Consuelo Velázquez, music and Spanish lyrics · Sunny Skylar, English lyrics · Mexican bolero, first recorded by Emilio Tuero in 1941
Bésame Mucho
Consuelo Velázquez wrote this Mexican bolero, a slow romantic song, and published it in 1940. Sunny Skylar wrote the English words, and jazz players have taken it up as a standard. Dance bands, singers, jazz quartets and the young Beatles have all recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Jimmy Dorsey's 1943 hit. It then follows the song through jazz groups of the 1950s and 1960s, the Beatles in 1962 and a live Brubeck quartet in Mexico. It ends with Art Pepper back at the tune in Tokyo in 1979, 23 years after his first take.
Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra (Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen, vocals) · 1943
“Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)”, Single, Decca 18574
Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra recorded it in Los Angeles on October 7, 1943, with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen singing. Decca issued it as number 18574, and according to Wikipedia it reached number one in the United States in 1944.
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Two singers, Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen, share the vocal with the Dorsey orchestra behind them. The whole record lasts about three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the of the first 8 , one chord to a bar except bars 5 and 6, which take two each: , Dm6, , Gm6, Gm6 , , Dm6, Dm6. If those chords are new, loop Dm6 for two bars and Gm6 for two bars and sing or hum the melody over them.
Art Pepper recorded it with pianist Russ Freeman at Radio Recorders in Los Angeles on November 23, 1956. The Tampa label issued the album The Art Pepper Quartet in 1957.
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Art Pepper's alto saxophone leads a quartet of piano, bass and drums. The track lasts about four minutes, much shorter than his 1979 take in step 8.
Try it on your instrument
Play the of 9 to 16: , , , Gm6, , , Dm6, Dm6. If that is too much, hold Gm6 for bars 9 to 12 and Dm6 for bars 13 to 16.
Grant Green's sextet recorded it at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on April 26, 1962. Blue Note put it on the album The Latin Bit in 1963 and also issued it as a single.
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Grant Green's guitar leads a band that adds a conga and a chekere, two Latin percussion instruments, to the drum kit. The track runs just over seven minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play for 1 and 2 and for bars 3 and 4, then repeat, keeping a steady beat the way the percussion does. Count the full 40 bars (A 16, B 8, A 16) before starting again.
The Beatles recorded this version at their first session at Abbey Road Studios on June 6, 1962. It stayed in the vault until Apple released it on Anthology 1 in 1995.
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A band at the start of its recording career plays the song, with Pete Best on drums. The track lasts about two and a half minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first four of , , Dm6, , Gm6, then hum the melody over them. Go on to bars 5 and 6 (Gm6 , ) when you are ready.
Wes Montgomery recorded it with organist Mel Rhyne and drummer Jimmy Cobb at Plaza Sound Studios in New York on April 22, 1963. Riverside issued it on the album Boss Guitar that year.
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Wes Montgomery's guitar leads with an organ and drums, three players in all. The track lasts about six and a half minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the of 5 to 8: , , , Dm6. A smaller version is Gm6 for bar 5, A7♭9 for bar 6, and Dm6 for bars 7 and 8.
The Brubeck quartet played it at a jazz festival in Puebla and Mexico City in May 1967, with a guitarist and a percussionist added. The take came out on the 1998 Legacy reissue of the live album Bravo! Brubeck!.
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Paul Desmond's alto saxophone and Dave Brubeck's piano lead a quartet with a guitarist and a bongo and conga player added. The track runs close to six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the of 13 to 16 and the start of the : , , Dm6, Dm6, then , Dm6. A smaller version is Dm6 for bars 13 to 16, then Gm6 and Dm6.
Art Pepper played it again in Tokyo in July 1979 with George Cables, Tony Dumas and Billy Higgins, 23 years after his first take. Galaxy issued it in Japan on a record named after the song, and it later appeared in the 1989 box The Complete Galaxy Recordings.
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Art Pepper leads with George Cables on piano, Tony Dumas on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. The track runs more than nine minutes, over twice the length of his 1956 take in step 2.
Try it on your instrument
Loop the full form (A 16, B 8, A 16) and play only the first note of each on beat one. This is the smaller version of soloing over , which needs more practice.
Consuelo Velázquez publishes the song in Mexico in 1940, and Emilio Tuero is named as the first to record it, in 1941. Jimmy Dorsey's October 1943 record with Bob Eberly and Kitty Kallen reaches number one in the United States in 1944.
1950s
Art Pepper's quartet, with pianist Russ Freeman, records it in Los Angeles in November 1956. The Tampa label issues the album the next year.
1960s
Ray Conniff's orchestra and record it in March 1960, and Grant Green's sextet follows in April 1962 with conga and chekere. The Beatles record it at Abbey Road that June.
1970s
Art Pepper plays it in Tokyo in July 1979 with George Cables, Tony Dumas and Billy Higgins. The take on The Complete Galaxy Recordings runs more than nine minutes.
1990s
Gonzalo Rubalcaba plays it on The Blessing, issued in 1991, with Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette. The track runs nearly eight minutes.
2000s
Diana Krall sings it on The Look of Love, recorded in 2001 with Claus Ogerman's orchestral arrangements. Verve released the album in September 2001.
More great versions
2 more, from 1960 to 1991. Tap a cover to play it here.
1960sThe Coasters1960
1970s
1980s
1990sGonzalo Rubalcaba1991 · Contemporary jazz
The Coasters
1960
“Besame Mucho, Pt. 1”, Single
The Coasters took the song onto the US Hot 100 in 1960, where it peaked at number 70, according to Wikipedia.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
D minorusual key
40 barsA · B · A form
D minor · G minorkeys it moves between
A16 bars
B8 bars
A16 bars
D m
G m
D m
G m
D m
G m
D m
G m
D m
D m
G m
D m
G m
D m
The tune is 40 in : a 16-bar A, an 8-bar B and the 16-bar A again. A opens with two bars of and two of . Bars 5 and 6 pair Gm6 with and with , which pull the tune back to Dm6 for bars 7 and 8. Bars 9 and 10 (, D7♭9) lead into two bars of Gm6. Bars 13 and 14 pair Dm6 with and with A7♭9, and two bars of Dm6 close the section. B (bars 17 to 24) starts on Gm6, goes to Dm6, then Em7♭5 with A7♭9, Dm6 with D7♭9, Gm6 and Dm6. Its last two bars ( and sharing bar 23, then A7♭9) lead into the final A.