FORTYFIVES07.

Los Iracundos

The country of Uruguay is small in comparison to the more popular regions in South America but it is a beautiful nation of attractive people, savory food, diverse culture and eclectic music. Eduardo Franco (vocalist, composer, arranger), Leonardo Franco (his brother and first guitar), Juan “Bosco” Zabalo (second guitar), Juan Carlos Velásquez (drums), Hugo Burgueño (bass vocals and electronic), and Jesus María Febrero (keyboards) are the original members of Los Iracundos (The Angry).

Their music is from the mid-60s and gained a lot of mainstream music as well as a couple rare 45s that I’ve discovered during my visits with friends and solitaire travels down in South America. I do enjoy these tunes despite my lack of understanding in the Portuguese language. They achieved international fame with these youthful romantic songs, "Calla (Hush)", "Todo terminó (All finished)", "El desengaño (The disappointment)", "La lluvia terminó (The rain ended)" "Felicidad, felicidad (Happiness, happiness)", "El triunfador (The winner)" and "Es la lluvia que cae (It’s the rain that falls)". The LP: Iracundos en Roma (Angry In Rome) was the most successful of the decade leading to successes that broke through the popular cinema industry.

They had their first debut appearance in October 10, 1961, at the historic Teatro Florencio Sánchez in the city of Paysandú. Less than 2 years after that, they recorded their first single in the current capital of Montevideo. Their recordings were pressed under the RCA-Argentina for more than 20 years as well as a few under the label Microphone Argentina (MICS). Around the 80’s till the mid-80’s , The Iracundos were in numerous music festivals in Buenos Aires, as well as in several cities in Italy including Rome. In November 11, 1968, they came in second place at the Buenos Aires II Festival of Song. Sixteen years later, around 1984, they had a hit single in The United States called “The Gates of Oblivion”. They owned several gold albums for topics translated by myself such as “What you ask on his knees”, “You've been alone Chiquilín”, “I'ma mamarracho”, “Green River”, “Infidelity is your betrayal, puppets”, “Cardboard every night mia”, “you're killing me”, “I stayed in the bar”, or “You gave me love, passion and life”. These are some of the many tunes I highly recommend, too.

On February 1, 1989, Eduardo Franco dies of cancer at terminal nodes, in Paysandú leaving the successor to Jorge Gatto. In 1992 Jesus María Febrero leaves the group and in November 1, 1992, Juan “Bosco” Zabalo, dies of heart problems. By 1994 the group, which consisted with Leonardo Franco and Juan Carlos Velásquez, as founding members and as vocalist Jorge Gatto successor, decided to launch a new album, too, with unreleased tracks from the author Eduardo Franco, having as main theme "With the same coin", which became a gold record, renewing the popularity of the group, and leads him to compete in the OTI, in 96, with another new item of Franco, "I love you build." The OTI Festival or the Festival de la Canción OTI, Grand Prix de la Canción Iberoamericana (Original Name) was an international song contest, in which both members of the Iberoamerican Television Organization (OTI) with each participating a song (mechanically similar to the Song Festival Eurovision).

In 1997 the BMG label, Argentina, decided to reissue all productions of the musical group in digital publishing, with the draft of the complete discography, including albums from 1964 to 1987 and the voice of its natural leader Eduardo Franco, which is on the volume 16. There were other compositions that Eduardo Franco created without the group but later popularized famous songs such as "Puerto Montt". Even before any of its members had previously visited the city of Chile, it was produced but not yet recorded.

Today, Los Iracundos is an icon of the nation’s proud music history. There is even a song that was very popular for the little children to sing along called La Lluvia Caera. (Rain Fall) or originally titled, “Es La Lluvia Que Cae” (It’s the Rain that Falls). You can streamline it on youtube here:

To conclude, I’d like to share with you a recording of a 45 by Los Iracundos on the RCA-Argentina label (originally on the Microphone Argentina label) called “El Viento Del Silencio(The Wind of Silence):

-CTolentino