“…If you sang those hymns of my life
If you could fall in love with me I sing sad
You wouldn’t think to leave, you wouldn’t turn off my light
Nor would you seek refuge at night, my endless nights…”
During an interview, the composer José Alfonso ‘Chiche’ Maestre told the story behind ‘The cry of a king’, a song immortalized by the Binomio de Oro de América in the voice of the remembered Rafael Orozco.
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According to the sideburn poet, he wrote this “musical gem” in record time and was inspired by a particular situation that he was going through with his wife at that time.
“There was ‘Chata’, my wife at that time, recently given birth and I having stress problems with her… I was thinking about the song and he called me ‘Chiche’ Ovalle to tell me that Rafa wanted to record me, I told him that I had the song ready, but I hadn’t written anything and with that headache that I had, at that time my muse was mixed up and I went to write in a room”, begins the story of the ‘Chiche’ Maestre.
The composer revealed that to nourish his inspiration he read the Bible, finding the passages of King David, giving direction to the song that in a few hours he would deliver to Rafael Orozco.
“I read the Bible and I come across the Star of David and all those things that I wanted to tell him that I didn’t like fights and that when I’m in a relationship I’m happy… I compose the first verse that I had promised Rafa and at 4:00 am I compose the second verse, that was a record. I went to Barranquilla and sang it in draft”, adds ‘Chiche’.
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He also recounts that when he arrived in Barranquilla he wrote the song clean and gave it to Rafael Orozco and Israel Romero, with some “cool behind on edges”, who recorded it at “burn clothes”, that is, without practicing it, being one of the most remembered successes of the Binomio de Oro de América.
“They called me to tell me to sign the contract because the song was already recorded.”, finally said the composer, who is recognized for being one of the best composers in the history of vallenato.
‘The cry of a king’ was recorded on the album ‘De América’, released by Binomio de Oro in 1991.