Every country town has a junk shop. Or to be more euphemistic, an antique store–often more than one. My little village in Ecuador is no exception. On the way to town, on the side of the road, is just such an establishment. When it first opened last year, my husband Johnny and I stopped by to see what was up. Turns out the owner was an old acquaintance of Johnny's. So much so that Johnny knew his whole backstory, including the fact that the guy had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth only to return to his country after a number of years, settling in this small Andean village when the coast was clear. More on that in a bit.
This guy has an open-air junk shop antique shop. He’s an artist. He repurposes the junk into clever lawn ornaments and various display objects. The first time we went there he had a sphere of wax the size of a softball mounted on a small pedestal. I said to Johnny, "he has the whole ball of wax."
In Ecuador we call such purveyors of miscellaneous items Taita Pendejadas, which, roughly translated, means Daddy Bullshit.
We stopped by last week for a peek at the current offerings. My eye was drawn to a box of cassette tapes which I'd never seen there before. One jumped out at me: De Corazon a Corazon – Eydie Gorme. Imagine my surprise. Being a fan of Eydie from back in the day when she and Steve Lawrence were on TV all the time, and being an owner of several of her recordings, I had never heard of her singing in Spanish. A five dollar investment was needed to ascertain the veracity of the recording, which I immediately inserted into the tape deck upon arriving at nuestra casa.
The first song featured the legendary singer Roberto Carlos in a duet with a female singer who was obviously NOT Eydie Gorme. In fact, despite the label on the cassette, Eydie Gorme does not set foot on this recording in any way, shape or form other than her name having been hijacked, presumably for marketing purposes. Which is curious, because she actually can and did sing in Spanish on many occasions, as we will cover.
Now it's time to tell you somethng about our neighborhood Taita Pendejadas, because apparently the reason he disappeared for several years was because of a little caper he pulled on the richest man in Ecuador. The rich man had bought a couple of crucifixes from our TP, for a substantial, repeat substantial, amount of money. Unfortunately the fact that TP had forged these crucifixes escaped the notice of the rich man, who subsequently sold the crucifixes (for an even more substantial amount of money) to a Japanese collector. The collector, however, had the items appraised and was informed that they were fake. Back he went to the rich man, who put a price on the head of our TP, hence his disappearance, and his return to the country after the death of the rich man. (Along with that of the rich man, the bounty had also reached its expiration date.)
Having been told this story in the car on the way home, I was tempted to put a price on the head of our TP for selling me a fake Eydie Gorme cassette. But since it had only cost $5 [for me, that is...because normally 50 year old cassettes go for double that] I magnanimously decided to drop the charges.
Especially since, while listening to the cassette, we realized what a treasure we had stumbled upon! This is classic late 50s/early 60s Spanish romantic ballad stuff. The vocals are wonderful and so are the songs. You can't find music like this on CD (except in a junk shop antique store) which is why I lugged my entire music (and book) library to another continent back in 2016. Besides Taita Pendejadas, the only other place you can find gems like this is on YouTube, where fans upload hard-to-come-by recordings. But you have to know what to search for.
Now, I'm sure some listeners might label a recording like this as "dated."
Dated. You mean, like, Mozart?
Listen, these are just things from another time period. All time is simultaneous. Your perception of time as linear in nature is a complete illusion. So get over it.
I was still confused about Eydie having been listed as the singer on the cassette even though she wasn't. Did Eydie ever record in Spanish, I wondered. Yes she did. Moreover, she even performed Sentado a la vera del camino WITH Roberto Carlos, live in concert, as advertised on the cassette, albeit falsely.
Another YouTube search revealed this jewel from 1965, with accompaniment by the Mexican group Los Panchos:
Not only that, several other albums of her singing in Spanish have been uploaded to YouTube by her fans. Here is a hysterical musical rendition of a typical Latin menu, complete with black beans, roast beef and avocado, with chocolate and flan for dessert, from a segment on the Steve Allen Show.
Since we are on the topic of Eydie, I will mention a little anecdote that I'm probably not supposed to repeat but I will anyway: I used to work with Tony Danza, whose road manager, Al, had also been the road manager for Steve and Eydie. On tour one time Al told us a funny story. Steve and Eydie had just finished a show, and Barbra Streisand, who had been in the audience, came to the dressing room to congratulate them. She went on and on, gushing about their performance. "How do you manage to do so many different songs every time?" she asked.
Eydie replied, "It's because we don't only do one fucking show a year."
BadaBOOM.
The 50s and 60s saw many American singers trying their hand at Spanish lyrics (and other languages), no doubt at the behest of their producers and record companies. Nat King Cole's Spanish accent was not as good as Eydie's, but he still made a go of it.
Paul Anka:
Elvis had a great love for Mexico, particularly the city of Guadalajara, which he immortalized on his album "Fun in Acapulco" as well as in the film version. The 1937 song was composed by Pepe Gúizar.
The Greek singer Nana Mouskouri acquitted herself well in Spanish, as well as in a dozen other languages. At the age of 90, her career has lasted seven decades and included many hits and television appearances. Today she has largely abandoned her singing career in favor of politics, and retirement.
Other singers, like Sinatra and Tony Bennett, made their way into the Latin American market by recording duets with Latino vocalists, although they themselves sang in English.
Apparently a number of the current singing stars are also venturing into este otro mundo, myself included. My to-do list includes a Spanish music video I want to make with my students here in Ecuador. I wrote a very catchy song called Libertad that I am going to sing lead on, with my students singing background and playing all the accompaniment. Maybe Taita Pendejadas will even make a guest appearance, playing a guitar with no strings.
But I need funding for that. So remember, your paid subscriptions can make it happen!
I like your or his " whole ball of wax"!
Su, what fun this post is! And remarkable the range of believability of accents from such a diverse and talented group of singers. For me, I am so happy to see Eydie Gorme acquit herself so well in Spanish. Does she speak Spanish? Her "Sabor a Mi" is as beautiful as any I've ever heard. I think her and Steve Lawrence are two of the most unfairly maligned singers ever, the brunt of jokes by people too ignorant to appreciate them. For something totally different and wonderfully orchestrated, their treatment of the Soundgarden classic, Black Hole Sun is a must-hear! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgGBB0hTqo0