"Quiéreme mucho" is a criolla-

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It h ...

composed in 1911 by Gonzalo Roig with lyrics by Ramón Gollury and Agustín Rodríguez. The song was inspired by Roig's wife, Blanca Becerra, and premiered in Havana in 1911 without much success. In 1917, it was included in the sainete ''El servicio militar obligatorio'' and performed by Becerra and Rafael Llorens to critical acclaim. Roig published and sold the rights to the song in 1921, and the first recording was made in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

by singer Tito Schipa in 1923. The English version, "Yours", was published in 1931 in the United States. It featured lyrics in English written by Albert Gamse and Jack Sherr. Both versions have been extensively recorded and arranged by different musicians, becoming

Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and ) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America, which encompasses Music of Latin America, Latin America, Music of Spain, Spain, Mu ...

standards.

Composition

"Quiéreme mucho" was composed by Gonzalo Roig at 21 years of age in 1911, before he had finished his music studies. He wrote the melody and played it on his piano, without making any further arrangements. Roig had been composing songs for a few years, since 1907, when he wrote "La voz del infortunio" at age 17. At the time, Roig had begun to work as a pianist at the Monte Carlo cinema ( Prado 117) in Havana. For "Quiéreme mucho", he combined the structure of a criolla (the first part) with that of a

(the second part), this possibly being the first time both genres had been combined in one song. The song has a romantic style, which suggests an influence from the Italian lyric song. While the music of the song was composed by Roig, the lyrics were originally written by him and his partner Blanca Becerra. Roig and Becerra had just got married in 1911 and decided to paraphrase verses by a now obscure poet and journalist, Ramón Rivera Gollury. Roig wrote the first three verses: "Quiéreme siempre, negra querida. No dudes nunca de mi querer. Él es muy grande, él es inmenso". And Becerra wrote the fourth: "Siempre, mi negro, yo te querré". However, this version was not published, since Roig decided instead to directly quote Gollury's poem, which became the widely known first stanza of the song: "Quiéreme mucho, dulce amor mío, que siempre amante te adoraré...". The second stanza ("Cuando se quiere de veras, como te quiero yo a ti...") was written by librettist Agustín Rodríguez (1885–1957), who would write the lyrics to many other songs by Roig. Gollury did not know about the song until he saw it performed years later at the Teatro Martí.

Early performances

The song was premiered by

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

Mariano Menéndez at the Nicolás Ruiz Espadero Hall in the Hubert de Blanck Conservatory of

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Serenade In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honour of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Ital ...

'') in 1911. At first, the song did not have any success. Years later, Roig decided to include the song in the sainete ''El servicio militar obligatorio'' about

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, which premiered at the Teatro Martí in 1917. In the play, Becerra and Rafael Llorens performed the song as a

duet A duet (italian language, Italian: ''duo'') is a musical composition for two Performing arts, performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a har ...

, which was very well received by the audience and spurred countless covers and performances, including many recordings made in the

in the 1920s. In 1921, Roig published the song through the Viuda de Carrera shop with its definitive title, "Quiéreme mucho" (''Love Me a Lot'') and crediting Gollury under his

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Roger de Lauria. However, he never received

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

for the song, since he sold the rights to Viuda de Carrera for 5

Cuban peso The Cuban peso ( in Spanish language, Spanish, ISO 4217 code: CUP) also known as (Spanish for 'national currency'), is the official currency of Cuba. The Cuban peso historically circulated at par with the Spanish dollar, Spanish-American silver ...

Recordings

Early versions

Italian tenor Tito Schipa, backed by an orchestra directed by Rosario Bourdon, made the first recording of the song on March 12, 1923, for the

Victor Talking Machine Company The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer, incorporated in 1901. Victor was an independent enterprise until 1929 when it was purchased by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and became ...

. This recording was subtitled "Serenata criolla" (''Creole serenade'') and translated as "Love Me Deeply". Of the four takes recorded by Schipa in

Camden, New Jersey Camden is a City (New Jersey), city in Camden County, New Jersey, Camden County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan region. The city was incorporated on February 13, 1828.Snyder, John P''The Story of ...

, only the fourth (master) take survives. He recorded two more takes in 1926, the second of which was released as a 10" single and later re-issued on 45 rpm format and on LP, unlike the first single, which was only released on 10" shellac. Other vocalists to record the original song in the 1920s include Elena Ehlers (1923,

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

), José Moriche (1924,

OKeh Records OKeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name originally was spelled "OkeH" from the init ...

) and Mariano Meléndez (1925,

Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

), who had first performed it in 1911. Meléndez's version featured Jaime Prats on piano.

Hit versions

The success of the Spanish version of the song prompted its translation in the United States, where lyricists Albert Gamse and Jack Sherr published "Yours". This song became popular due to the recordings by the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra,

Vera Lynn Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (; 20 March 1917 – 18 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is Honorific nicknames in popular music, honorifically known ...

, and Dick Contino. A German version was published under the title "Du bist mein erster Gedanke" (''You Are My First Thought'') and first recorded by Mieke Telkamp (1956, Philips), becoming her first hit in the country. The German version has also been recorded by

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

with

The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters between 1958 and 1959) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the pre-Beatles era from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. They served as the bac ...

, and

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top List of best-selling music artists, reco ...

