From El Mundo, 1 October 1944. Beginning in May 1944 Odeon Records conducted a concerted advertising/branding campaign apparently designed to establish itself as the premier record label for both tango and jazz, the two most popular musical genres of the time. This tall, one-column ad (scroll down to see it all) ran on the page preceding the Dance Guide. It offers:
"2 Outstanding Performers! 2 Extraordinary Albums! The Best of each genre on Discos Odeon."
I think it gives us some interesting data about record packaging, marketing, and branding, while demonstrating Alberto Castillo's rank as one of the most marketable acts of the moment. (I didn't know they sold albums of 78s!)
Composer, singer, clarinetist and saxophonist Barry Moral was one of the busiest jazz men of the time. He shared the stage with just about every major tango orchestra, and often appeared solo, too.
Sorry about the uneven tone on the ads. Lighting was tricky!
Did they translate the Enlish lyrics for Barry Moral - or just played instrumentals?
Posted by: Dmitry | 10/03/2015 at 11:23 AM
I believe they mostly translated the LYRICS of English-language jazz songs and sang them in Spanish. Oscar Alemán had a hit with YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU, which he turned into ME HAS ENAMORADO, and he sung it in Spanish. It seems that if a song was originally known by its English title (or French or Portuguese), that would be given along with the Spanish title, whether there were lyrics or not... I'm not an expert on this however.
Posted by: Michael | 10/03/2015 at 08:03 PM