Artist: Rita Montaner
Author: Moises Simons
Label: Columbia
Year: 1927
Earliest son hit. First Latin-American rumba song to appeal in the West (as The Peanut Vendor). Go-between was Herbert Marks, son of music publisher E.B. Marks, honeymooning in Cuba; their hotel was run by author Moises Simons' brother. It's a son pregón, a son inspired by the yell of a street vendor, in this case a peanut vendor. Everyone sold peanuts (manis) in Cuba. Montaner was regarded as 'La Unica', the unique.
Covers:
Moises Simons Orch. [Cuban dance orchestra in the haydays of Havana as favorite hangout for wealthy Americans; from his Cubanola revue]
Vincent Lopez [the first as The Peanut Vendor]
Don Azpiazu & His Havana Casino Orch. [Cuban in New York; idem, first version to hit as such (n°1 US for Victor and for Ralph Peer); English words by his sister-in-law Marian Sunshine, half of vaudeville duo Tempest & Sunshine; vocal: Antonio Machin; sparked the rumba craze throughout the US and elsewhere]
Louis Armstrong [idem]
Duke Ellington [idem]
California Ramblers [idem]
Red Nichols [idem]
Lawrence Tibbett [in film Cuban Love Song]
Marx Brothers [in film Duck Soup]
Judy Garland [in film A Star Is Born]
Alvin Tyler [for Ace]
group of children [Alan Lomax recording in La Plaine (Dominica) as Early In The Morning; Lomax wondered if children created their song to Moises Simons' tune or vice versa]
Jazz Jamaica [as P. Vendor]
Cuarteto Patria & Manu Dibango [Eliades Ochoa (Cuarteto Patria) was an ex manisero ("La vida cotidiana es una cançión")]
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)