José Alfredo Jiménez and Vicente Fernández are remembered as two of the greatest exponents of the Mexican regional genre, however, the former stood out for their ability to write songs, to the extent that their songs have been performed by national and international artists, including El Charro de Huentitán.
El Rey, Ella, Si Nos Dejan, Son of the People, A Rare World, Half Back, El Jinete are just some of the most emblematic songs of José Alfredo's lyrics, which have been performed by artists such as Chavela Vargas, Pedro Fernández, Enrique Bunbury, Luis Miguel, Carla Morrison, Julio Iglesias, Joaquín Sabina, Vicente and Alejandro Fernández, among others.
Although José Alfredo always made it clear that the Charro de Huentitán was not to his liking, Vicente Fernández said, in one of the tributes held in honor of the Hidalgo, that he always liked him.
This could be reflected in the moments when he performed José Alfredo's songs on stage. The King and Son of the People are two of the songs that Don Chente played so fervently that it made his audience forget who the official author was.
In addition to this, Fernández made José Alfredo's songs so much his own that his biographical series will be titled the aforementioned songs. El Último Rey: El Hijo del Pueblo is a Televisa production that portrays the most controversial moments in the life of Charro de Huentitán, starring Pablo Montero.
the enmity between the two singers transpired after Jiménez's death due to the song Las Llaves de Mi Alma, which the composer, at some point in his last days of life, supposedly claimed authorship from Fernández.
There was a version that Chente would have plagiarized or stolen José Alfredo's song. The rumor that had been going on for several years was that Alicia Juárez, the last wife of El Rey, would have given Fernández one of her husband's compositions.
Several years later, the performer of Por tu cursed amor denied this version and explained that the song was requested by someone else. He would have received indications about the theme and the melody that should accompany it.
As Vicente recalled, José Alfredo Jiménez was one of the composers considered to write the lyrics, but it was he who quickly accepted the project. Even once he had finished writing the song, he would have shown it to his colleague to receive some criticism, but he only received congratulations.
She also confessed that on some occasion she did write a song for Alicia Juárez, better known as La Araña, but she would never have given her any composition by her husband. This song never came to light, but during the presentation of Se me became late la vida sang a small fragment.
Among his verses he assured that La Araña, without directly mentioning its name, would not have corresponded to José Alfredo and would have only been by his side for the sake of interest.
Although there was not much talk at the time about the bad relationship between Charro de Huentitán and the Master of Composition, Olga Wornat in her book The Last King delved into the history between these two singers and, as she found, the enmity would have arisen because both were looking for the love of Juarez, but she chose to marry Jose Alfredo.
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