Always In My Heart

Arguably the most important Latin musical figure of the early 20th century, Ernesto Lecuona wrote hundreds of works during the era, including popular standards ("Malagueña," "Andalucia" aka "The Breeze and I," "Siempre en Mi Corazon," "Comparsa," "Noche Azul") as well as operettas, ballets, and an opera. Born in the Guanabacoa section of Havana in 1896, Lecuona earned fame first as a concert pianist. Lecuona had been composing songs even while studying piano, and he copyrighted two of the most famed songs in the Latin repertoire — "Malagueña" and "Andalucia" — during the late '20s. His group, the Palau Brothers Cuban Orchestra (later renamed the Lecuona Cuban Boys), toured America during the 1930s and became a huge success. Lecuona composed the scores for four MGM films during the early '30s, and earned an Academy Award nomination for the title song to 1942's Always in My Heart. Lecuona, named the cultural attaché to the Cuban embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1943, rarely performed after World War II, preferring instead to cultivate his Cuban farm.

• Contains complete lyrics