Tango — music or dance — always elicits an emotional response.

When we hear it, we can feel the fire of love and passion or the pain of loss and nostalgia. When we dance to it, we can feel how sensual, beautiful, and dangerous it can be.

Tango is undeniably an unmatched experience, but if there’s one more thing we need to learn about tango, it is that there’s a superstition surrounding it.

The tango is a fusion of African and European music and dance traditions associated with Argentina and Uruguay.

It is characterized by its distinctive 2/4 rhythms, staccato melodies, and dramatic, sometimes tragic lyrics. When learning deeply about tango, it’s inevitable to hear about “Adiós Muchachos.”

For some, “Adiós Muchachos” is just a tango song meant to be danced to. For others, “Adiós Muchachos” is much more than that; it’s one tango you should not dance to.

What is this mystery surrounding “Adiós Muchachos?” Before you get too creeped out, let’s explore the origins of this song and the tango superstition!

The Tango Song’s Journey

Like any superstition, this tango superstition provokes you to ask some questions.

Was “Adiós Muchachos” written by a cursed composer? Is the song itself cursed? What happens if you dance to “Adiós Muchachos?”

Many may be scared, but anyone would think “Adiós Muchachos” is just an innocent song after learning about its journey.

Adios Muchachos interpreted by Russian Philharmonic

Julio Cesar Sanders and Cesar Vedani

According to Brisbane House of Tango, “Adiós Muchachos” was a playful hymn for a group of friends.

It was composed by Argentinian pianist Julio Cesar Sanders, and the lyrics were written by his friend Cesar Vedani.

The song’s journey started when Sanders was in a café with his friends in Flores, Buenos Aires. When the evening ended, one of his friends said, “Adiós, muchachos,” which translates to “Goodbye, boys.” The line inspired Sanders, so he created the song on the piano with Vedani.

“Adiós Muchachos” was an addition to Sanders’ first published work in 1924.

According to Todo Tango,

the song’s worldwide success brought him to a trip to Europe with Vedani in 1928: “…and like every Argentine who visited Paris that year, passing through or as a tourist, he went to see Carlos Gardel.”

Carlos Gardel eventually became one of the song’s most memorable interpreters.

What is “Adiós Muchachos” all about, and why did it become such a hit?

Here are some lines of the song to give you an idea:

The song portrays a very sick man bidding his friends goodbye while on the verge of death. While he’s saying farewell, he’s fondly looking back at his life.

Tango has always expressed the feeling of loss and nostalgia, which is probably one of the reasons “Adiós Muchachos” became a hit.

Agustin Magaldi

Before “Adiós Muchachos” reached Carlos Gardel, tango and milonga singer Agustin Magaldi recorded it in 1927. According to Academic,

Magaldi was the “sentimental voice of Buenos Aires.”

Though his recording of “Adiós Muchachos” didn’t have as big of an impact as Gardel’s, Magaldi’s popularity was second to his.

Carlos Gardel

According to Britannica, Argentine singer and actor Carlos Gardel was celebrated throughout Latin America for how he embraced tango music.

As a singer, Gardel was praised as an interpreter of melancholy ballads of the tango.

During the 1920s and 30s, his interpretations were all over nightclubs and motion pictures!

Gardel expressed his admiration for Sanders and Vedani’s “Adiós Muchachos” when they met in Paris.

As shared by Todo Tango, Gardel said: “What a tangazo of yours! What a hit with ‘Goodbye, boys’, kids!”

Gardel also recorded the song in 1928, making it another hit in Europe as he went on tour. Through him, the tango was used in films and television shows. You can hear it in Scent of a Woman in 1992, and an episode of I Love Lucy.

Louis Armstrong and Dorcas Cochran

The success of “Adiós Muchachos” was undeniable.

The tango was loved by many, and it became one of the most played songs of its time.

However, like Todo Tango said, spreading tango abroad has not always been beneficial to tango. Many times, tango has been danced in ways that differ from its origins. Unfortunately, many song lyrics were changed to fit the new audiences’ ears. “Adiós Muchachos” was no exception.

“Adiós Muchachos” had two different titles in England: “I’ll Always Keep You In My Heart” and “Paul The Dreamer.”

In 1951, jazz musician Louis Armstrong recorded a version with lyrics by American lyricist and screenwriter Dorcas Cochran. Let’s look at how the lyrics were changed through Genius:

When we are dancing

And you’re dangerously near me

I get ideas, I get ideas

I want to hold you

So much closer than I dare do

I want to scold you

‘Cause I care more than I care to

The version barely has anything to do with the original “Adiós Muchachos!”

While Sanders and Vedani’s lyrics talked about a man on his deathbed, Cochran’s are about a couple dancing and falling in love.

The original “Adiós Muchachos” melody was, unfortunately, appropriated.

Eugenio Rondinella and Milva

It wasn’t only in the United States that “Adiós Muchachos” got lost in translation.

In Italy, a recorded version retained the original title, but the lyrics did not even have the slightest trace of Vedani.

It was one of the most successful Italian singers, Milva, who recorded the song with the lyrics by Eugenio Rondinella.

Milva was often called an Italian who loves Buenos Aires, but her version of Adiós Muchachos was not very Buenos Aires-friendly.

