"Perfidia" (Spanish for "

perfidy In the context of war, perfidy is a form of deception in which one side promises to act in good faith (such as by raising a flag of truce) with the intention of breaking that promise once the unsuspecting enemy is exposed (such as by coming out ...

", meaning ''faithlessness'', ''treachery'' or ''betrayal'') is a 1939 Spanish-language song written by Mexican composer and arranger Alberto Domínguez (1906–1975). The song is sung from the perspective of a man whose lover has left him. The song has also been recorded in English (with lyrics by Milton Leeds) and as an instrumental.

Recordings

*The song became a hit for Xavier Cugat on the

Victor The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

label in 1940. *In late 1960, a rock instrumental version of "Perfidia" was released by the Ventures, which rose to number 15 on the

Billboard chart The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

. The record was a Top 10 hit on a number of popular music radio stations, including

KYA Kya, kya or KYA may also refer to: People or fictional characters * Kya Lau, chef and contestant on ''MasterChef Junior'', season 4 * Kya, mother of Katara and Sokka, in ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' * Kya, daughter of Aang and Katara in ''The ...

in San Francisco,

KLIF The Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency ( no, Klima- og forurensningsdirektoratet, Klif), named Norwegian Pollution Control Authority ( no, Statens forurensningstilsyn), SFT) until 2010, was a Norwegian government agency from 1974 to 2013 when ...

Dallas, KOL Seattle, KDWB Minneapolis, WHK Cleveland,

KIMN KIMN (100.3 FM) is a commercial radio station in Denver, Colorado. The station is owned by Stan Kroenke's KSE Radio Ventures and airs a Hot AC radio format. Studios and offices are located on Colorado Boulevard in Glendale, and the transmitter ...

Denver, and KISN Portland. The record topped out at number 11 on the charts of WLS Chicago, and WIBG Philadelphia.

Other recordings

"Perfidia" has been recorded by many artists, including: *

Laurel Aitken Lorenzo "Laurel" Aitken (22 April 1927 – 17 July 2005) was an influential Caribbean singer and one of the pioneers of Jamaican ska music. He is often referred to as the "Godfather of Ska". Career Born in Cuba of mixed Cuban and Jamaican desc ...

Dave Apollon Dave Apollon (born Denis Apollonov, russian: Денис Аполлонов; February 23, 1898 – May 30, 1972) was an American mandolin player. Today Dave Apollon is regarded as one of the most innovative and influential mandolinists of the twe ...

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

Juan Arvizu Juan Nepomuceno Arvizu Santelices (known as Juan Arvizu; Santiago de Querétaro, May 22, 1900 - Mexico City, November 19, 1985), was an acclaimed lyric tenor in Mexico and a noted interpreter of the Latin American bolero and tango on the internati ...

Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fro ...

* Brave Combo *

Ray Conniff Joseph Raymond Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s. Biography Conniff was born November 6, 1916 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, United St ...

Café Tacuba Café Tacvba (Pronounced ''kaˈfe taˈkuβa'') is a band from Ciudad Satélite, Mexico. The group gained popularity in the early 1990s. They were founded in 1989, before they had the current lineup of Rubén Isaac Albarrán Ortega (lead vocals, ...

Chico Che Francisco José Hernández Mandujano (December 7, 1945 – March 29, 1989), better known as Chico Che, was a musician, singer, songwriter, and performer from Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. Born in 1945, Chico Che was the youngest of three. At t ...

* Nat King Cole *

Crveni Koralji Crveni Koralji (trans. ''The Red Corals'') were a Croatian and Yugoslav rock band formed in Zagreb in 1962. They were one of the pioneers of the Yugoslav rock scene. Crveni Koralji were initially inspired by Cliff Richard and the Shadows, but so ...

* Xavier Cugat *

Issac Delgado Issac Delgado (born Isaac Felipe Delgado-Ramirez on April 11, 1962 in Marianao, Habana, Cuba) is one of the founders of the band NG La Banda and is a popular Salsa music, salsa and timba performer. Early life and family His father, Luis Delgad ...

Phyllis Dillon Phyllis Dillon (27 December 1944 – 15 April 2004)
, ''

Arielle Dombasle Arielle Dombasle (born April 27, 1953)Dombasle's year of birth has been a subject of much debate, and various sources have given dates ranging from 1953 to 1958. is an American-born French singer, actress, director and model. Her breakthrough ro ...

* Freddy Fender *

Ibrahim Ferrer Ibrahim Ferrer (February 20, 1927 – August 6, 2005) was a Cuban singer who played with Los Bocucos for nearly forty years. He also performed with Conjunto Sorpresa, Chepín y su Orquesta Oriental and Mario Patterson. After his retirement in ...

