"Siboney", also known as "Canto Siboney", is a 1927 song by Cuban composer

Ernesto Lecuona Ernesto Lecuona y Casado (; August 7, 1896 – November 29, 1963) was a Cuban composer and pianist, many of whose works have become standards of the Latin, jazz and classical repertoires. His over 600 compositions include songs and zarzuelas as ...

. It was part of the 1927

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own dur ...

''La tierra de Venus'', which featured singer

Rita Montaner Rita Aurelia Fulcida Montaner y Facenda (20 August 1900 – 17 April 1958), known as Rita Montaner, was a Cuban singer, pianist and actress. In Cuban parlance, she was a '' vedette'' (a star), and was well known in Mexico City, Paris, Miami and ...

. The music is in

cut time ''Alla breve'' also known as cut time or cut common timeis a musical meter notated by the time signature symbol (a C with a vertical line through it), which is the equivalent of . The term is Italian for "on the breve", originally meaning th ...

, originally written in C major.musicnotes.com "Musicnotes File: Siboney, Ernesto Lecuna Digital Sheet Music".
Accessed 6 May 2011 The lyrics were reportedly written by Lecuona while away from Cuba and is about the

homesickness Homesickness is the distress caused by being away from home.Kerns, Brumariu, Abraham. Kathryn A., Laura E., Michelle M.(2009/04/13). Homesickness at summer camp. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54. Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home ...

he was experiencing.LiveJournal: Linguaphiles. "Spanish to English, Siboney".
Accessed 6 May 2011 The term " Siboney" refers to one of the indigenous tribes that inhabited Cuba before the arrival of the Spanish colonists and acts as a symbol for the island. Siboney is both the name of a coastal village in Eastern Cuba and of a neighborhood in the Playa borough of Havana. In the song, Siboney stands for the island of Cuba, which Lecuona really missed, for which he was very homesick. Siboney became a hit in 1931 when performed by Alfredo Brito and His Siboney Orchestra. Other artists followed suit, including

Caterina Valente Caterina Valente (born 14 January 1931) is a French multilingual singer, guitarist, and dancer of Italian ethnicity. Valente is a polyglot; she speaks six languages, and sings in eleven. While she is best known as a performer in Europe, Valent ...

Olga Guillot Olga Guillot (October 9, 1922 – July 12, 2010) was a Cuban singer who was known as the "Queen of Bolero". She was a native of Santiago de Cuba. Biography Daughter of Catalan-Jewish immigrants who moved to Cuba, her father was a tailor and her ...

, Xiomara Alfaro, Dizzy Gillespie, René Touzet (1954),

Nana Mouskouri Ioanna "Nana" Mouskouri ( el, Ιωάννα "Νάνα" Μούσχουρη ) (born 13 October 1934) is a Greek singer. Over the span of her career, she has released over 200 albums in at least twelve languages, including Greek, French, English, Germ ...

and

Percy Faith Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian-American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizing the "easy listeni ...

. It was recorded by

Connie Francis Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero (born December 12, 1937), known professionally as Connie Francis, is an American pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Called the “First Lady of Rock & Roll” ...

in 1960, and later included in the film '' 2046''. English lyrics were written by Dolly Morse, but they bear no resemblance to the original Spanish. The English version of the song was recorded by Bing Crosby on 11 February 1945 with

Xavier Cugat Xavier Cugat (; 1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was a Spanish musician and bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. In New York City ...

conducting the Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. Later in the same decade (1949) it was recorded for

Muzak Muzak is an American brand of background music played in retail stores and other public establishments. The name has been in use since 1934, and has been owned by a division or subsidiary of one or another company ever since. In 1981, Westingho ...

Alfredo Antonini Alfredo Antonini (May 31, 1901 – November 3, 1983) was a leading Italian-American symphony conductor and composer who was active on the international concert stage as well as on the CBS radio and television networks from the 1930s through the e ...

and his orchestra in collaboration with Victoria Cordova and John Serry Sr.

Film appearances

This song has an appearance in the 1931 film "

Tarnished Lady ''Tarnished Lady'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by George Cukor and starring Tallulah Bankhead and Clive Brook. The screenplay by Donald Ogden Stewart is based on his short story, ''A Story of a New York Lady''. Plot Nancy ...

" by George Cukor starring Tallulah Bankhead and Clive Brook. In the 1940 film "Third Finger, Left Hand" starring Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas, Siboney is played in the nightclub scene by the band. They dance The Rumba to it.

Grace Moore Mary Willie Grace Moore (December 5, 1898January 26, 1947) was an American operatic soprano and actress in musical theatre and film.Obituary ''Variety'', January 29, 1947, page 48. She was nicknamed the "Tennessee Nightingale." Her films helped ...

performed the song in the 1937 film '' When You're in Love''.
In 1942,

Gloria Jean Gloria Jean (born Gloria Jean Schoonover; April 14, 1926 – August 31, 2018) was an American actress and singer who starred or co-starred in 26 feature films from 1939 to 1959, and made numerous radio, television, stage, and nightclub app ...

sang the English version in the musical ''

Get Hep to Love ''Get Hep to Love'' is a 1942 musical film starring Gloria Jean, Donald O'Connor, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige and Peggy Ryan. The film was directed by Charles Lamont. Plot Doris Stanley is an adolescent singer ("14 going on 15") billed as an ...

''. The song inspired the Mexican-Cuban film '' Siboney'', directed by

Juan Orol Juan Rogelio García García, better known as Juan Orol (August 4, 1897 in Lalín, Pontevedra, Spain – May 26, 1988 in Mexico City, Mexico) was a Mexican-Spanish actor, producer, screenwriter and film director. He was known as ''The Kin ...

and starring

María Antonieta Pons Maria Antonieta Pons (November 6, 1922 in Havana, Cuba – August 20, 2004 in Mexico City) was a Cuban-born Mexican film actress and dancer. She was the first actress in the ''Rumberas films'' in the 1940s and 1950s, in the Golden Age of Mexican ...

. The film was released in 1938 as a part of the so-called

Rumberas film The Rumberas film (in Spanish, Cine de rumberas) was a film genre that flourished in Mexico, in the so-called Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Its main stars were the so-called '' rumberas'', dancers of Afro-Caribbean musical r ...

saga of the Mexican Cinema. In 2004, Hong Kong director

Wong Kar-Wai Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1958) is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films are characterised by nonlinear narratives, atmospheric music, and vivid cinematography involving bold, saturated colours. A pivotal figure ...

included the Connie Francis version in his romantic drama / science-fiction period film, “ 2046”. Of using Spanish-language music in his films, Wong has stated that it evokes the time period, the 1960s, as Latin music was popular in Hong Kong at the time. In 2005, the Connie Francis version was included briefly in Michael Bay's 2005 sci-fi dystopian film '' The Island'' where Lincoln Six Echo (

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...

) and Jordan Two Delta (

Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 list. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...

) are at the maglev station in Yucca after they ask the help of James McCord ( Steve Buscemi). The song was used by

Nino Rota Giovanni Rota Rinaldi (; 3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979), better known as Nino Rota (), was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visco ...

in the score for

Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...

's nostalgic memoir of the 1930s, '' Amarcord''.Space Age Pop Music. "The Lecuona Song".
Accessed 6 May 2011

References

{{Authority control Cuban songs Songs with music by Ernesto Lecuona 1927 songs 1931 singles Songs with lyrics by Theodora Morse Nana Mouskouri songs Percy Faith songs Bing Crosby songs Connie Francis songs Caterina Valente songs