Joseph Lacalle
José María Lacalle ( Joseph M. Lacalle ) ( born August 1860 in Cadiz, † June 11, 1937 in New York) was a Spanish composer.
His hit Amapola (Spanish for "Poppy ", where a rare first name ) from 1924 was a great success, especially in instrumental versions of various guitarists. Deanna Durbin sang the hit 1939 in the film First Love, the English text Amapola, my pretty little poppy, was written by Albert Gamse. Jimmy Dorsey took the song in 1941 with his orchestra, the singing came from Bob Eberle and Helen O'Connell. In Latin America, the song was particularly Ernesto Lecuona and by his Cuban Boys dissemination. In Germany it was sung in 1938 by Meistersextett in Spanish.
In 1964 the Swedish Gitarrenpopgruppe The Spotnicks on the song. He is also in the repertoire of the Ventures, the Shadows, by Jørgen Ingmann and Ricky King.
The melody is also known from the movie Once Upon a Time in America from the year 1984. Newer versions were sung by Andrea Bocelli and Paul Potts. In German translation, there are different versions of the text.