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The Mexican song that captivated lovers during World War II
00:11:08
In 1944, as World War II was drawing to a close, the Mexican love song Besame Mucho crossed the Atlantic and became one of the most recognisable melodies of the post-war era. Its lyrics were daring for the time: an open plea for a passionate kiss.The...
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Hello, welcome to Witness History with me, Stefania Gotzer. Now, if this is already one of your favorite podcasts, feel free to skip ahead a little bit. But if you are listening for the very first time, welcome. I want to tell you a bit more about us. We look at a moment in history that told by the people who were there. We use incredible archive and hear amazing stories. New nine minute episodes drop every weekday. So if that sounds like your thing hit subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts and turn on your notifications so that you never miss an episode. But for now, let's get to the story. I'm taking you back to January 1944 when when a love song written during wartime by a dreamy young woman in Mexico became one of the most recorded songs in Spanish of all time.
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Lastly, a novelty musical offering, the Spanish tango Bessamo Mucho, known to most of us as Kiss Me, played by the popular My Mother Hated War.
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This is Mariano Rivera Velazquez, son of Consuelo Velazquez, who wrote the song you're listening to Besame Mucho, performed by Emilio Tuero. It means kiss me a lot in Spanish and it's a plea to a lovea for a last kiss in case they never get to see each other again.
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It was already the end of the Second World War, and she always thought of the couples that were going to be separated by the world without knowing if they will ever be together again.
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Although the song became a love anthem During World War II, Consuelo didn't write it Searching for glory. In fact, she never meant for others to hear it. So what happened? Consuelo Velazquez was born in 1916 in the Mexican region of Jalisco. During the Mexican Revolution, the country's greatest civil war.
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She used to hear a military battalion that passed by her house in Guadalajara. She heard the national anthem of Mexico and they were astonished in her house because she left all her dolls aside. They had a piano there and she began to play the national anthem of Mexico. So they said, well, she has to study the piano. Her first performance was when she was six years old.
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Consuelo moved to Mexico's capital when she was 19 to continue her training as a classical pianist. Three years later, she was hired to play classical music for a radio network.
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EXEQ was a radio station that was a partner of xew. They were the main radio stations in Mexico City and in Latin America. She was invited to play mainly classical music. Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven.
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There was a grand piano at the radio station and in her free time, Consuelo would sit in front of it to play her own music.
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She began to play melodies for herself, to ease herself from the rigor of the classical music.
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But as in any workplace, there wasn't much privacy at the network.
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Some of the female singers that were in the AXEQ radio station listened to the songs and said, oh, they are beautiful. Play me another one. And they began to learn the melodies. The general manager of programming in the execute radio station told my mother that some of the female singers of the time, the famous ones, were already singing her songs and that he needed to know who the author was, because my mother said that they were the songs of a friend, a female, a girlfriend. In that time, it was not very well seen that the classical pianist player also had the songs, melodic, romantic songs of her own.
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Consuelo thought her romantic songs didn't match her career as a classical pianist. But they were becoming very popular, and hiding her authorship was getting harder. At the radio station, the general manager kept pressing her to reveal the name of the composer. And he had good reasons. His name was Mariano Rivera Conde.
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They needed to know the details for the copyright that they were obliged to accomplish. And then my mother said, all right, Mariano, they are mine. I am the composer.
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And if that name sounds familiar, it's because that manager, Mariano Rivera Conde, would later marry Consuelo and become the father of Mariano Rivera Velazquez.
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My father said, well, congratulations. Go on, because they are beautiful. And that was the beginning of my mother as a composer. All by mother songs, almost most of them are inspired by my father and their extraordinary love.
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One of those songs was Besame Mucho. It was first recorded by Mexican singer emilio Tuero in 1941. But it wasn't until three years later that it became an international hit. When the lyrics were translated into English and sang by Jimmy Dorsey's band.
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My mother thought that her song had such an extraordinary success because it reflected the situation of the Second World War and the separation of couples that perhaps would never meet again. Besame Mucho was taken to Europe, to England, mainly by the soldiers.
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The song opened doors for Consuelo beyond the music industry.
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My mother had an invitation to Los Angeles, to Hollywood, to meet everybody at the time, because Besame Mucho was already as the first place of the American hit parade. For 14 weeks she met there extraordinary people like Gregory Peck, Carmen Miranda, Bing Crosby, Walt Disney. When she was in the United States, my mother was invited to make a film as a movie star. They said, Listen, Ms. Gonzalo Velazquez. We already made proof to see how you photograph and you look beautiful. You are going to be a great star and we are going to launch you. And my mother said, well, thank you very much, but I have to go back. Why? Why go back to Mexico City to pick up your things or whatever? And she said, because I am going to be married next month. They were married 25 October.
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In 1944, Consuelo gave up an acting career for love, but got to see some of the greatest artists of the 20th century recording her song, like Frank Sinatra.
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Each time I cling to your kiss.
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Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, and one of Consuelo's favorites, Mexican singer Luis Miguel. Here's Consuelo playing. She died in 2004 in Mexico City. And right until the end, she claimed that she wrote this song about kisses before knowing what the kiss was. Here's one of her last interviews with the Mexican. Back then, hearing that someone kissed was considered a sin. So I said, well, it is what it is. I'm going to write a song about this, but make them think I'm writing it because I feel it. But I hadn't even had my first kiss. But her son is not convinced.
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No, I don't think so. She always said that so that the people, the interviewers and people didn't mingle with her private life. But of course, she was kissed. She loved my father very much, and my father loved her so much, too.
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Consuelo Velazquez was the composer of Besame Mucho, one of the most recorded songs in Spanish. Her son, Mariano Rivera Velazquez, was talking to me. Stefania Gotzer for Witness History from the BBC World Service. If you've enjoyed this, please let your friends know about Witness History. And if you're interested in hearing personal stories from other artists from Latin America, why not listen to my episode about the day Celia Cruz was back to Cuba? Make sure you hit. Subscribe wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Thank you for listening. Bye. A moment in time captured by what they heard.
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