“Zorro gris” by Alfredo De Angelis y su Orquesta Típica with Oscar Larroca in vocals, 1952.

“My most successful tango has been, probably, “Zorro gris”.

While traveling on a streetcar to my mother’s house, I wrote it instantly. I premiered with my group at the Café La Paloma a few days later. People liked it very much, and soon others began to copy it.

It was by 1920, and collecting royalties was not easy then. Each evening I played it, I saw somebody who undoubtedly wrote the music and transcribed my composition on a music sheet. I was about to make it published by Casa Breyer, but in that way, the pirate copies would be released before.

That used to happen with many tangos, not only mine. But I had a good idea of adding lyrics to my melody. A friend introduced me to a boy poet, and he very soon handed me the storylines. That must have been the first work by Francisco García Jiménez.”