Por una Cabeza

"Por una Cabeza" is one of the most popular of all Carlos Gardel tangos. The title is a horse racing term "to lose by a head." The lyrics lament a man's life by comparing losing at the race track to losing with women. "Por una Cabeza" was written in 1935 by Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Le Pera, shortly before both died in a plane crash in Columbia on June 24, 1935. (Wikipedia, "Por una Cabeza" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Por_una_Cabeza)

The late Alberto Paz and his wife Valorie Hart provide the complete lyrics in Spanish with an English translation on their Planet Tango website. This is a great resource for tango information. http://www.planet-tango.com/lyrics/porunaca.htm

Carlos Gardel sang "Por una Cabeza" in the 1935 movie "The Tango Bar." This is a fun movie to watch-- even if you aren't fluent in Spanish. The humor is easy to catch (you can access the complete movie using the link above). Gardel and his side-kick show up on an Argentine cruise ship. One of the funniest scenes for me was when Gardel's pal, who has snuck on board without a ticket, has to work as a dog walker on the ship. In Buenos Aires, professional dog walkers with multiple dogs on a leash are still a common sight today.

"Por una Cabeza" is a slow tango with a clear rhythm, making it easy to dance to. As a result, almost all of the major orchestras of the 40's and 50's recorded it.

Hollywood has often used this tango. Tango scenes with "Por una Cabeza" appear in the following movies (from Wikipedia):

  • Al Pacino dances to it in Scent of a Woman (1992) – The tango is performed by the "The Tango Project", consisting of William Schimmel (accordion), Michael Sahl (piano) and Stan Kurtis (violin), who actually appear in the dancing scene starring Al Pacino (the recording used is available on one of their CD albums).

  • Schindler's List (1993) – It plays well to the subtext of the film's protagonist's "addiction" to women

  • True Lies (1994)- Arnold Schwarzenegger's character dances the tango twice-- once with a female spy and in the final scene with his wife. According to Robert Farris Thompson, when Arnold tried to dance the Tango in "True Lies", they discovered he had two left feet and he struggled with the simplest of steps, so they filmed much of him dancing the tango from the waist up. (Robert Farris Thompson, Tango: The Art History of Love)