La Paloma

Popular Spanish song
the song

"La Paloma", "The Dove" in English, is a popular Spanish song that has been produced and reinterpreted in diverse cultures, settings, arrangements, and recordings over the last 140 years. The song was written by the Spanish Basque composer Sebastián Iradier (later Yradier) around 1860 after a visit to Cuba. In 1879, it was registered at the copyright office in Madrid as a "Canción Americana con acompañamiento de Piano". Iradier was to die in obscurity within few years, never to learn how popular his song would become. Very quickly, "La Paloma" became popular outside of Spain, particularly in Mexico, and soon spread around the world. In many places, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Colombia, Hawaii, the Philippines, Germany, Romania, Venezuela, Zanzibar and Goa, it gained the status of a quasi folk song. Over the years, the popularity of "La Paloma" has surged and receded periodically, but never subsided. It may be considered one of the first universal popular hits and has appealed to artists of diverse musical backgrounds. There are more than one thousand versions of this song, and together with "Yesterday" by The Beatles, is one of the most recorded songs in the history of music; it is certainly the most recorded Spanish song.

The motif of "La Paloma" (the dove) can be traced back to an episode that occurred in 492 BC, before Darius the Great's invasion of Greece, a time when the white dove had not yet been seen in Europe. The Persian fleet under Mardonius was caught in a storm off the shore of Mount Athos and wrecked, when the Greeks observed white doves escaping from the sinking Persian ships. Those were most probably homing pigeons which the Persian fleet carried with them when sallying forth out of Persia for battle. This inspired the notion that such birds bring home a final message of love from a sailor who is lost at sea.

In the Portuguese novel O Crime do Padre Amaro (The Crime of Father Amaro), written in 1871 by the Portuguese writer José Maria de Eça de Queirós, it is referred to as "[l]a Chiquita, an old Mexican song". German and French versions appeared in the 1860s. Harry James recorded a version in 1941 on Columbia 36146., and a version in English titled "No More" with lyrics by Don Robertson and Hal Blair was recorded by both Dean Martin and Elvis Presley. That version was written by request as an adaptation of an Italian or French folk song with new English lyrics, specifically to be sung by Elvis in the movie Blue Hawaii. It was based on musical melody as remembered, and had lyrics fit to the melody which emerged during composition. A cover version by Brendan Bowyer reached #1 in the Irish Singles Chart in 1963. In 1973, French singer Mireille Mathieu had a huge hit across Europe with her interpretation, "La Paloma, Adieu", released outside the francophonie countries as "La Paloma, Adé". "La Paloma" has been interpreted by musicians of diverse backgrounds including opera, pop, jazz, rock, military bands, and folk music. The song entered the Guinness Book of World Records being sung by the largest choir, 88,600 people, in Hamburg on May 9, 2004.