"¡Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes!" is a Mexican ranchera song composed by Manuel Esperón with lyrics by Ernesto Cortázar Sr. It was written in 1941 and featured in the 1941 Mexican film ¡Ay Jalisco, no te rajes!, after which it became an enormous hit in Mexico. The melody of the song was used for the title song of the Disney film The Three Caballeros. Both songs have been recorded by many artists.
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Analysis
The song envisions a romance between the Mexican state of Jalisco and its capital city of Guadalajara. In their book Writing Across Cultures: Narrative Transculturation in Latin America, Ángel Rama and David Frye posit that the song portrays the common stereotype of Jalisco being "a paradigm of 'Mexicanness'.
Though part of the ranchera genre, the song has the rhythmic patterns of a polka. Mariachis will often include the song in their repertoire, and in the Southwestern United States, a modified two-step associated with conjunto music may be danced to it.
Versions
The song has been covered by many different artists including Vicente Fernández, Plácido Domingo, Lola Beltrán, Julio Iglesias, Trío Los Panchos, El Charro Gil y Sus Caporales, Francisco Canaro and Pedrito Fernández.
Senator Ted Kennedy sang the song in Texas and in New Mexico while campaigning for Barack Obama during the 2008 Presidential Elections.
Texas A&M University–Kingsville uses the song, under the name Jalisco as their official fight song.
The song is featured in the 1943 film Here Comes Kelly.
The 2012 film Mariachi Gringo, that sees a young american man travel to Mexico in the hopes of becoming a successful mariachi performer, features the song. The song is performed by the lead character, played by Shawn Ashmore.
The Three Caballeros
After the international success of Saludos Amigos, The Walt Disney Company set out to make a sequel, titled The Three Caballeros. While Mexico was not a featured country in Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, made extensive use of the country and Walt Disney personally asked Manuel Esperón to collaborate on the Mexican portions of the film. The title song of the film used the same melody as Esperón's song "Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes!", with new English lyrics written for it by Ray Gilbert. While these lyrics were not a translation of Ernesto Cortázar's Spanish lyrics nor were they similar to them in any way, the line "Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes!" is used once in them.
Covers of The Three Caballeros
On the official soundtrack of "The Three Caballeros", the song was sung by Ray Gilbert with Charles Wolcott and his Orchestra.
Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters recorded a version of "The Three Caballeros" which reached #8 in the 1945 charts.
Fictional music group Alvin and the Chipmunks covered the title song, "The Three Caballeros," for their 1995 Disney-themed album When You Wish Upon a Chipmunk; however, The Walt Disney Company neither sponsored nor endorsed the album the song was featured on.
Other notable artists to record this version of the song include Edmundo Ros, The Fleetwoods, Santo & Johnny, Roland Shaw, and Vic Schoen.