Pato: Rosita Quiroga (1926)

Written by Ramón Collazo (Uruguay) Rosa Rodríguez Quiroga de Capiello (1901 - 1984) opened along with Azucena Maizani the way for women singers in the golden age of tango music. She made an impressive number of recordings in the 1920s and 1930s and was the first female tango singer to appear on the radio. Poor fellow: Vignette of a young man from the poorer districts who has become a real bacán, frequenting the cabarets and spreading his money around. But, as his former friend the singer says, a bácan's life is not secure, and one day he might well be back in the barrio, eating ordinary grub again. Quiroga gives a strangely low-key reading of this song, which should really have the sarcastic treatment it gets from Carlos Gardel in his classic 1928 version.