El Choclo: The Tango That Named Itself After a Corn Cob and Conquered the World
El Choclo: a corn cob at the roots of tango
Hum the most stereotypical tango melody you know — the sharp, strutting one that films use whenever a rose goes between someone's teeth. There is a fair chance you are humming El Choclo, written around 1903 by Angel Villoldo, and premiered in a Buenos Aires restaurant back when respectable society still crossed the street to avoid tango. The title means "the corn cob", reportedly the nickname of a blond tough guy of the night scene, and the joke fit the genre's early swagger perfectly.
Villoldo and tango's first generation
Angel Villoldo (1861-1919) belonged to tango's rough infancy: a guitarist, singer and humorist of the arrabal, writing when the genre lived in courtyards and dance academies, decades before Gardel gave it a singing voice in 1917. He also wrote "La Morocha" (1905), another founding song. Where later tango turned melancholic, Villoldo's tango grins: El Choclo is confident, cheeky, danceable music from a world of knife-carrying compadritos — the world described in the origins chapter of what tango is.
Three lives of one melody
- 1903: the instrumental original, premiered by the orchestra of a fashionable Buenos Aires restaurant, smuggling the disreputable genre into polite company
- 1947: the great lyricist Enrique Santos Discepolo wrote the now-standard Spanish lyrics, a bittersweet declaration of love to tango itself, and Libertad Lamarque sang them to the continent
- 1952: American pop renamed the melody "Kiss of Fire". Georgia Gibbs's version topped the US charts, Louis Armstrong recorded it, and El Choclo became one of the few tangos most Americans have heard without knowing its name
A century on, it is a standard for every tango orchestra, a staple of milonga tandas in its danceable versions, and a favorite encore from symphony pops to accordion recitals.
Recordings to hear
- Juan D'Arienzo (1937 and later): the Rhythm King's driving version, built for the dance floor
- Anibal Troilo: the golden-age orchestral reading, richer and darker
- Louis Armstrong, "Kiss of Fire" (1952): the melody's American passport
- Modern concert versions by orchestras worldwide: proof that Villoldo's tune has outlived every fashion
Set El Choclo beside La Cumparsita and you have the two universal melodies of tango: one for the strut, one for the goodbye.
Questions
What does El Choclo mean?
"The corn cob" in Spanish. By most accounts it was the nickname of a blond figure of the Buenos Aires night scene, in keeping with the cheeky humor of tango's first generation.
Who composed El Choclo?
Angel Villoldo (1861-1919), a guitarist and singer of tango's earliest era, around 1903. He also wrote La Morocha, another founding piece of the genre.
Is El Choclo the same as Kiss of Fire?
Yes. In 1952 the melody was given English lyrics as "Kiss of Fire", topped the American charts, and was recorded by Louis Armstrong among many others.
Does El Choclo have Spanish lyrics?
The standard lyrics were written in 1947 by Enrique Santos Discepolo, decades after the instrumental original. Earlier verses existed, but Discepolo's are the ones sung today.