El Choclo
| "El Choclo" | |
|---|---|
| ("The Corn Cob") | |
 Sheet music for "El Choclo" | |
| Written by | Ángel Villoldo |
| Published | 1903 |
| Language | Spanish |
| Form | Tango |
| Recorded by | Georgia Gibbs, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Connie Francis, Guy Lombardo |
"El Choclo" (Spanish: meaning "The Ear of Corn" more accurately "The Corn Cob") is a popular song written by Ángel Villoldo, an Argentine musician. Allegedly written in honour of and taking its title from the nickname of the proprietor of a nightclub, who was known as El Choclo.
It is probably one of the most popular tangos in Argentina.
The piece was premiered in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1903 – the date appears on a program of the venue – at the elegant restaurant "El Americano" on 966 Cangallo Street (today Teniente General Perón) by the orchestra led by Jose Luis Roncallo.
El Choclo has been recorded (without vocals) by many dance orchestras, especially in Argentina.
A number of vocal versions were recorded in 1952, but the most popular was the one by Georgia Gibbs, which reached #2 on the Billboard chart. [1] [2] Tony Martin's version reached #6, Toni Arden's #14, Billy Eckstine's #16, Louis Armstrong's #20, and Guy Lombardo's version reached #30. There are Spanish versions of "Kiss of Fire" by Connie Francis and Nat King Cole. In 1953 Olavi Virta and Metro-Tytöt released a Finnish version, titled "Tulisuudelma", which means "Kiss of Fire". The Finnish words, by "Kullervo" (Tapio Kullervo Lahtinen), closely follow the English. In 2001 the hip-hop group Delinquent Habits made the song known to a new generation when they released "Return of the tres", which relies heavily on samplings from a Mariachi version of the classical tango.
Lyrics
The original lyrics by Villoldo specifically sang about the corn cob as food. He later wrote another version titled "Cariño Puro". Another version was written by Marambio Catán, but the most popular remains Enrique Santos Discépolo's (1947), which sing about Tango as a way of life.
Recorded versions
- Toni Arden (1952)
- Louis Armstrong (1952)
- Dick Beavers
- Nat King Cole (1959)
- Billy Eckstine (1952)
- Lester Ferguson
- Connie Francis
- Georgia Gibbs (1952)
- David Hughes
- Mickey Katz Parody entitled Kiss of Meyer
- Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians (vocal: Kenny Gardner) (1952)
- Tony Martin (1952)
- Anne Shelton
- Victor Silvester
- Caterina Valente
- Billy Vaughn Orchestra
- Victor Orchestra (1912)
- Jimmy Young (1952)
- Chico Vasquez & Bill Aken - Guitar duet (1970)
- Ikue Mori (1995)
- Julio Iglesias (1996)
- Violetta Villas (1993)
- Olavi Virta (1915–1972) of Finland (1953)
- Hugh Laurie Feat Gaby Moreno (2013)
Alan Sherman sang a parody of the song as "Kiss of Meyer", which starts out like a Jewish song with the "Dye Dee Dye Dee Dye", and ending the song with a brief quote of "Whatever Lola Wants" as "Whatever Meyer Wants/ Meyer Gets/ That is his name? His name is Meyer Getz"? The instrumental version by 'Chico & Bill' (Chico Vasquez and Bill Aken) in their 1970 album was notable because they were joined in the studio on that one recording by Les Paul and Chet Atkins who were both long time family friends of Aken's parents.
References
- ↑ Billboard April 19, 1952 See page 30 Best Selling Pop Records
- ↑ Billboard April 5, 1952. http://books.google.com/books?id=hB4EAAAAMBAJ&q=kiss+of+fire see page 52
External links
| |||||||||||
