Mocedades

Mocedades is a Spanish Basque singing group, probably best known for representing Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 with the song Eres Tú.

Group formation

In the year 1967 in the Spanish city of Bilbao, eight Basque students decided to form a musical group to be known as Voces y Guitarras ("Voices and Guitars"), citing folk and spiritual music and The Beatles as influences. This group of siblings Amaya Uranga, Estibaliz Uranga, Izaskun Uranga, Roberto Uranga, brothers Rafael Blanco and Sergio Blanco, José Ipiña and Francisco "Paco" Panera spent a year performing around their hometown before sending a demo cassette to producer Juan Carlos Calderón in Madrid. He took an immediate interest in the group and renamed them Mocedades ("Youth").

Eurovision and worldwide success

In 1970, both Ipiña (for military service) and Panera (to become a professor at a local university) left Mocedades. Javier Garay who had previously belonged to Voces y Guitarras rejoined the group in 1970 after serving in the Spanish military in Africa. Estibaliz Uranga and the Blanco brothers followed in 1971, and in 1972 Ipiña returned and Carlos Zubiaga (from Los Mitos) joined. It was with this configuration of six (three Uranga siblings, Zubiaga, Garay and Ipiña) that Mocedades achieved its greatest successes.

The group was now on its way to making a remarkable string of hits, most notably "Eres Tú " ("You are..."), runner up in 1973 and the next year a massive hit in Europe and the United States of America. "Eres Tú" became one of the only Spanish language songs to reach the top 10 in the United States, peaking at #9 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart and also reaching the top 10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. In the United States, the song is an airplay favorite today on Adult Standards and Easy Listening radio. The B-side of the single was the English language version of the song ("Touch the Wind"), but radio stations preferred to play the original A-side version. There were also several cover versions of the tune in both English and Spanish, only one of which ("Touch the Wind" as done in English by Eydie Gorme), charted, becoming a minor Adult Contemporary hit. The song was re-released in English as "Touch The Wind" in later years. It was subsequently released in German: Das bist Du ("You are that..."), French: C'est pour toi ("It is for you..."), Italian: Viva noi ("Long live us"), and Basque: Zu zara ("You are..."). The song was the only U.S. Billboard hit for Mocedades; a follow-up, "Dime Señor" ("Tell Me, Lord," also recorded in English on its B-side as "I Ask the Lord"), flopped.

The 1973 Eurovision Song Contest was marked by a scandal, with "Eres Tú" being accused of plagiarism following suggestions that it was merely a rewrite of the Yugoslav entry from the 1966 contest ("Brez besed" sung by Berta Ambrož). Nevertheless, "Eres Tú" was not disqualified; it has been suggested that this may have been for political reasons, as Francisco Franco's Spain was seen as more part of the European mainstream than Tito's Yugoslavia. The song went on from its second place in the contest to become a huge international hit. (Per Mocedades' homepage [below] Juan Carlos copyrighted the lyrics in 1972)

However, many more hits followed in Latin America and Spain, most notably "Tómame o Déjame" ("Take Me or Leave Me"), "El Vendedor" ("The Peddler"), "La Otra España" ("The Other Spain") and "Me Siento Seguro" ("I Feel Sure"). In 1980 Mocedades signed up to CBS Records, now Sony, and recorded more songs for the Spanish-speaking market, including "Ay Amor!" ("Oh Love") and "Amor de Hombre" ("Love of Man"), which was the first Mocedades track to enter English-speaking charts since the smash hit "Eres Tú".

1984-present

In 1984 Amaya Uranga announced her decision to leave Mocedades and was replaced by Ana Bejerano. The albums "Colores" and "Sobreviviremos" were released before Jose Ipiña and Carlos Zubiaga left in 1988. In 1992 "Intimamente", a cover album of pop classics arranged by Carlos Zubiaga at his Tio Pete studios, was released and more departures followed in 1993.

Eres Tú was nominated for the 50th anniversary Eurovision concert Congratulations after being selected as one of the 14 most popular songs in Eurovision history, and finished eleventh. Amaya Uranga, Carlos Zubiaga and Jose Ipiña attended the event while Javier Garay and Izaskum Uranga were strangely not invited. Roberto Uranga had died (October 14, 2005) just a few weeks before the show (October 24, 2005) , which is why Amaya and the others were dressed in black and why Amaya couldn't lip-synch, almost crying.

Just two of the "Historic Six" Mocedades members were around to record "Suave Luz" in the mid-1990s, and they found three further new members to record with them.