. The latter also recorded the song in Spanish, English, French ("Où est passée ma bohême?"; ''Where Is My Bohemian?''), Portuguese ("Inesquecivel boemia") and Italian ("Quando si ama davvero"). The recording by Jimmy Dorsey featured vocals by Bob Eberly 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 ti ...

and was released by

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which bec ...

as catalog number 3657. It first reached the ''Billboard'' Best Seller chart on May 23, 1941, and lasted 13 weeks on the chart, peaking at #2. The recording by

was released by

London Records London Recordings (or London Records and London Music Stream) is a British record label that marketed records in the United States, Canada, and Latin America for Decca Records from 1947 to 1980 before becoming semi-independent. The London nam ...

as catalog number 1261. It first reached the ''Billboard'' Best Seller chart on October 17, 1952, and lasted 8 weeks on the chart, peaking at #8. The recording by Dick Contino, an instrumental, was released by

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

as catalog number 70455. It reached #27 on its only week on the ''Billboard'' Best Seller chart on November 24, 1954. The recording by

(with

) in German, went to #15 in Germany in 1966. The French recording by

went to number 1 in France in 1979 achieving double platinum sales. A Spanish-English version by Iglesias was a hit in the United Kingdom in 1982.

Anni-Frid Lyngstad version

Anni-Frid Lyngstad Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad (born 15 November 1945), also known simply as Frida, is a Swedish singer who is best known as one of the founding members and lead singers of the pop band ABBA. Courtesy titles ''Principality of Reuss-Gera, Princess Re ...

and Marcus Österdahls Orchestra (in Swedish) (15 December 1967) - The Swedish-language version, "Din" was the second single released by Lyngstad for EMI. The single was backed by Du Är Så Underbart Rar. The single did not chart in the Svenkstoppen but appeared on the Toppentipset charts, peaking at 12th place on 11 February 1968. The following week, the B-side instead charted in 13th place and 15th place on 17th March 1968.

Charts

Other versions

* Ray Anthony and his orchestra * Lucie Arnaz *

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nash ...

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...

* Baja Marimba Band * The Beau Marks * Vikki Carr *

José Carreras Josep Maria Carreras Coll (; born 5 December 1946), better known as José Carreras (, ), is a Catalan operatic tenor from Spain who is particularly known for his performances in the operas of Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. Born in Barcelona, ...

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...

recorded the song in 1956 for use on his radio show and it was subsequently included in the box set ''The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings (1954-56)'' issued by

Mosaic Records Mosaic Records is an American jazz record company and label established in 1982 by Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie. It produces limited-edition box sets. The sets recordings are leased from the major record companies, usually for a three- or f ...

(catalog MD7-245) in 2009. * Xavier Cugat (vocal:

Dinah Shore Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, television personality, and the chart-topping female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during the ...

) (1939) *

Dick Dale Richard Anthony Monsour (May 4, 1937 – March 16, 2019), known professionally as Dick Dale, was an American Rock music, rock guitarist. He was a pioneer of surf music, drawing on Middle Eastern music scale (music), scales and experimenting wit ...

* The Del-Vikings (1956) *

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

, who also named one of his albums after the Spanish-language version of the song, ''Quiéreme Mucho'' (2002) *

The Duprees The Duprees are an United States, American musical group of doo-wop style who had a series of top-ten singles in the early 1960s. Their highest-charting single, "You Belong to Me (1952 song), You Belong to Me" reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 1 ...

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 instrumental ballads and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizin ...

* Freddy Fender * Ibrahim Ferrer (2007) * The Flamingos (1959) *

Connie Francis Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero ( ; born December 12, 1937), known as Connie Francis, is a retired American Pop music, pop singer, actress, and top-charting female vocalist of the late 1950s and early 1960s. She is estimated to have sold more th ...

(1960) * John Gary *

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...

and his orchestra (vocal: Helen Forrest) (1941) * Eydie Gormé * Eddy Howard * Engelbert Humperdinck (1985) *

(1979) * Joni James (1963) * Andre Kostelanetz and his orchestra *

Alfredo Kraus Alfredo Kraus Trujillo (; 24 November 192710 September 1999) was a distinguished Spanish tenor from the Canary Islands (known professionally as Alfredo Kraus), particularly known for the artistry he brought to opera's bel canto roles. He was ...

* Charlie Kunz *

Frankie Laine Frankie Laine (born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio; March 30, 1913 – February 6, 2007) was an American singer and songwriter whose career spanned nearly 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performa ...

with

Michel LeGrand Michel Jean Legrand (; 24 February 1932 – 26 January 2019) was a French musical composer, arranger, conductor, jazz pianist, and singer. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to ma ...

(1958) *

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

(1963) * Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers (1958) * Tony Martin *

Vaughn Monroe Vaughn Wilton Monroe (October 7, 1911 – May 21, 1973) was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader who was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for recording and another f ...

and his orchestra (vocal: Marilyn Duke) (1941) *

Nana Mouskouri Ioanna "Nana" Mouskouri ( ; born 13 October 1934) is a Greek singer and politician. Over the span of her career, she has released an estimated 450 albums in at least thirteen languages, including Greek language, Greek, French language, French, ...

* Jim Reeves *

Marty Robbins Martin David Robinson (September 26, 1925 – December 8, 1982), known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American country and western singer and songwriter. He was one of the most popular and successful singers of his genre for most o ...

(1962) * Dickie Rock *

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

(1992) * Edmundo Ros * The Salsoul Orchestra (1978) *

George Shearing Sir George Albert Shearing (13 August 191914 February 2011) was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. Shearing was the composer of over 300 so ...

(Latin Escapade 1956) * The Three Degrees * Jerry Vale (1963) * Caterina Valente *

Billy Vaughn William Vaughn, popularly known as Billy Vaughn (born Richard Smith Vaughn, April 12, 1919 – September 26, 1991) was an American musician, singer, multi-instrumentalist, orchestra leader, and A&R man for Dot Records. Biography Vaughn was bor ...

and his orchestra * Hugo Winterhalter and his orchestra * Finbar Wright

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yours (Quiereme Mucho) 1911 songs 1923 singles 1941 singles Boleros Songs with music by Gonzalo Roig Songs with lyrics by Albert Gamse Caterina Valente songs Vera Lynn songs