Todo Tango shares the lyrics of Rondinalle’s “Adiós Muchachos:”

Goodbye, boys, I’m not free anymore,

we’ll see each other in a year or more.

But come to see me whenever you like,

if you don’t have anything pending with the cops.

Goodbye boys, freedom is gone, the cops don’t wait.

I’ll also learn what prison means,

and when I come back I’ll change my name.

We’ll celebrate as usual

with a party for the one who returns,

we’ll make a toast together

and all will come to an end.

Rondinalle made “Adiós Muchachos” a prison tango, which is very different from a man’s impending death in the original “Adiós Muchachos.”

It’s reasonable to find it ungracious to appropriate a popular, successful tango, losing the original meaning along the way.

One Version After Another

Countless singers and orchestras recorded “Adiós Muchachos” after it was first released by Sanders and Vedani.

Within the first few months of the song’s debut, it supposedly reached 1,500 recordings! According to Brisbane House of Tango,

a tango database notes that “Adiós Muchachos” has had 118 distinct recordings.

Some stayed closer to the original, while others took more liberties.

“After the 1943 Argentine coup d’etat, some changes to the lyrics were made by the military dictatorship.”

As we’ve seen, while the melody has been kept mostly intact, the lyrics have changed so much that they’ve become unrecognizable. Perhaps, there are even more versions out there that we don’t know about.

“Adiós Muchachos” has been covered by many as it took a long journey from being a tango sung in Buenos Aires to a worldwide hit.

Aside from being a tango song, it became a tango superstition somewhere along its journey.

Carlos Gardel and the Tango Superstition

If “Adiós Muchachos” was such a big hit, why did people start associating it with bad luck?

All of a sudden, why did it scare dancers? This is when Carlos Gardel’s name comes back into the limelight.

While on tour, Gardel died in a plane crash on June 24, 1935, leaving the world shocked and devastated.

According to Active For Life,

people believed that Gardel sang “Adiós Muchachos” before the plane crash, which eventually resulted in superstition.

Since then, it has been considered bad luck to dance to the tango whenever and wherever it was played.

Tango has always had a set of codes (códigos). Inviting someone to dance should only happen through eye contact, and entering and exiting the dance floor should consider other dancers in the dancefloor. Like these codes, tango has also developed a set of superstitions (yetas) over time, and that includes “Adiós Muchachos.” The two are adhered to differently in different social groups.

Transpanish said that the word “yeta” refers to a jinx in Lunfardo, a rich vocabulary from Buenos Aires in the 19th century.

Yetas bring bad luck, and they are somehow attached to some aspects of tango. It’s unfortunate for the beautiful song “Adiós Muchachos” to be labeled as a yeta.

Perhaps, the tango once amplified milongas and sent milongueros dancing their hearts out. At some point, after Gardel passed, the song lost its charm.

Should You Not Dance to Adiós Muchachos?

From a famous tango song to a tango superstition, “Adiós Muchachos” has come a long way.

What would you do when you hear it being played in a milonga? Would you ignore the superstition and just enjoy the moment? Or would you sit this one out?

A Dance Forum thread discussed “Adiós Muchachos” and its effect on social dances. One member said: “If there’s music, and I can find a leader, I’m dancing. End of story. To each their own.”

It’s a good take on the whole “Adiós Muchachos” debacle.

At the end of the day, it’s ultimately up to you whether you want to dance to “Adiós Muchachos” or not.

Another opinion that could support this take goes: “Many of these superstitions have significance in Argentina. My feeling … leave them there. If one is not in [Buenos Aires], or such, then it just seems pretentious.”

It’s true; superstition is a part of a culture, and it should be respected as such.

When you dip into a culture, it’s expected for you to accept all the customs as well. One could see it as something they shouldn’t adhere to, especially if they’re not from there. However, some could also stick to it as a sign of respect for the culture. The same member further explained their take: “I agree about accepting the customs of a culture, but draw the line when it comes to whims and social norms.”

It’s another matter of deciding for yourself whether “Adiós Muchachos” is a cultural custom you must respect or a social norm you can choose to ignore

If you still need more help to decide whether you should or shouldn’t dance to “Adiós Muchachos,” then this take could be for you:

If you refer to Gardel’s Adios Muchachos, the recording I have here is pretty much undanceable. I would not leap to my feet upon hearing it, and I would probably excuse myself from the floor if it came on.

This is a matter of taste for me, danceable tango music, rather than anything to do with song content or any superstitions, or indeed being told not to dance to something because “It isn’t tango.”

Your decision could step away from the superstition and into the realms of what you prefer to dance to. While others focus on the bad luck that “Adiós Muchachos” could bring, others concentrate on whether it is a danceable tango or not. “Adiós Muchachos” might not be your kind of tango music. If that’s the case, you don’t have to dance to it!

In the grand scheme of things, “Adiós Muchachos” is merely a song. It has a profoundly complicated history, yet it’s still just a song.

You can marvel at its story and the effect it has had on tango culture. “Adiós Muchachos” is a beautiful song that will continue to be danced to, regardless of the superstition.

Adiós Muchachos and Tango Superstition