Siboney

This must be one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and of all the hundreds of people who have recorded it, none can have sung it better than Raul Malo  It was written in 1929 by Ernesto Lecuona and is a Cuban song about loss and homesickness. It was first a hit for Alberto Brito in 1931, but  Caterina Valente, Xiomara Alfaro, Dizzy Gillespie, Nana Mouskouri and Percy Faith have also recorded it.  Connie Francis and Bing Crosby also recorded it, Bing singing it in English, of course. You can find many of these artists performing the song on youtube, and also Placido Domingo, Eddie Calvert and Rubén Gonzáles.

It is a truly lovely song, but Raul’s voice which is so crystal clear, elegant and graceful, and has such honey tones, and which he uses so effortlessly, is the most perfect for the melody and the haunting lyric. He must have sung this song hundreds, if not thousands of times, and yet each time I have heard it, especially live (and I have been lucky enough to have heard him sing it live nearly twenty times) it is as fresh, as powerful and as moving the first time.

There are many youtube videos you can find of Raul singing Siboney, but I have chosen to share this one, as Raul is supported by the very talented and gorgeous Alberto Salas.

Enjoy:

Siboney, yo te quiero, yo me muero por tu amor,

Siboney, en tu boca la miel puso su dulzor.

 Ven a mí, que te quiero, y que todo tesoro eres tú para mi.

Siboney, al arrullo de la palma pienso en tí. 

Siboney, de mi sueños, ¿si no oyes la queja de mi voz?

Siboney, si no vienes, me moriré de amor.

Siboney, de mi sueños, te espero con ansia en mi caney,

Porque tú eres el dueño de mi amor, Siboney.

Oye el eco de mi canto de cristal,

no se pierda por entre el rudo manigual.