It is one thing to have no talent at all or you are talented in everything you do, even innovative, and yet no body is convinced with your abilities. That is the case of Desi Arnaz, I think the problem behind declaring and announcing his talent is timing. He was a Latin in a white newly born, still raciest America. He did better than whites, he innovated their business, sang their songs and his with a fascinating amalgamation they couldn’t deny or resist, he shook their grounds and hips by the Conga Dance. Now it is like telling a third world artist he exceeds them in their own life and music, may be worse! America may be the land of dreams, but it was the land of certain men dreams! Ask Abraham Lincolin!!
Anyway, here is my humble opinion.
When Desi started singing or when we started recording to him he was in his early twenties, the only one recording we are sure of his age was in "Too Many Girls", the song " Spic N' Spanish", we know he was twenty two at the time . We hear his voice still raw, coming from a teenager but beautiful, his range is limited but heart warming, and there are some songs on the internet with the same range and tone, here he is a young singer who still retains a high bitch of childhood but entering his manhood with a great voice nonetheless. That is the reason behind the director of " Father Takes a wife" duping by a professional operatic singing with an Italian accent. At this time, Desi could never do that!!
Later we see him in "Desi and his Orchestra" and "Holiday in Havana" and I am sure Cuban Pete will be the same if only I can get to watch it!!
Desi's voice at this stage is growing to a tenor range, he was on the same level with the soprano Mary Hatcher in "Holiday in Havana"!
His vocal range is maturing, along with his dancing moves, and this is largely attributed to his constant touring at this stage of his life! Here is were Babalu took over and became his signature song.
Funny trivia about Babalu, Miguelito Valdés was the original singer to expose the song to the public and you could see him singing it in a video clip on the internet now, he was even known as Miguelito-Babalu!
Yet, when Desi introduced the song to the public they
loved it! (one of the things I love about the fifties is you can sing any song
you like, even if it was not written for you personally!). He was associated
with the song, it was his constant closing number in any show he did with his
band! But as an author who is an expert on Cuban music and its history said in
his book "cuban music", Desi's Babalu is not as Miguelito Valdés, it
is actually a parody of Miguelito's Babalu! Yes a parody!
He smiles in it, laughs in it, makes it less dark than it is supposed to be, he intensifies it with energy, but not as Miguelito Valdés Dark power energy, just fun and enigmatic one! Along the way he owned it!
Then we got to see him sing in "I love Lucy" with a constant gig with own orchestra! He sang some beautiful but Dark and highly challenging songs like, Jezzabel, Similu, Canta Guitarra, Vaya Con Dios and his own favorite Granada! Here you will see why nobody appreciated his voice, because his tenor songs were all in Spanish!, his English ones were light songs any light singer could do them "Straw hat" his signature number, "I love Lucy", etc.
One of the most marvelous songs that he sang in both English and Spanish lyrics and exceeded most of the singers who did it in either language as Doris Day, Iglasias, etc. was "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" or "Quizas, Quizas, Quizas" and he never did it on video or in "I love Lucy"!! Which shows that it may have held a personal meaning to him, so he didn’t want it in the show, or may be it showed how cruel Lucy was if he sang it there! This song is a favorite of mine, because it shows how romantic and depressed he could sing, and shows too that his voice has a soothing effect rarely present in a singer! Also it is equally lovely in English as well as in Spanish, and you can't hear his accent at all in the English parts, it is like it vanished, and you are reminded by his Cuban origin only later when he sings the Spanish parts! His version of the song is the best one I have ever heard, its Spanish is so musical in the ears you practically recite it without knowing what it meant!
Perhaps/Quizas Desi Arnaz version
He sang Granada two times in the show, one in the first season, in the "Lucy is Eucinate" episode and the other in the third season in "Changing the Boys' wardrobe"!Each one is different yet remarkable, I will tell you a small story about the song, this song was written by a Mexican composer in 1932 named Agustín Lara, and was sang mainly by opera tenor singers, the most iconic in my opinion were my favorite opera singers "Pavarotti" and Ronaldo Villazon" although I like Villazon's version better (and he is Mexican too like the writer!). And Desi's Granada is standing mightily close to those mountains! I think that is why he loved the song and loved singing it in many occasions, because it proved him an operatic tenor in his own right, and also fascinated him with the Spanish history of the Arabic magical era.
He sang also the song "Canta Guitarra" with those "Ojos Mores" that keeps repeating in the Spanish songs! Then later he sang his most hilarious "Shiek of Arabi" with a camel and everything in the "Mothers in law" TV show he produced.
So to conclude, Desi's vocal abilities are in par with a tenor operatic singer, it is obvious that he has trained his voice during the tours he made in the forties post war, and that is when his voice started to grow and mature. The notion that he couldn’t sing is preposterous and lacking honest judgment. However this opinion is derived from the two periods when his was staring with this high pitched teenager remnant raw sound, and later in his life caused by the alcohol and cigarette and cigar smoking. It always puzzled me how singers in the fifties used to smoke all the time, but I guess it was a cultural thing, they didn’t know the effect of smoking and its hazards, also there was much pressure on their machismo to smoke or they are seen as sassy! finally it ended in most of the actors and singers of this era dying of lung cancer! a catastrophe in itself!
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