In the late 1990s some compilation albums of Mocedades's hits were released. Another compilation, "Todas de Exitos de Mocedades" ("All of Mocedades' Hits") was released in 2000 and later re-branded as simply "Exitos". A similar compilation followed in 2004, featuring thirty tracks.

After 10 long years, Mocedades is releasing their 22nd album: Mocedades canta a Juan Luis Guerra. This iteration of Mocedades includes: Izaskun Uranga, Javier Garay, Luis Hornedo, Rosa Rodriguez and Fernando Gonzalez. The songs on the new album include: Bachata rosa, La bilirubina, Burbujas de amor, Frio, frio, Cuando te beso, Como abeja al panal, Ojala que llueva cafe, Estrellitas y duendes (with Izaskun as principal singer), Palomita blanca and Visa para un sueño.

Mocedades has recorded many famous English-language songs, including "Say A Little Prayer", "You've Got A Friend" and "Let It Be".

Members

The first date listed in brackets is the year in which the member joined Mocedades - the second date is the year in which they left.

Twenty-three people in all have been part of Mocedades since its inception.

Covers

A well known cover version was recorded by Perry Como on April 29, 1974.

A guitar instrumental version of "Eres Tú" was used in a Bank of New Zealand TV advertising campaign in the 1990s.

In the movie Tommy Boy, there's a scene in which Chris Farley and David Spade sing the original Spanish version of "Eres Tú".

Discography

"Best of" albums

Songs not included in the original albums

• 1969 Navidad feliz (Happy Christmas) (never released on vinyl or on CD but sung on the Spanish TV network TVE with Marisol)
• 1970 Viejo Marino (side B of a special edition single (45rpm) of the Latin religious song Pange Lingua)
• 1970 Un mundo mejor (not released, sung on the Spanish TV network TVE. Mocedades and Voces Amigas both sang this song in the competition to choose a group to represent Spain in Eurovision.)
• 1973 Gitano (originally not released, included in the re-mastering of Mocedades 5 and on Eres tú, los grandes éxitos. Mocedades chose Eres tu over this song to compete in Eurovision.)
• 1973 4 covers of the song Eres tu done in German: Das Bist Du, French: C'est pour toi, English: Touch the Wind and Italian: Viva noi. The same melody and orchestration was used for each cover but the translations of the lyrics were quite different from the original Eres tu.
• 1981 El niño robot (included in the album Cosas de niños in which several Spanish groups sing children's songs)
• 1981 Los cochinitos dormilones (The 3 Little Pigs) (included in the album Cosas de niños)
• 1981 Desde que tú te has ido was released in Brazil and Portugal with 2 songs re-done in Portuguese. The title song Desde que tu te has ido was redone as Despedida and the Bee Gees cover Como siempre, was redone as Reencontro.
• 1983 Amor primero (duet with Patxi Andión on one of his albums)
• 1985 Lluvia de plata (a duet with Sergio y Estibaliz on their album Cuidado con la noche which was recorded after Amaya Uranga left the group but before Ana Bejerano joined the group.)
• 1986 Ay, amor (a duet with Jose Luis Perales on one of his albums.)
• 1992 Las 1001 Américas (included on a 45rpm single with the two theme songs from the cartoon series Las 1001 Americas)
• 1992 Volando en tu imaginación (included on a 45rpm single with the two theme songs from the cartoon series Las 1001 Americas)
• 1997 Mi tierra (a duet with Nino Bravo in his second greatest hits album. Although Nino Bravo had died in 1973, two sets of Greatest Hits albums were produced with some songs artificially made into duets with modern Spanish singers.)
• 1997 Dicen (a duet with Nino Bravo in his second greatest hits album. Other singers in this song included Eva Ferri, Sandra Morey, Ma Conchita Alonso, Marcos Llunas, Jacobo Calderon (son of album producer Juan Carlos Calderon,) Michelle and Maria Caneda.)
• ???? Vieja ciudad (never released on its own but finally included in Antología 2)
• ???? Tiempo de vals (never released on its own but finally included in Antología 2)
• ???? Lo creas o no (cover of the American hit song: Believe It or Not the theme song of the American TV progam The Greatest American Hero)(never included in any of the albums by Mocedades but appears on side B of the single Maitechu mía, with Plácido Domingo; it is also included in Antología 2)

Covers of Eres tú

See also

Related acts:

• Sergio y Estíbaliz
• El Consorcio
• Mikel Uranga
• Txarango
• Los Mitos
• Zurrumurru
• Trigo Limpio

External links

• Official site