No More - (La Paloma - Sebastian Iradier)

The song No More appeared in Elvis's Blue Hawaii movie based on the tune La Paloma - written by Spanish Composer Sebastian Iradier but with English lyrics supplied by Don Robertson and Hal Blair. The original song has quite a long history.

The video here presents 4 versions - the last being by Elvis and the details are here -
"A Latin tango melody written in 1863 by Sebastian Yradier, now in the public domain. Like many good melodies, it has been borrowed a lot. Some examples from the 1950s and 60s:

1) La Paloma - Trio Los Panchos, traditional Spanish vocal. Successful Latin American recording artists in the mid 20th C, they backed Eydie Gorme on two Spanish albums.
2) La Paloma - Billy Vaughn orchestra, 1958 #20 pop instrumental, adapted to the rock+roll era.
3) The Look - Dean Martin. Original words by Bob Russell. A 1956 nonhit single, and on his LP "This Is Dean Martin".
4) No More - Elvis Presley in a great adaptation by Don Robertson and Hal Blair for the 1961 movie Blue Hawaii."

"La Paloma is a popular song, having been produced and reinterpreted in diverse cultures, settings, arrangements, and recordings over the last 140 years. The song was composed and written by Spanish composer Sebastián Iradier (later Yradier) after he visited Cuba in 1861. Iradier may have composed "La Paloma" around 1863, just two years before he died in Spain in obscurity, never to learn how popular his song would become.


The influence of the local Cuban habanera gives the song its characteristic and distinctive rhythm. Very quickly "La Paloma" became popular in Mexico, and soon spread around the world. In many places, including Afghanistan, Mexico, Spain, Hawaii, the Philippines, Germany, Romania, Zanzibar, and Goa it gained the status of a quasi-folk song.  It may be considered one of the first universal popular hits and has appealed to artists of diverse musical backgrounds.


 The motif of "La Paloma" (the dove) can be traced back to an episode that occurred in 492 BC preliminary to Darius' invasion of Greece, a time when the white dove had not yet been seen in Europe. The Persian fleet under Mardonius was caught in a storm off the shore of Mount Athos and being wrecked when the Greeks observed white doves escaping from the sinking Persian ships. This inspired the notion that such birds bring home a final message of love from a sailor who is lost at sea. This theme that a final link of love overcomes death and separation is reflected in "La Paloma". While the lyrics may not always be true to the original, the soul of the song seems to survive all attempts to recast it in whatever new form and shape there may be and is able to express the tension between separation with loneliness, even death, and love.


La Paloma" became quickly popular in Mexico. It was a favorite of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, and at the same time the Mexican revolutionaries played and popularized it well. Legend has it, popularized by the movie Juarez, that as a last wish Maximilian requested it to be played at his execution. As Emperor Maximilian was a Habsburg, ships of the Austrian Navy would never play the song.
Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paloma

Sebastián Iradier Salaverri (Salaberri) (20 January 1809 – 6 December 1865), a.k.a. Sebastián Yradier, was a Spanish Basque composer.
Iradier was born in Lanciego, in the province of Álava. His publisher in Paris urged him to "universalize" his name, from Iradier to Yradier. He is known primarily for his habaneras, especially the one titled "La Paloma", written around 1860 after a visit to Cuba. "La Paloma" was extremely popular in both Spain and America (especially Mexico), where it was responsible for the great popularity achieved by the habanera.
A collection of 25 of Iradier's most popular songs was published in Paris in 1864, with French words, as "Fleurs d'Espagne".
Another of Iradier's compositions is "El Arreglito", an habanera used by Georges Bizet in his opera Carmen as a source of inspiration. Bizet, thinking it was a folk song, inspired by the melody of "El Arreglito" and recomposed what is known today as the "Habanera" from Carmen: the aria "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" which is another aria from "El Arreglito". When he discovered his mistake, he added a note to the vocal score of the opera, acknowledging its source.
Iradier died in obscurity in 1865. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebasti%C3%A1n_Iradier

The original lyrics in Italian and a translation are here - http://lyricstranslate.com/en/La-Paloma-Dove.html
And the lyrics to the Presley version  - No More - here http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/bluehawaii/nomore.htm

The writers who adapted La Paloma and wrote new lyrics -

Don Robertson (born Donald Irwin Robertson, December 5, 1922, Beijing, China) was an American songwriter and pianist, mostly in the country and popular music genres. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. As a performer, he hit the US Top 10 with "The Happy Whistler" in 1956. The track reached #8 in the UK Singles Chart the same year. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

He composed or co-composed with Hal Blair, many hits for other musicians, including Elvis Presley who recorded over a dozen of Robertson's songs, five of which appeared in Presley's numerous films.

Songwriter Hal Blair, penned hits for Elvis Presley and Hank Snow,  A native of Kansas City, Mo., Blair got his start writing music for westerns featuring Gene Autry and Sons of the Pioneers. He later wrote "I Was the One," recorded by Presley, and "Ninety Miles an Hour Down a Dead End Street," first recorded by Snow. One of his biggest hits was "Please Help Me I'm Falling," first recorded by Hank Locklin and later covered by Dolly Parton, Gladys Knight, John Fogerty and Eddy Arnold.
More on Hal Blair here - http://home.earthlink.net/~deankay/HalBlair.html