Malagueña
Encyclopedia
Originally the sixth movement of the Suite Andalucia by Ernesto Lecuona
, who also provided it with Spanish lyrics, the song "Malagueña" has since become a popular
, jazz
, marching band
, and drum corps
standard and has been provided with lyrics in several languages.
version, sung by Caterina Valente
, with Werner Müller
's Orchestra, was very popular in the United States
(not making the Billboard chart, but charting on Cash Box
, peaking at position #42) in February 1955
. She also has sung Malaguena
in Spanish. English lyrics had been written by Marian Banks and a later charting version was recorded by Connie Francis
in 1960
that reached #42 on Billboard's chart as the flip side of her #1 pop smash "My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own."
It is a Spanish folk song and is usually played on a piano at a fast pace with a repeating pattern.
Bill Holman
's arrangement for the Stan Kenton
Orchestra, reimagined the song as a fiery big band
showpiece. Performances of this arrangement appeared on Kenton's 1961 album Adventures in Jazz and on the 1962 American TV show, Jazz Scene USA.
Marco Rizo
solo piano performance of Malagueña can be found in Lecuona, a Musical Legacy. Rizo, who in 1938 became the official pianist of the Havana Philharmonic, performed under the direction of Maestro Ernesto Lecuona
and gave duo piano recitals with Lecuona in 1939.
Carlos Montoya
adapted it for flamenco style guitar, and it was the title track on his 1961 live album, "Malagueña" on the RCA Victor lablel. This recording was influential in the piece becoming a guitar standard, even though it was originally written for piano.
recorded an instrumental version of "Malagueña" and also performed the song in an episode of the US
TV show The Odd Couple
. Rock
versions have included an instrumental version by Bill Haley & His Comets
recorded live in Sweden
in 1968 (it was a staple of their live shows in the 1960s and 1970s, usually performed by guitarist Nick Nastos). An instrumental version by Ritchie Valens
was released years after his death. A surf instrumental version of "Malagueña" has been performed by the Trashmen, the Bambi Molesters, and Albatross
, and is part of an arrangement of Misirlou
by Dick Dale
and others. The genealogy of this arrangement is not known. Other instrumental versions were provided by New Orleans piano virtuoso James Booker
, legendary New Orleans guitarist Snooks Eaglin
(as "Funky Malagueña), Brian Setzer
on his album Ignition, Dave Salyer on Red Hot Guitar, and Buckethead
on From the Coop
. "Malagueña" was also loosely adapted in 1991 by American thrash metal band Tourniquet
for their instrumental song "Viento Borrascoso
" (an acoustic version
was released in 1998).
show in 1988, many witnesses call it a legendary moment in the Drum Corps activity.
“Malagueña” has been performed numerous times by the University of Massachusetts Amherst
Marching Band
, and as such, has become one of the songs most identified with the group. The University of Minnesota
hockey pep band also plays the song after each home win by their men's hockey team. The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps
won their second DCI World Championship
with a program including the work. Performed by Florida State University's Marching Chiefs
as well, in addition to being played by the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band. Other corps
to perform the piece include the Boston Crusaders, the Velvet Knights
, The Cadets
, the Hawthorne Caballeros
and the Hanover (PA)
Lancers.
, a ladies U.S. figure skater, used this song as her short program in the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 figure skating seasons.
Kristi Yamaguchi
, a ladies U.S. figure skater, used this song for her long program in the 1991-1992 season, the year she won the Olympic gold medal.
Ernesto Lecuona
Ernesto Lecuona y Casado was a Cuban composer and pianist of Canarian father and Cuban mother, and worldwide fame. He composed over six hundred pieces, mostly in the Cuban vein, and was a pianist of exceptional quality....
, who also provided it with Spanish lyrics, the song "Malagueña" has since become a popular
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, marching band
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
, and drum corps
Drum and bugle corps (modern)
A drum and bugle corps, also known as a drum corps, is a musical marching unit consisting of brass instruments, percussion instruments, and color guard. Typically operating as independent non-profit organizations, drum corps perform in competitions, parades, festivals, and other civic functions...
standard and has been provided with lyrics in several languages.
Notable vocal performances
A German languageGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
version, sung by Caterina Valente
Caterina Valente
Caterina Valente is a singer, dancer, and actress. She was born into an Italian artist family; her father Giuseppe was a well-known accordion player, her mother, Maria Valente, a musical clown...
, with Werner Müller
Werner Müller
Werner Müller is a Swiss sprint canoer who competed in the early 1950s. He finished 16th in the K-2 10000 m event at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.-References:*...
's Orchestra, was very popular in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(not making the Billboard chart, but charting on Cash Box
Cash Box magazine
Cashbox magazine was a weekly publication devoted to the music and coin-operated machine industries in the USA which was published from July 1942 to November 16, 1996...
, peaking at position #42) in February 1955
1955 in music
-Events:*January 1 – RCA Victor announces a marketing plan called "Operation TNT." The label drops the list price on LPs from $5.95 to $3.98, EPs from $4.95 to $2.98, 45 EPs from $1.58 to $1.49 and 45's from $1.16 to $.89...
