"Bésame Mucho" is a Spanish language

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 song written in 1940

1940 in music

-Events:*July 20 - Billboard magazine publishes its first "Music Popularity Chart".*May 27 - Quartetto Egie make their debut performance.*August - Edmundo Ros forms his own rumba band.*November 23 - Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Quintet is premièred....

 by Mexican

Mexican people

Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....

 songwriter Consuelo Velázquez

Consuelo Velázquez

Consuelo Velázquez was a Mexican concert pianist, songwriter and recording artist.According to her obituary, she was 88 years old when she died...

.

Inspiration

According to Velázquez herself, she wrote this song even though she had never been kissed yet at the time, and kissing as she heard was considered a sin.

She was inspired by the piano piece "Quejas, o la Maja y el Ruiseñor" from the 1911 suite Goyescas

Goyescas

Goyescas, Op. 11, subtitled Los majos enamorados , is a piano suite written in 1911 by Spanish composer Enrique Granados. This piano suite is usually considered Granados's crowning creation and was inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya, although the piano pieces have not been authoritatively...

by Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 composer Enrique Granados

Enrique Granados

Enrique Granados y Campiña was a Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. His music is in a uniquely Spanish style and, as such, representative of musical nationalism...

, which he later also included as Aria of the Nightingale in his 1916 opera of the same name

Goyescas (opera)

Goyescas is an opera in one act and three tableaux, written in 1915 by the Spanish composer Enrique Granados. Granados composed the opera to a Spanish libretto by Fernando Periquet y Zuaznabar with melodies taken from his 1911 piano suite, which was also called Goyescas...

.

Comments on lyrics

There are slight differences in the wording at the end of the chorus, regarding the words perderte después meaning "to lose you in the after". Considering that Velázquez may have been fifteen years old when she wrote the song, this sentence reflects inexperience and innocence. Indeed, a video from "TV Mexicana" shows Consuelo Velázquez playing the piano while the singer sings perderte después. However, many interpretations use perderte otra vez ("lose you once again") instead of the original perderte despues ("lose you after"). This may have been modified to touch a more grown-up, experienced audience.

An English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 version of the song was written by Sunny Skylar

Sunny Skylar

Sunny Skylar was an American composer, singer, lyricist, and music publisher. He was born Selig Shaftel in Brooklyn, New York. As a singer, he appeared with a number of big bands, including those led by Ben Bernie, Paul Whiteman, Abe Lyman, George Hall and Vincent Lopez...

. The lyrics are different from the direct English translation of the original, but retain the Spanish Bésame mucho.

"Bésame Mucho" is also known by translated names such as "Kiss Me Much", "Kiss Me a Lot", "Kiss Me Again and Again", "Embrasse-Moi", "Stale Ma Bozkavaj", "Suutele minua" and "Szeretlek én".

Recordings and performances

Emilio Tuero

Emilio Tuero

Emilio Tuero Cubillas was a Mexican actor, producer and singer of Spanish origin.He was known as "Barítono de Argel" and worked for the XEW radio station during "La hora azul" , performing popular music, bolero and tango.- Filmography :* Cri Cri el grillito cantor * Viva el amor * Historia de un...

 was the first to record the song, but the Lucho Gatica

Lucho Gatica

Luis Enrique Gatica Silva, better known as Lucho Gatica, is a Chilean bolero singer, film actor, and television host. It is estimated that Gatica has released more than 90 recordings. He has toured a vast portion of the world, having made concerts in Europe, the Middle East and Asia...

 version made the song famous.

The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 covered the song numerous times, both on stage and in the studio, including during their audition for Decca Records

The Beatles' Decca audition

The Decca audition is the name given to the now-famous Beatles audition for Decca Records at their Decca Studios in West Hampstead, north London, England, before they reached international stardom...

, their first EMI recording session and the Get Back sessions. A performance from the Get Back sessions was included in the documentary film Let It Be

Let It Be (film)

Let It Be is a 1970 documentary film about The Beatles rehearsing and recording songs for the album Let It Be in January 1969. The film features an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, their last performance in public...

, while one from the EMI audition appeared on the Anthology 1

Anthology 1

Anthology 1 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in November 1995. It was released as the first part of the Anthology trilogy of albums with Anthology 2 and Anthology 3, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. It contains "Free as a Bird",...

compilation. The Beatles sang their rendition of the song with English lyrics that do not correspond to the original Spanish lyrics.

