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PostMon Oct 30, 2017 6:48 pm

In 1948 Osvaldo Pugliese and his orchestra, after appearing in the film MIS CINCO HIJOS, was blacklisted from all media due to his communist political activities. This lead his singer Roberto Channel to move to another orchestra in a very unpleasant way (they reconciled many years later), but he retained Alberto Morán who was his most popular one. Unlike all of the others singers of the time, Morán was tall, handsome, and women went nuts about him, causing some riots that are associated to Elvis or The Beatles in this country.

Although he was blacklisted and there was virtually no promotion for his live performances in clubs, support for his orchestra became a sort of rebellious attitude towards Peron's government. While still under contract with EMI-Odeon he was still producing popular recordings that were sold almost in a mouth to mouth fashion between his fans and other tango consumers.

Musicians always say "Pugliese-Puglieses-Pugliese" as a form of giving themselves good luck. There is a reason for it that has not being not explained that even tango historians prefer to ignore because it goes against their political beliefs.

After three years of being blacklisted, he recorded with singer Alberto Morán "Pasional", a 78rpm disc that became by far the most commercially successful tango recording of all times. The song is not at all political statement but expresses a guy love for a woman. Ladies used to go crazy when this was performed, boosting sales of the record that had no commercial exposure at all.

This was so successful that Odeon have them making a new recording of the tango the following year, with the orchestra still blacklisted. This was also done because at the time the electrical recording system was abandoned in favor of using master tapes.

Here are both versions, although the second is the most common one since it was preferred for reissues.

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