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*A version by Carlos García, a one-armed Mexican street performer originally from

Michoacán Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...

, who makes music by blowing on the side of an ivy leaf, and recorded on a sidewalk, was featured on a CD, ''Sinfonia Urbana''. It was overdubbed with strings by the Kronos Quartet for their 2002 album '' Nuevo''. *

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His co ...

* Ben E. King * Dorothy Lamour * James Last *

Julie London Julie London (née Peck; September 26, 1926 – October 18, 2000) was an American singer and actress whose career spanned more than 40 years. A torch singer noted for her sultry, languid contralto vocals, London recorded over thirty albums ...

* Trini Lopez * Los Panchos * Los Rabanes *

Los Straitjackets Los Straitjackets is an American instrumental rock band that formed in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, in 1988. Originally comprising guitarists Danny Amis (formerly of the Raybeats), Eddie Angel and drummer L. J. "Jimmy" Lester under the na ...

*Los Tres Caballeros and Javier Solís (in Spanish) *

Luis Miguel Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri (born 19 April 1970) is a Puerto Rican-born Mexican singer, often referred to as ''El Sol de México'' (The Sun of Mexico), which is the nickname his mother gave him as a child—"mi sol". Luis Miguel has sung in mu ...

Glenn Miller Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Arm ...

* Olivia Molina *

Hugo Montenegro Hugo Mario Montenegro (September 2, 1925 – February 6, 1981) was an American orchestra leader and composer of film soundtracks. His best-known work is interpretations of the music from Spaghetti Westerns, especially his cover version of Ennio M ...

* VIS Limunada (in Serbo-Croatian) *

Sara Montiel María Antonia Abad Fernández MML (10 March 1928 – 8 April 2013), known professionally as Sara Montiel, also Sarita Montiel, was a Spanish actress and singer, who also held Mexican citizenship since 1951. She began her career in the 1940s an ...

* Nana Mouskouri *

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Lupita Palomera María Guadalupe Palomera Chávez (12 December 1913 – 16 November 2008), known as Lupita Palomera, was a Mexican singer, one of the first and most notable bolero performers in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. She was known for some time as "La N ...

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María Dolores Pradera María Dolores Fernández Pradera OAXS, MMT (29 August 1924 – 28 May 2018) was a Spanish melodic singer and actress, and one of the most famous voices in Spain and Latin America. She started her career as an actress and during the 1950s she ...

(in Spanish) * Perez Prado *An English arrangement of "Perfidia" was also the founding song of the

Princeton Nassoons The Princeton Nassoons are a ten to twenty-member low-voice a cappella group at Princeton University. The group has been officially self-selecting (and self-directing) since 1941, although the original group is known to have sung together as ea ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

's oldest

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

group. * Elvira Quintana *

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

* Elvira Ríos *

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...

(in Spanish and English) * Andy Russell *

Alfredo Sadel Manuel Alfredo Sánchez Luna, better known as Alfredo Sadel (February 22, 1930 – June 28, 1989) was a popular Venezuelan singer and actor. Early life Manuel Alfredo Sánchez Luna was born in Caracas, Venezuela, to Manuel Sánchez Benítez and ...

The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

(with and not with

) * Anne Shelton * Carola Standertskjöld *

Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Op ...

René Touzet René Touzet y Monte (September 8, 1916 in Havana, Cuba – June 15, 2003 in Miami, Florida) was a Cuban-born American composer, pianist and bandleader. Career as bandleader Living in the city of Cojimar, he learned classical piano from the ag ...

* King Tubby * The Ventures *

Olavi Virta Olavi Virta (originally to 1926 Oskari Olavi Ilmén) (27 February 1915 in Sysmä, Grand Duchy of Finland – 14 July 1972 in Pispala, Tampere, Finland) was a Finnish singer, acclaimed during his time as the "King" of Finnish tango. Between 1939 a ...

* Lawrence Welk

In popular culture

* Desi Arnaz sings the Spanish version in the 1941 film '' Father Takes a Wife'' which starred Gloria Swanson. * 'Perfidia' is the title to a chapter of

Nora Johnson Nora Johnson (January 31, 1933 – October 5, 2017) was an American author. Early life Nora Johnson, daughter of filmmaker Nunnally Johnson and Marion Byrnes, was born in Hollywood, California in 1933.Abrahams, William (1982) ''Prize Stories 1 ...

