La Paloma

I just transcribed “La Paloma”, by Sebastián Yradier. This is a good first song to write about, since supposedly it is the most-played song in the world. There’s even a documentary film about it. Like many of the songs I love, I first heard this on Looney Tunes. The name of this particular cartoon is “Crow’s Feat”. The song starts at about 1:06. They only sing it for about 30 seconds and when I was a kid I always wished they’d just keep on singing, since when they go down into the corns fields they just run into trouble with that smarty pantalones hunter.

Yradier composed “La Paloma” (“The Dove”) around 1860, so about 150 years ago, and since then it has spread all over the world. This song has been played so many times and there are a zillion different versions out there on the internet, but surprise, most of them are crappy :) My favorite so far is this recording of Dr. Eloy Gomes. It’s a very informal recording and performance but I think it is beautiful. Here is a more fun, upbeat version by Paco De Lucia. I didn’t find a version out there with the original lyrics (“Cuando salí de la Habana…”) that I cared to listen to more than once. The lyrics are very nice but it’s really the melody that carries this tune. Here are a few more decent and fun recordings: Banda Zapadores de Mexico, James Sia, Chubby Checker.

This song was easy to transcribe, since it is pretty simple and there are already a bunch of scores out there. But, they are all arranged for piano or guitar or whatever, and I prefer lead sheets since they are small and flexible. So here is my transcription.