Agustín Lara

El Músico Poeta, they called him: Agustín Lara wrote the words as well as the music. He came up as a pianist in the cabarets of Mexico City and moved through theatre, radio, records and film; from 1930 he was associated with the radio station XEW. Granada, Solamente una vez, María Bonita, Noche de ronda, Piensa en mí — all his. His songs have been performed by singers including Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras and Plácido Domingo. He wrote canciones, tangos and waltzes alongside the boleros, and Spain honoured him for a set of songs celebrating Spanish cities he had not then seen. Accounts of his birth differ: 1897 and 1900 are both reported, with Tlacotalpan, Puebla and Mexico City appearing in different accounts. He worked as composer and accompanist to the tenor Juan Arvizu. The Spanish regard took tangible form in 1965, when Franco gave him a house in Granada; the publisher Baton Music credits him with more than seven hundred songs, while the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio reports 445 officially registered songs. He performed in Paris and died in 1970.