“In A Little Spanish Town”

On the live At Newport album, Ray Charles and his ensemble play a short, danceable version of the 1936 hit “In A Little Spanish Town”. It’s notable as being a stylistic departure for Ray, and it shows his fearlessness at trying new things even in a setting where more eyes than usual would be on him.

The music of “In A Little Spanish Town” was written by Mabel Wayne, and the words were by Sam Lewis and Joe Young. Since Ray’s is an instrumental version, it is really a Mabel Wayne song here. Paul Whiteman had had a hit with it the year it was written, and artists like Bing Crosby and Dean Martin had since put their own various stamps on it.

For their part, Ray Charles and the band take the irrepressibly romantic, exotically international original and inject it with significant doses of hipster punch. Since the lyrics have been jettisoned, gone are the lines about stars peek-a-booing down and the many moons that have passed since two lovers kissed in a little Spanish town; now a groovy rhythm shakes out the Latin-esque beat while the band unites on a descending horn riff that would be recycled a few years later on “Hit The Road, Jack”.

The main melody of “In A Little Spanish Town” is taken by the trumpet – Ray’s trumpet players for this show were Lee Harper and Marcus Belgrave – in a wild, swerving performance that’s mimicked playfully by Ray’s audacious scat “wah wah, la la” vocalizations. This, in addition to the “hey!” and “ooh, wah” chorus provided by the band at certain places throughout.

A dramatic breakdown, following that same descending figure, lets the trumpets really cut loose, trilling some crazy, repetitive notes; the effect is noticeably strange and undeniably bewitching.

In the liner notes of Atlantic’s 1973 re-issue of At Newport (as part of a two-LP set), one Gary Giddins goes out of his way to criticize “In A Little Spanish Town”:

“Spanish Town” is an inconsequential arrangement employing the Latin craze of the day. The ensemble chart disallows soloists and is pretty dated.

That’s all the mention the song gets. Such praise from ones own former record label! With friends like that…

Neither jazz nor R&B nor pop, Newport’s “In A Little Spanish Town” is a bit of fun for Ray, something to tantalize his audience with and to show off the band’s looseness a little. Ray’s Newport festival set was recorded in Newport, Rhode Island on July 5, 1958, and portions including “In A Little Spanish Town” were released on the Ray Charles At Newport album in October of that year. The entire album, along with the 1960 In Person album, was released in 1973 as the double-LP Ray Charles Live.

Single releases

Several years after Ray Charles had left Atlantic and become a worldwide star for ABC Records, Atlantic for some obscure reason released a single from the At Newport album, pairing “Talkin’ ‘Bout You” and “In A Little Spanish Town”. Both songs were edited down into shorter versions (though the full-length takes would have fit on a 45 with no problem.) The strange single was released in June 1964 as Atlantic 2239, and copies aren’t terribly scarce for the Ray completist.

Listen to “In A Little Spanish Town”

Get your own “In A Little Spanish Town” on 45, LP, CD or MP3 from Amazon. Or get the complete Atlantic recordings 7xCD box set.