El día que me quieras

The song *El día que me quieras* has a fascinating history that dates back to 1935, when it was first recorded in New York. Originally, it was the main theme of a film directed by John Reinhardt and produced by Paramount. The music was by Carlos Gardel and the lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera, who was inspired by a poem by Amado Nervo. The version many know today, released in 1994, is part of the album *Segundo romance* by Luis Miguel. This album, a continuation of his successful 1991 *Romance*, featured eleven reinterpretations of Latin ballads spanning from 1934 to 1993. The recording of *Segundo romance* took place in mid-1994 at Record Plant studios in Los Angeles, California, and was produced by Juan Carlos Calderón, Kiko Cibrián, and Armando Manzanero, with the participation of Luis Miguel himself. The final mix was handled by Craig Brock and Paul McKenna.

The release of *El día que me quieras* as the first single from *Segundo romance* on July 18, 1994, was an immediate success. The song reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart in the United States on September 17, 1994, and remained there for five weeks. For the music video, Luis Miguel was accompanied by an orchestra of 36 musicians, and filming took place at the emblematic Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico, under the direction of Kiko Guerrero. The song's lyrics, with their evocation of an idyllic future where love transforms everything, have resonated over time, inspiring around 200 versions. It is interesting to note that, although Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Le Pera died together in a plane crash in 1935, the work entered the public domain in 1965, although copyright extended until 2005 due to later laws and the complex chain of inheritances and assignments.