Galindo,^[3] published by Peer International in 1947^[4] (monitored by BMI), although Mexican composer Nicandro Castillo^[5] questions the validity of that authorship. As he mentions:

"The issue is controversial because […] [hidalguense composer] don Nicandro Castillo wrote that several tunes from la Huasteca which in decades past were known as huapangos, composed by Elpidio Ramírez, Roque Ramírez and Pedro Galindo, were actually anonymous songs, as was the case of Cielito Lindo and La Malagueña, which like La Guasanga or El Sacamandú, were in the public domain, written “long before the construction of the Cathedral of Huejutla”."^[6]

Many have recorded and played this song, in particular Conjunto huastecos, Mariachis and Bolero Trios. But the most famous version was made by Miguel Aceves Mejía with a mariachi band. With Huapangos or Son Huastecos, the falsetto technique is used to great effect, as in David Záizar's version. Quite a few versions of the song feature vocal gymnastics by whomever sings them, particularly the stretching of vowels such as the "e" sound in the gentilic 'Malagueña' for as long as the singer can hold the note. Other known mariachi versions of the song were recorded by

• Antonio Aguilar,
• Ramón Vargas,
• Miguel Aceves Mejía,
• Mariachi Vargas, and
• David Záizar.

Conjunto huastecos that have played this song include,

• Los Camperos de Valles,
• Trio Chicontepec,
• Trio resplandor huasteco, and
• Conjunto de Juan Reynoso

Bolero trio versions were recorded by

• Los Panchos, and
• Los Tres Ases.
• Rafael Méndez on his album Mendez and Almeida Together

This song became known internationally and has been recorded by such Mexican and non-Mexican artists as:

• Bud & Travis on their 1959 album Bud and Travis.
• The Limeliters on their 1960 album The Limeliters.
• Ray Boguslav in 1961 on the album Curfew shall not ring tonight Monitor MF359
• Kathy Kirby whose 1963 UK hit (#17) "You're the One" set English lyrics (by Marcel Stellman) to the melody of "Malagueña Salerosa".
• Yugoslav and Serbian singer Nikola Karovic recorded "Malagueña" in 1964 as a single album and sold it in more than 1.000.000 copies.
• Trini Lopez on his 1964 album The Latin Album, however, wasn't released as a single until 1968.
• Harry James on his 1966 album The Ballads And The Beat! (Dot DLP 3669 and DLP 25669).
• Paco de Lucía on his 1967 album Dos guitarras flamencas en America Latina
• Nancy Ames on her 1969 all Spanish album "This Is The Girl That Is".
• Trio Los Angeles in 1973, reaching the Dutch pop charts. It was produced by Hans Vermeulen and played by the band Sandy Coast.
• The San Francisco rock band The Tubes sang it on their 1975 album debut.
• The Croatian singer Massimo Savić in 1988 on his album Riječi čarobne (Magic Words).
• The Texan folksinger Tish Hinojosa sang it on her 1991 album Aquella Noche
• Cowboy music group Riders in the Sky on their 1994 album Cowboys in Love and their 2003 album Riders in the Sky Silver Jubilee
• Nana Mouskouri on her 1998 album Côté Sud, Côté Coeur.
• Eddie Palmieri on his 1998 album El Rumbero del Piano.
• Helmut Lotti in 2000 on the album Latino Classics.
• The French singer Olivia Ruiz in 2003 on her album J'aime pas l'amour, and then again on her 2008 Spanish-language album La Chica Chocolate
• Tex-mex band Chingón recorded it for the 2004 soundtrack of Kill Bill: Volume 2.
• Yanni on his 2010 album Yanni Mexicanisimo
• The Iranian singer Viguen who sang La Malagueña in Persian. He has a Spanish version as well.
• The Iranian singer Googoosh.
• José Feliciano
• Sandler and Young
• Los Caballeros
• Lydia Mendoza
• Pablito Ruiz
• Plácido Domingo on his 1999 album 100 Años de Mariachi, which won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance.
• Ronstadt Generaciones y los Tucsonenses
• Bomba Estéreo
• The Italian band El Cuento de la Chica y la Tequila recorded "Malagueña Salerosa" on their 2013 EP The Wounded Healer.
• Carol Cisneros ^[7]
• Antonio Banderas played the Malagueña in the movie "Once upon time in Mexico".
• "Once upon a time in Mexico" mariachi version of Malaguena salerosa recorded by Chingon, members of group Del Castillo of Austin, Texas and Robert Rodriguez motion picture director and producer.

Notes and references

1. "All versions of Some musics". Retrieved 2011-12-31.
2. See Elpidio Ramírez at the Internet Movie Database
3. See the "Soundtrack" section of Pedro Galindo at the Internet Movie Database
4. "Elpidio Ramírez - La Malaguena Sheet Music".
5. Nicandro Castillo (1914 – 1990): "El Hidalguense", "Las Tres Huastecas", "El Cantador", "La Calandria", "Sueño", "El Alegre", "El Huasteco Enamorado", "Fiesta Huasteca", "El Gavilán Tamaulipeco", and "Mi huejutla"
6. Trejo, Ángel. "El huapango resucitó y vive una de sus mejores etapas: Enrique Rivas Paniagua" (in Spanish). México D.F.: Conaculta. Archived from the original on 2004-06-12. Retrieved 2009-09-28. El tema es controvertido porque en dichas páginas [compositor hidalguense] don Nicandro [Castillo] escribió que varios sones huastecos que en las décadas pasadas fueron conocidos como huapangos compuestos por Elpidio Ramírez, Roque Ramírez y Pedro Galindo fueron en realidad sones anónimos -como fue el caso de Cielito Lindo y La Malagueña, que al igual que La Guasanga o El Sacamandú, eran del dominio público- escritos mucho antes « que se construyera la Catedral de Huejutla ».
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDYKPC56QwY

External links

• Lyrics^{(Link doesn't work)}
• Lyrics with composers credits