Vicente Fernández dies: 7 of the most emblematic songs of the “king of the rancheras”

The sad moment of mourning the “king” arrived.

Vicente Fernandez, the last great Mexican mariachi, died this Sunday at the age of 81, after months of hospitalization in Guadalajara due to a serious fall on his ranch.

El Chente, who sold more than 65 million records in his 50-year career, was one of the best ranchera singers in history, along with Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete and Javier Solis.

“There is something different that Vicente Fernández put to ranchera music,” the director of the National Music Library of Mexico, Pável Granados, told BBC Mundo, describing his voice as “powerful” and “very velvety.”

We remember some of the most famous songs of the last “mariachi king”.

“Return Return”

In your arms, again.

I’ll get to where you are

I know how to lose, I know how to lose

I want to return, return, return.

It is impossible not to remember El Charro de Huentitán without singing “Back, back.”

Fernandez’s unmistakable voice resonated strongly in this love tragedy.

Released in 1972, this unforgettable ranchera of spite was his great hit musical and raised him as a world icon of regional Mexican music.

“I think the day they bury me, everyone is going to sing it,” he said several years ago at a concert with his son, the famous singer Alejandro Fernández.

“Beautiful darling”

With more than 73 million views, it is the most listened to song by the Mexican artist on Spotify.

It is one of his great classics and one of the songs that is sung every December 12 in the celebrations and serenades to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

“Here between us”

This song, composed by Martín Urieta, was included in Vicente Fernández’s album “Qué de rare está”, from 1992.

Two years earlier, the singer had presented her at a live concert.

It is perhaps one of the best known and saddest of all his repertoire.

Heartbreak at its finest in the form of a Mexican ranchera, played by Fernández at the top of his lungs:

Here between us

I want you to know the truth

I have not stopped adoring you

There in my sad loneliness

They have made me want to scream

Run away and ask

What has become of your life

“I don’t know how to crack”

Written by José Carmen Frayle Castañón, it appeared in the movie “Juan Charrasqueado y Gabino Barrera” (1982) and is another of the great successes of the “idol” of Mexico.

It is part of the album “In what way I forget you” and is one of their most famous rancheras:

Long tongue types don’t scare me

That they only show off to screen.

I am one of the men who fear nothing

And even if I am lost, I will not crack.

“By your damn love”

Another romantic ode to the uneasiness of heartbreak:

By your damn love

I can not end with so many sorrows

I would like to burst to the veins

After its premiere in 1989, this cry of disdain from a woman became one of the favorite songs of its followers and has more than 250 million views on YouTube.

A year after its release, a homonymous film directed by Rafael Villasenor and Ramón Obón was released that tells the story of a man who falls in love with two sisters.

“This jealousy”

It was one of the hits in the final stretch of his career and he made his audience fall in love again.

Composed by the Mexican Joan Sebastian, Vicente Fernández popularized it in 2007, when he released his album “Para siempre”.

In addition, it was the subject of the 2008 hit telenovela “Fuego en la sangre”.

“The king”

I know well that I’m out,

But the day that I die

I know you will have to cry;

Cry and cry

Thus begins the famous ranchera composed by José Alfredo Jiménez.

Sung hundreds of times by Vicente Fernandez, his version of “El Rey” exceeds 23 million reproductions and is perhaps the most famous.

He sang it at his farewell to the stage in April 2016, at the age of 76, in a concert at the Azteca stadium in front of 90,000 spectators.

For millions more around the world, he will remain king.