Malagueña Salerosa

Not to be confused with Malagueña (song), the sixth movement of the Suite Andalucia by Ernesto Lecuona.

Malagueña Salerosa also known as La Malagueña is a well-known Son Huasteco or Huapango song from Mexico, which has been covered by many performers.

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^[1] and Pedro Galindo,^[2] published by Peer International in 1947^[3] (monitored by BMI), although Mexican composer Nicandro Castillo^[4] questions the validity of that authorship.^[5] As he mentions:

"Composer don Nicandro [Castillo] wrote that several tunes from la Huasteca which were known as huapango songs composed by Elpidio Ramírez, Roque Ramírez and Pedro Galindo, were actually anonymous songs, as was the case of Cielito Lindo (Son Huasteco) and La Malagueña, which in reality, like La Guasanga or El Sacamandú, where known many years before, and should be part of the public domain. "

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. So too many different editions of the song feature vocal gymnastics by whoever sings them, particularly the stretching of vowels such as the "e" sound in the gentillic '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 many non-Mexican artists like

• José Feliciano

• Paco de Lucía on his 1967 album Dos guitarras flamencas en America Latina
• Eddie Palmieri on his 1998 album El Rumbero del Piano.
• Bud & Travis on their 1959 album Bud and Travis.
• The Limeliters on their 1960 album The Limeliters.
• Sandler and Young
• Los Caballeros
• Lydia Mendoza
• Helmut Lotti in 2000 on the album Latino Classics.
• Pablito Ruiz
• Plácido Domingo
• Ray Boguslav in 1961 on the album Curfew shall not ring tonight Monitor MF359
• The San Francisco rock band The Tubes sang it on their 1975 album debut.
• Tex-mex band Chingón recorded it for the soundtrack of Kill Bill Vol. 2.
• The Texan folksinger Tish Hinojosa sang it on her album Aquella Noche
• Nana Mouskouri (Greek singer)
• 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
• Yanni on his 2010 album Yanni Mexicanisimo
• Trio Los Angeles in 1973. That year song reached Dutch pop charts. Apparently Trio Los Angeles were street musicians and La Malaguena was produced by Hans Vermeulen and played by the band Sandy Coast.
• The Croatian singer Massimo Savić in 1988 on his album Riječi čarobne (Magic Words).

Notes and references

1. ^ See Elpidio Ramírez at the Internet Movie Database
2. ^ See the "Soundtrack" section of Pedro Galindo at the Internet Movie Database
3. ^ "Elpidio Ramírez - La Malaguena Sheet Music". http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0036473. 
4. ^ 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"
5. ^ 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. http://web.archive.org/web/20040612081256/http://www.conaculta.gob.mx/saladeprensa/2003/12ago/nicandro.htm. 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 »."
   Translation: "The issue is controversial because in these pages, [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”." 

External links

• Lyrics
• Lyrics with composers credits