History
"La Paloma" became quickly popular in Mexico. It was a favorite of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, and at the same time the Mexican revolutionaries played and popularized it well. In the 1939 film Juarez, Emperor Maximilian (portrayed by Brian Aherne) requests that it be played during his execution. As Emperor Maximilian was a Habsburg, ships of the Austrian Navy would never play the song.
German and French versions appeared in 1865. In 1899, a performance of the melody by the French Garde Républicaine was one of the first recordings that were made.
New lyrics (not translations) are available in many languages. They typically involve generic images of white doves and true loves. They lack the specificity of the original Spanish, in which a Cuban sailor laments parting from his "Guachinanga chinita" (his adorable Mexican sweetheart), and asks her to cherish his spirit if it returns to her window as a dove. Then he fantasizes that if he does return safely, they will marry and have seven, or even fifteen, children.
In English, a version titled "No More" with lyrics by Don Robertson and Hal Blair was recorded by both Dean Martin and Elvis Presley.Template:Blue Hawaii Album RCA LPM-2426
La Paloma has been interpreted by musicians of diverse backgrounds including opera, pop, jazz, rock, military bands, and folk music.
The song entered the Guinness Book of World Records being sung by the largest choir, 88,600 people, in Hamburg on May 9, 2004.
Read more about this topic: La Paloma
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)