Normally, the word “of” is translated as “de” in Spanish. Use of the Spanish article (“a”) in the title also makes a difference. And of course, a chef with “sabor” has a passionate touch for tastiness. Those who dance with “sabor” have flair and feeling. It connotes flavor, style, zest, gusto, and an intangible essence of something or someone. Literally, the title means “a taste of me.” Yet, the word “sabor” suggests much more than “taste,” as one of the five senses. In the case of English, however, the lyrics lose their lyricism in a straight translation. “Sabor a Mí” has been recorded in French, Japanese, German, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, and the Zapotec language of Oaxaca, the composer’s home state. The Frontera Collection contains 25 recordings of the song, including a particularly noteworthy rendition by Mexico’s Javier Solis on Columbia (discussed further below).
Since then, it has been recorded scores of times by an array of stars in multiple languages and a variety of styles.Ī YouTube search yields amazingly diverse interpretations: an instrumental by Cuba’s father/son piano duo Bebo and Chucho Valdés a version with alternating vocals, in excellent Spanish, by the South Korean boy band Exo-K a top-selling pop version by Mexican superstar Luis Miguel a spare and wispy version by the young, Virginia-born Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis a jazzy/folksy adaptation by the Bogotá-based band Monsieur Periné an easy-listening rendition by soft-jazz saxophonist Kenny G an accordion-accented, Tex-Mex version by American roots band The Mavericks a low-key, bilingual version by 1950s singer and screen star Doris Day a classic version by Chilean crooner Lucho Gatica with a Latin big-band sound and a schmaltzy instrumental version by the Baja Marimba Band, from the 1960s Tijuana-Brass era.īelieve it or not, there’s even a surprisingly tender take on the tune in English (“Close To Me”) by mass murderer Charles Manson, in a vocal style smacking of Willie Nelson.
The tune was written in 1959 by Alvaro Carrillo, one of Mexico’s top composers during the golden era of the romantic bolero. It’s a beautiful yet sorrowful torch song about the lingering traces of a lost love: “Sabor a Mí.” Surprisingly, it’s not a rousing number that stirs some sense of ethnic pride. There is only one song, however, that is so embedded in the bicultural community that it’s been dubbed the Chicano National Anthem. Another is “El Rey,” the mariachi classic by Jose Alfredo Jimenez, about a spurned, penniless vagabond who clings to his overblown pride and capricious ways, a monarch in his own mind.
One of them, of course, is “La Bamba,” the traditional jarocho tune turned into a 1950s rock hit by Ritchie Valens, and later reprised by Los Lobos for the 1987 biopic of the teenaged Chicano singer from Pacoima, California. A few become iconic songs, with lyrics and melodies memorized by the children and grandchildren of immigrants. Among acculturated Mexican Americans, only a handful of Mexican songs have managed to gain wide popularity and a special cultural significance on this side of the border.
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