. She also has sung Malaguena
Malagueña
Originally the sixth movement of the Suite Andalucia by Ernesto Lecuona, who also provided it with Spanish lyrics, the song "Malagueña" has since become a popular, jazz, marching band, and drum corps standard and has been provided with lyrics in several languages.-Notable vocal performances:A...
in Spanish. English lyrics had been written by Marian Banks and a later charting version was recorded by Connie Francis
Connie Francis
Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...
in 1960
1960 in music
-Events:*January 14 – Elvis Presley is promoted to Sergeant in the U.S. Army*February 6 – Songwriter Jesse Belvin dies in an automobile accident in Los Angeles...
that reached #42 on Billboard's chart as the flip side of her #1 pop smash "My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own."
It is a Spanish folk song and is usually played on a piano at a fast pace with a repeating pattern.
Notable instrumental performances
"Malagueña" was recorded by the composer as a piano solo on the 1955 RCA Victor LP Lecuona Plays Lecuona. The recording is available on RCA/BMG CD compilations / reissues.Bill Holman
Bill Holman (musician)
Willis Leonard Holman , known also as Bill Holman, is an American composer/arranger, conductor, saxophonist, and songwriter working primarily in the jazz idiom....
's arrangement for the Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
Orchestra, reimagined the song as a fiery big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
showpiece. Performances of this arrangement appeared on Kenton's 1961 album Adventures in Jazz and on the 1962 American TV show, Jazz Scene USA.
Marco Rizo
Marco Rizo
Marco Rizo Ayala was born in Santiago de Cuba, Oriente, Cuba. He was a Cuban-born pianist, composer, and arranger...
solo piano performance of Malagueña can be found in Lecuona, a Musical Legacy. Rizo, who in 1938 became the official pianist of the Havana Philharmonic, performed under the direction of Maestro Ernesto Lecuona
Ernesto Lecuona
Ernesto Lecuona y Casado was a Cuban composer and pianist of Canarian father and Cuban mother, and worldwide fame. He composed over six hundred pieces, mostly in the Cuban vein, and was a pianist of exceptional quality....
and gave duo piano recitals with Lecuona in 1939.
Carlos Montoya
Carlos Montoya
Carlos Montoya was a prominent Flamenco guitarist and a founder of the modern-day popular Flamenco style of music.His unique style and successful career, despite all odds, have left a great legacy for modern day Flamenco...
adapted it for flamenco style guitar, and it was the title track on his 1961 live album, "Malagueña" on the RCA Victor lablel. This recording was influential in the piece becoming a guitar standard, even though it was originally written for piano.
Other popular versions
American guitarist Roy ClarkRoy Clark
Roy Linwood Clark is an American country music musician and performer. He is best known for hosting Hee Haw, a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969–1992. Clark has been an important and influential figure in country music, both as a performer and helping to popularize the genre...
recorded an instrumental version of "Malagueña" and also performed the song in an episode of the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
TV show The Odd Couple
The Odd Couple (TV series)
The Odd Couple is a television situation comedy broadcast from September 24, 1970 to July 4, 1975 on ABC. It starred Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison. It was based upon the play of the same name, which was written by Neil Simon.Felix and Oscar are two divorced men....
. Rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
versions have included an instrumental version by Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets
Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of...
recorded live in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
in 1968 (it was a staple of their live shows in the 1960s and 1970s, usually performed by guitarist Nick Nastos). An instrumental version by Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist....
was released years after his death. A surf instrumental version of "Malagueña" has been performed by the Trashmen, the Bambi Molesters, and Albatross
Albatross
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds allied to the procellariids, storm-petrels and diving-petrels in the order Procellariiformes . They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific...
, and is part of an arrangement of Misirlou
Misirlou
Misirlou , is a popular Greek song with popularity in five styles of music: Greek rebetiko, Middle-Eastern belly dancing, Jewish klezmer, American surf rock, and international orchestral easy listening .- History :...
by Dick Dale
Dick Dale
Dick Dale is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He experimented with reverberation and made use of custom made Fender amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.-Early life:Dale was born in South Boston, Massachusetts and lived in nearby...
and others. The genealogy of this arrangement is not known. Other instrumental versions were provided by New Orleans piano virtuoso James Booker
James Booker
James Carroll Booker III was a jazz, New Orleans rhythm and blues and soul musician born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.-Biography:...
, legendary New Orleans guitarist Snooks Eaglin
Snooks Eaglin
Snooks Eaglin, born Fird Eaglin, Jr. , was a New Orleans-based guitarist and singer. He was also referred to as Blind Snooks Eaglin in his early years....
(as "Funky Malagueña), Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer
Brian Setzer is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He first found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly revival group The Stray Cats, and revitalized his career in the late 1990s with a jazz-oriented big band.-Career:Setzer was born in Massapequa, New York...
on his album Ignition, Dave Salyer on Red Hot Guitar, and Buckethead
Buckethead
Brian Carroll , better known by his stage name Buckethead, is a guitarist and multi instrumentalist who has worked within several genres of music. He has released 34 studio albums, four special releases and one EP. He has performed on over 50 more albums by other artists...
on From the Coop
From the Coop
-Credits:* Buckethead - Guitar, bass, drum machine* Jas Obrecht - Producer* Ken Hood - Audio engineering* John Edmonds - Original engineer in 1988-Artist bio:...
