"In a Little Spanish Town ('Twas on a Night Like This)" is a

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetit ...

published in 1926. The

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

was

written Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

Mabel Wayne Mabel Wayne (born Mabel Wimpfheimer, July 16, 1890 – June 19, 1978) was an American songwriter, noted as "one of the first women composers to publish a hit song". Her songs included " In a Little Spanish Town", "Ramona", and "It Happened in Mo ...

, and the

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

by Sam M. Lewis & Joe Young. With Jack Fulton's

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, the song was a 1927

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

for

Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, W ...

& his Orchestra as his

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

topped the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tab ...

for eight weeks. The song had continuing popularity for several decades and was covered in later recordings.

Virginia O'Brien Virginia Lee O'Brien (April 18, 1919 – January 16, 2001) was an American actress, singer, and radio personality known for her comedic singing roles in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals of the 1940s. Life and career O'Brien primarily performed in ...

's recording (a zany version apparently taken from a live radio broadcast) can be found on a 1984 AEI LP, "''Virginia O'Brien Salutes the Great MGM Musicals''." Bing Crosby had sung it early in his career in 1926 on stage and later on radio during his time with the

Orchestra. In 1955 he recorded it for use on his radio show as a cha-cha with accompaniment from Buddy Cole and His Trio. This proved so popular that Decca Records mastered the radio track and issued it as a single. This charted briefly in 1956 at No. 49 in the USA and No. 22 in the UK.

Other performances

In the 1939 comedy short ''

Pest from the West ''Pest from the West'' is the first short subject starring American comedian Buster Keaton made for Columbia Pictures. Keaton made a total of ten films for the studio between 1939 and 1941. Synopsis Keaton is a millionaire vacationing in Mexico ...

'', Buster Keaton attempts to sing it, but a vase or other object drops on his head after each line.

Bob Eberly Robert Eberly (born Robert Eberle; July 24, 1916 – November 17, 1981) was an American big band vocalist best known for his association with Jimmy Dorsey and his duets with Helen O'Connell. His younger brother Ray was also a big-band singer, ma ...

and

Helen O'Connell Helen O'Connell (May 23, 1920 – September 9, 1993) was an American singer, actress, and hostess, described as "the quintessential big band singer of the 1940s". Early life Born in Lima, Ohio, O'Connell grew up in Toledo, Ohio. By the time ...

recorded it in 1951. In the season 4 ''

I Love Lucy ''I Love Lucy'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning six seasons. The show starred Lucille Ball, her husband, Desi Arnaz, along wit ...

'' episode "Ricky's Movie Offer" (1954), part of the song is played on trumpet by James Dobson. Rosemary Clooney recorded the song in 1959 for her album '' A Touch of Tabasco''. Dean Martin recorded the song in 1962 for his album '' Dino Latino''.

Herb Alpert Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...

recorded the tune for his 1967 album '' Sounds Like...''. A similar melody to "In a Little Spanish Town" was used for "

Why Why may refer to: * Causality, a consequential relationship between two events * Reason (argument), a premise in support of an argument, for what reason or purpose * Grounding (metaphysics), a topic in metaphysics regarding how things exist in v ...

", written by Bob Marcucci (words) and Peter de Angelis in 1959, which topped the charts for

Frankie Avalon Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1940), better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American actor, singer, and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. ''Billboard'' singles from 1958 to late 1962, including number one hits, "Venus" an ...

in the USA that year and then for

Anthony Newley Anthony Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999) was an English actor, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker. A "latter-day British Al Jolson", he achieved widespread success in song, and on stage and screen. "One of Broadway's greatest leadin ...

in the UK in 1960. Copyright cases were launched on both sides of the Atlantic but neither succeeded. The English High Court said that there was a degree of similarity but no infringement of copyright because the plaintiffs could not prove that there was a conscious or subconscious act of copying.

References

Songs with music by Mabel Wayne Songs with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis Songs with lyrics by Joe Young (lyricist) 1926 songs Songs about Spain {{Pop-standard-stub