Jet Harris

Jet Harris

Jet Harris, MBE was an English musician. He was the bass guitarist of The Shadows until April 1962, and had subsequent success as a soloist and as a duo with the drummer Tony Meehan....

 made an instrumental version (bass guitar) in 1962.

Raquel Bitton  sang BESAME MUCHO in her CD BOLEROS.

The composition has been used in the soundtracks of numerous other films, including Great Expectations

Great Expectations (1998 film)

Great Expectations is a 1998 contemporary film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert De Niro, Anne Bancroft and Chris Cooper. It is known for having moved the setting of the original novel from 1861...

, A toda máquina, Moon Over Parador

Moon Over Parador

Moon over Parador is a 1988 romantic comedy film, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Raúl Juliá and Sonia Braga. It is a remake of the 1939 film The Magnificent Fraud, based on the unpublished short story entitled Caviar for His Excellency by Charles G...

, Arizona Dream

Arizona Dream

Arizona Dream is a 1993 film directed by Emir Kusturica and starring Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway.-Plot:Axel has a dream about an Eskimo who catches a rare halibut and brings it back to his family in an igloo...

, Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears

Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears

Moscow Does not Believe in Tears is a 1980 Soviet film made by Mosfilm. It was written by Valentin Chernykh and directed by Vladimir Menshov. The leading roles were played by Menshov's wife Vera Alentova and by Aleksey Batalov. The film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in...

, The Naked Gun 2 1⁄2: The Smell of Fear, In Good Company, Paid

Paid (2006 film)

Paid is a 2006 English language feature film directed by Laurence Lamers. It was filmed in Netherlands between 2004 and 2005 with Anne Charrier, Murilo Benício, Tom Conti, Guy Marchand, Corbin Bernsen, Marie-France Pisier, Beppe Clerici and Tygo Gernandt....

, Juno

Juno (film)

Juno is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, J. K....

, Mona Lisa Smile

Mona Lisa Smile

Mona Lisa Smile is a 2003 romantic drama film produced by Revolution Studios and Columbia Pictures in association with Red Om Films Productions, directed by Mike Newell, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Julia Stiles...

, Mivtza Savta

Mivtza Savta

Mivtza Savta is an Israeli cult film directed by Dror Shaul and released in 1999.The film is a satirical comedy about the Israeli military and kibbutz life. The story revolves around three brothers: Alon , a no-nonsense Israeli Army officer, Benny , a brilliant electrician, and Idan , a wimpy...

, Ljubav i drugi zločini

Ljubav i drugi zlocini

Ljubav i drugi zločini is a 2008 Serbian romantic comedy directed by Stefan Arsenijević, and written by Arsenijevic and Srđan Koljević. It translates into English as Love and Other Crimes, and stars Anica Dobra and Vuk Kostić. The film won Arsenijevic an award for Best Director at the 2008 Sofia...

, Santa Sangre

Santa Sangre

Santa Sangre is a 1989 Mexican-Italian surrealist film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni...

and Niravana by Gabriel Salvatores.

Fastball's

Fastball (band)

Fastball is an American rock band that formed in Austin, Texas in the 1990s. The band originally called themselves "Magneto U.S.A." but changed their name after signing with Hollywood Records....

 hit 1998 song "The Way

The Way (song)

"The Way" is a song by the American alternative rock band Fastball from their second studio album, All the Pain Money Can Buy. It peaked at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in April and remained there for seven weeks. The song also reached #1 on Canada's Singles Chart...

" was inspired by "Besame Mucho" and uses much of the same melody.
The song was also recorded by famous Albanian singer Enriko Ceko in 2004

In 2007, composer/arranger and jazz trombonist Steve Wiest was nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement for his version of "Besame Mucho" that was recorded by Maynard Ferguson

Maynard Ferguson

Maynard Ferguson was a Canadian jazz musician and bandleader. He came to prominence playing in Stan Kenton's orchestra, before forming his own band in 1957...

 on The One and Only Maynard Ferguson.

In January 2010, at the 52nd Grammy Awards, Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

Herbert "Herb" Alpert is an American musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass, or TJB. He is also a recording industry executive — he is the "A" of A&M Records...

 was nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.