. "Malagueña" was also loosely adapted in 1991 by American thrash metal band Tourniquet
Tourniquet (band)
Tourniquet is a Christian thrash / heavy metal band that was formed in 1989 by Ted Kirkpatrick, Guy Ritter and Gary Lenaire in Los Angeles, California, USA. They are known for incorporating elements of thrash, neo-classical and progressive metal into their music...
for their instrumental song "Viento Borrascoso
Psycho Surgery
As a result for Metal Blade Records' distribution, Psycho Surgery made the band more well-known and popular. Following the album's release, the songs "Psycho Surgery," "Spineless," and "Viento Borrascoso" all achieved number 1 positions on several charts. The album was voted as "Favorite Album of...
" (an acoustic version
Acoustic Archives
Acoustic Archives is a 1998 acoustic album by Christian metal band Tourniquet. All of the songs are performed acoustically except for the new song "Trivializing the Momentous, Complicating the Obvious".- Track listing :...
was released in 1998).
Drum corps / Marching band
"Malagueña" is one of the most often performed pieces in drum & bugle corps and marching competitions. One of the most well known performances of this piece in recent years has been as part of the Broadway musical Blast!, a fusion of Corps style musical arrangements and field (stage) movements with traditional theatric elements. The best known performance of Malagueña is regarded as the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle CorpsMadison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps
The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps is a summer youth drum corps based in Madison, Wisconsin that competes in the Drum Corps International circuit. Founded in 1938, it is the third oldest corps in the DCI circuit, after the Cadets, and the Racine Scouts, founded in 1934 and 1927, respectively....
show in 1988, many witnesses call it a legendary moment in the Drum Corps activity.
“Malagueña” has been performed numerous times by the University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
Marching Band
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
, and as such, has become one of the songs most identified with the group. The University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
hockey pep band also plays the song after each home win by their men's hockey team. The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps
Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps
The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps is a summer youth drum corps based in Madison, Wisconsin that competes in the Drum Corps International circuit. Founded in 1938, it is the third oldest corps in the DCI circuit, after the Cadets, and the Racine Scouts, founded in 1934 and 1927, respectively....
won their second DCI World Championship
Drum Corps International
Drum Corps International , formed in 1972, is the non-profit governing body operating the North American drum and bugle corps circuit for junior corps, whose members are between the ages of 14 and 21. It is the counterpart of Drum Corps Associates which governs senior or all-age drum corps...
with a program including the work. Performed by Florida State University's Marching Chiefs
Marching Chiefs
Since 1949, the name Marching Chiefs has served as the official title of the marching band of The Florida State University. The Marching Chiefs is the largest college marching band in the world with approximately 470 members.-History:...
as well, in addition to being played by the Pride of Oklahoma Marching Band. Other corps
Drum and bugle corps (modern)
A drum and bugle corps, also known as a drum corps, is a musical marching unit consisting of brass instruments, percussion instruments, and color guard. Typically operating as independent non-profit organizations, drum corps perform in competitions, parades, festivals, and other civic functions...
to perform the piece include the Boston Crusaders, the Velvet Knights
Velvet Knights Drum and Bugle Corps
The Velvet Knights is a former DCI World Class drum corps based in Anaheim, California.-Inception and early years:The Velvet Knights were born in 1963, a result of a split within the Anaheim Explorer Scouts that also resulted in the formation of the Anaheim Kingsmen...
, The Cadets
The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps
The Cadets are a Drum Corps International World Class drum and bugle corps based in Allentown, Pennsylvania...
, the Hawthorne Caballeros
Hawthorne Caballeros Drum and Bugle Corps
The Hawthorne Caballeros Drum and Bugle Corps from Hawthorne, New Jersey are one of the oldest and the most decorated summer drum and bugle corps in Drum Corps Associates...
and the Hanover (PA)
Hanover, Pennsylvania
Hanover is a borough in York County, Pennsylvania, southwest of York and north-northwest of Baltimore, Maryland.The town is situated in a productive agricultural region. The population was 15,289 at the 2010 census. The borough is served by a 717 area code and the Zip Codes of 17331-34...
Lancers.
In figure skating
Sasha CohenSasha Cohen
Alexandra Pauline "Sasha" Cohen is a U.S. figure skater. She is the 2006 Olympic silver medalist, a three-time World Championship medalist, the 2003 Grand Prix Final Champion, and the 2006 U.S. Champion.-Personal life:...
, a ladies U.S. figure skater, used this song as her short program in the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 figure skating seasons.
Kristi Yamaguchi
Kristi Yamaguchi
Kristine Tsuya "Kristi" Yamaguchi-Hedican is an American figure skater. She is the 1992 Olympic Champion in ladies' singles. Yamaguchi also won two World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and 1992 and a U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1992. She won one junior world title in 1988 and two...
, a ladies U.S. figure skater, used this song for her long program in the 1991-1992 season, the year she won the Olympic gold medal.