's 1986 novel ''Tender Offer''. The song highlights the theme of the story's zenith and the actual song is described being played during a crucial scene. * 'Perfidia' is the title of a section of Peter Nichols's 2015 novel ''The Rocks''. Several references are made to the song. * ''Perfidia'' is the title of the acclaimedMason, Deborah
Time Bomb.
''The New York Times'', October 19, 1997. Accessed January 3, 2017. 1997 novel by

Judith Rossner Judith Rossner (March 31, 1935 – August 9, 2005) was an American novelist, best known for her acclaimed best sellers '' Looking for Mr. Goodbar'' (1975) and ''August'' (1983). Life and career, 1935–1973 Born in New York City, on March 31, 1 ...

. The song lyrics are quoted several times in the narrative. * ''Perfidia'' is the name of a

James Ellroy Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, sta ...

novel (2014). * Perfidia is a song in the

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

musical ''

Forever Plaid ''Forever Plaid'' is an Off-Broadway musical revue written by Stuart Ross, and first performed in New York in 1989 and now performed internationally. Overview The show is a revue of the close-harmony "guy groups" (''e.g.'' The Four Aces, The ...

'' (1990). * The song has also been used as the theme music to the Canadian animated television series ''

George and Martha ''George and Martha'' is a series of children's books written and illustrated by James Marshall between 1972 and 1988. Each book in the series contains five short stories describing interactions between two hippos, George and Martha. The books i ...

''. * Perfidia was also included on the ''

Dexter Dexter may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Dexter, the main character of the American animated series ''Dexter's Laboratory'' that aired from 1996 to 2003 * Dexter, a fictional character in the British Diary of a Bad Man#Main, web series ''Diar ...

'' soundtrack. *

's version of the song in English with a Spanish introduction was used in the 1992 film '' The Mambo Kings''. Ronstadt also recorded the song in Spanish for her 1992 album '' Frenesí''. At the 9th Lo Nuestro Awards, her version received a nomination for Tropical Song of the Year. * In ''

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

'', Perfidia plays while the characters Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund are ballroom dancing during the famous "flashback to Paris" sequence. *The song is heard in '' Now, Voyager'', in a scene where Jerry (

Paul Henreid Paul Henreid (November 10, 1908 – March 29, 1992) was an Austrian-British-American actor, director, producer, and writer. He is best remembered for two film roles; Victor Laszlo in ''Casablanca'' and Jerry Durrance in ''Now, Voyager'', bo ...

) and Charlotte (

Bette Davis Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...

) are dancing. * Perfidia is also used in the first-season episode of the Netflix series '' Sense8'' * In Miguel Gomes' 2015 film ''

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' different versions of the song are used over the opening credits of each of the film's three volumes, featuring those by Phyllis Dillon, Nat King Cole and Glenn Miller, as well as another by one of the film's performers Crista Alfaiate. * In the film ''

The Mask of Dimitrios ''The Mask of Dimitrios'' is a 1944 American film noir directed by Jean Negulesco and written by Frank Gruber, based on the 1939 novel of the same title written by Eric Ambler (in the United States, it was published as ''A Coffin for Dimitrios'' ...

'', a 1944 film directed by Jean Negulesco, Perfidia plays in a bar scene. * Wong Kar-wai uses Xavier Cugat's version in his films '' Days of Being Wild'' and ''

2046 In contemporary history, the third millennium of the anno Domini or Common Era in the Gregorian calendar is the current millennium spanning the years 2001 to 3000 (21st century, 21st to 30th century, 30th centuries). Ongoing futures studies se ...

''. Nat King Cole's version appears on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for ''

In the Mood for Love ''In the Mood for Love'' is a 2000 romantic drama film written, produced and directed by Wong Kar-wai. A co-production between Hong Kong and France, it portrays a man ( Tony Leung) and a woman (Maggie Cheung) whose spouses have an affair toget ...

''. *The song is featured in the 2019 film ''

Live Twice, Love Once ''Live Twice, Love Once'' ( es, Vivir dos veces, links=no) is a 2019 Spanish Road movie, road Comedy drama, comedy-drama film directed by María Ripoll. Synopsis A poignant tragic comedy about family, love, ageing, Alzheimer's and dementia. A ...

''. *The song performed by Xavier Cugat is featured in the 2022 KDrama ''Anna'' (South Korean TV series)

References

{{Authority control Songs in Spanish 1939 songs Pop standards Benny Goodman songs The Four Aces songs The Ventures songs Songs written by Alberto Domínguez Trio Los Panchos songs Boleros Linda Ronstadt songs Luis Miguel songs