Miguel Caló

Historical background

By the end of 1941, Miguel Caló had assembled a band so brilliant it would later be nicknamed "the orchestra of the stars" (la orquesta de las estrellas), but his best singer, Alberto Podestá, was poached by Carlos Di Sarli, and his radio station bosses pressed him to sack his other singer, Raúl Berón, whose smooth, hushed voice — closer to Bing Crosby than to the dramatic voices then in fashion — stood out awkwardly. Caló went for broke in April 1942, recording an unusually optimistic tango tailor-made for Berón: Al compás del corazón ("To the beat of the heart").

The track became a huge popular hit — bigger even than the version recorded the same year by Di Sarli and Podestá — and instantly defined the Caló style: romantic, smooth, elegant. According to Lavocah, without this gamble and without Berón, the orchestra would likely have taken a more conventional direction and be as forgotten today as a Ricardo Malerba. The "orchestra of the stars" was packed with musician-composers (including pianist Osmar Maderna and violinist Enrique Francini), whose mass departure at the end of 1945 marked the end of its golden run.

Source: Michael Lavocah, Tango Masters: Tango Stories, Musical Secrets, chapitre 6 « Miguel Calo & Raul Beron: to the beat of the heart ».