BAMBA, LA
Created on 26/11/2007Latest update on 13/03/2024
Artist: Alvaro Hernandez Ortiz
Author: traditional
Label: Victor
Year: 1938
Son Jarocho from the Veracruz region (Mexico), re-issued on Yazoo comp Secret Museum Of Mankind Vol 4. Twist & Shout is tapping from the same musical source. See a version of La Bamba by Los Lobos on their Papa Dream cd, extra stressing the Veracruz link. Lydia Mendoza's La Bamba (1936) is a different song.
Covers:
- 1945:
Panchos [on Sidney Siegel's New York label aimed at Latin Harlemites; this Mexican 'mating dance' was pushed as an exotic kraze there, illustrated step by step in Life Magazine]
- 1946:
- 1947:
Ethel Smith & The Bando Carioca [as La Bamba De Vera Cruz]
- 1947:
MGM Studio Chorus & Orchestra [in film Fiesta, danced by Ricardo Montalban and Syd Charisse; issued on album Maracas, Marimbas & Mambos - Latin Classics at MGM (2005 - Rhino)]
- 1949:
Andres Huesca Y Su Trio Huracan [as El Jarabe Veracruzano in film Solo Veracruz Es Bello; Andres Huesca was a local harpist (1917-1957); literal translation: The Wedding In Veracruz; re-issued on Chris Strachwitz's Tex-Mex series Texas-Mexican Border Music Vol. 5 (Folklyric)]
- 1949:
Manuel Acuña Orchestra [for Imperial]
- 1953:
Cynthia Gooding [on Elektra album Mexican Folk Songs]
- 1956:
Harry Belafonte [as Bam Bam Bamba, crediting Hector Acosta]
- 1958:
Ritchie Valens [B-side of Donna; influential rock & roll version]
- 1959:
Dario Moreno [French version]
- 1961:
- 1961:
Chaussettes Noires [as La Bamba Rock]
- 1964:
Crickets [as They Call Her La Bamba]
- 1964:
Jay & The Americans [as Come A Little Bit Closer; n°3 US]
- 1964:
Johnny Rivers [La Bamba in medley with Twist And Shout]
- 1964:
- 1964:
Mariela [as La Bamba Surf]
- 1965:
- 1965:
- 1966:
- 1966:
- 1967:
- 1967:
Van Morrison [as Chick-A-Boom; Bert Berns recording]
- 1968:
- 1975:
- 1983:
Raymond van het Groenewoud & Nico Gomez [in film Brussels By Night]
- 1983:
Jordi Savall [with Hesperion XXI as Gallarda Napolitana, reissued on cd Music For The Spanish Kings; doing his utmost to really sound as La Bamba (see footnote)]
- 1987:
Lobos [n°1 US & UK, n°2 B & NL; Los Lobos' drummer Louie Perez leaves no doubt: La Bamba originates from a wedding dance in the south Mexican city of Veracruz]
- 2000:
- 2003:
Francesco Cera [as Gagliarda Napolitana on harpsichord]
- 2004:
Willy DeVille [as Come A Little Bit Closer]
- 2005:
Lonely Boys [live]
- 2006:
The tune of La Bamba is almost 500 years old, as witnessed by the performances by Jordi Savall's Hesperion XXI and Francesco Cera. Their Gallarda (or Gagliarda) Napolitana was written by Antonio Valente, a blind organist from Naples (1530-1585). Forefather of Ritchie Valens? Who knows. The gaillarde was a dance for men to perform, popular among soldiers and sailors alike. No wonder it conquered the New World in the wake of Conquistadores. Mexico being the largest Spanish colony abroad, that's where gallardas and their derivates (the Jarabe surely being one of them) florished the most. Men dance to conquer a lady; there's your link with wedding dances. What's an Italian composer doing in Spanish waters? Even Columbus was from Italy, which is only part of the answer; Naples and Genoa were as Spanish as the Lowlands during the reign of Charles V. One last remark, two actually, concerning Pieter Bruegel the Elder's lifeline (ca. 1525-1569), making him and Antonio Valente contemporaries: Bruegel loved to visit peasant weddings incognito, favorite subject of his paintings. You won't hear me suggest his Peasant Wedding Dance (1566) depincts a forerunner of la Bamba, but the musicians on the side were surely supposed to play gaillardes to keep the dance floor filled. Also, it's not excluded that what two men and one woman are dancing under The Magpie On The Gallow (1568), one of Bruegel's last paintings and dear to his heart, is a Gallarda, why not even the Napolitanian one, since Bruegel made a grand study tour culminating deep in the Bay of Naples. Then finally there's Bruegel's circle dance on the cover, detail from a picture he made in 1559, when Antonio Valente was 29. Admit it's tempting to think they're dancing his Napolitanian gaillarde there in Hoboken.
