09/05/2021 4:25 PM
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Updated 09/05/2021 4:25 PM
Billy Cafaro
, the singer who, with the Spanish version of Paul Anka's song "Pity Pity", in 1958, became a
pioneer of rock and roll
in Argentina,
died this Saturday at the age of 84
.
The news was
confirmed by his wife
Susana Sanfilippo to the radio station FM Emociones, from San Nicolás, dedicated to retro music, although he did not give further details on the causes of death.
Immediately, some contemporary figures echoed the artist, such as Johnny Tedesco, who dedicated a heartfelt message to him on his official Facebook page.
The single with Billy Cafaro's version of "Marcianita", recorded in Spain.
"Goodbye Billy Cafaro. For me,
the first Argentine rock music idol
. Turning on the radio at any time the great Billy sounded with his extensive and successful repertoire. An excellent interpreter with a clear, powerful and well-tuned voice. He filled stadiums and stopped traffic in their radio presentations going down by helicopter in the middle of the Obelisk ", wrote the former Club of the clan.
Cafaro, who became an overnight hit in popular music in the late 1950s, with
exorbitant record sales and long lines to see him perform
, nevertheless had a brief reign due to a
misstep
in his artistic career from which he could never recover.
They tell me that Billy Cafaro, an initiatic figure of rock in our language, passed away yesterday.
His songs appeared on La Patota (1960) and El milagro de P. Tinto (1998).
I'm a fan of his astro-swing version of this song from the Cold War: https: //t.co/PFnJRXOjNx
- aхel ĸυѕcнevaтzĸy (@AxelKuschevatzk) September 5, 2021
It happened when after the success of the single "Pity Pity", which prompted the launch of his first full-length titled "Bailando con Billy Cafaro", which included the hits "Personality" and "Marcianita", he recorded a version of the song "Kriminal tango" by Italian Piero Trombetta, which was considered
a mockery by followers of the traditional Argentine genre
.
Since then, Cafaro's career went into a decline as abrupt as his arrival at the top had been, which included a
forced exile
in search of new directions and a return in which he tried unsuccessfully to join "El club del clan" , the new young music sensation of the moment.
Billy Cafaro, in an interview with Clarín in 2005.
Born under the name of
Luis María Cafaro
, in Palermo, the future singer, cousin of the Expósito brothers and a fan of Chacarita, showed his inclination for music since childhood, but
did not have the support of his family
, who decided to enroll him in a industrial college to understand that there would have an assured economic future.
With that excuse, in his adolescence, he ran away from home and tried to cross the border with Paraguay in search of a better destination, but he was arrested and returned home, from where he finally decided to put his artistic dream into motion.
Although he faced a repertoire with a strong tango and bolero presence, the echoes of the rock and roll boom that reached the country with the film "Rock Around the Clock", with Bill Halley, led him to keep an eye on the new genre.
Thus he found in
"Pity Pity"
, by Paul Anka, the ideal platform to launch himself into stardom, something that crystallized immediately in 1958 with
300 thousand copies sold
, which led to the recording of a long duration.
In that period, Cafaro established himself as a true youth idol, for which long lines were formed for his presentations, at the same time that he was required by radio and television signals.
The following year the reverse was given by "Kriminal Tango".
Faced with the public's contempt and the attitude of the record companies that closed their doors to him, Cafaro
went into exile in Spain
.
But there he was unsuccessful.
The new boom in youth song in Argentina, at the hands of "El club del clan", brought him back to the country in 1963, but he did not manage to join the cast of Palito Ortega, Chico Novarro, Lalo Fransen and Jolly Land. , Among many.
Since then, Billy Cafaro has tried on various occasions to win back the public, either with his rehash of "Pity Pity" or with some bolero and tango records, the genre that condemned him before the public.
The lack of economic resources also meant a bohemian lifestyle for the artist, which for many years materialized in a makeshift home on a boat with which he traveled different coasts.
Not even the fashion revisionism around rock in Spanish, which in our country centers its beginning on Los Gatos, Moris, Tanguito and Pajarito Zaguri, among others, and globally recognizes Los Teen Tops;
managed to revive the name of Billy Cafaro, perhaps one of the first rock stars, although for too short a time.
However, a survey of interviews with relevant figures of Argentine rock allows us to find various manifestations about their impact, such as the case of Miguel Abuelo in the testimonies provided for the biography of Tanguito written by Víctor Pintos.
"Billy Cafaro
was the host, the glory
. It was the first thing that hit me because it was a kind of incongruity and at the same time he had the power of convocation in my centers, in my individuality. He seemed divine to me, a cheek," he said, at the time , the leader of Los Abuelos de la Nada.
Source: Télam
DD