"In a Little Spanish Town ('Twas on a Night Like This)" is apopularsong published in 1926. Themusic waswritten byMabel Wayne, and thelyrics bySam M. Lewis &Joe Young.
With Jack Fulton'svocals, the song was a 1927hit forPaul Whiteman & his Orchestra as hisrecording topped theU.S.charts for eight weeks.[1]
The song had continuing popularity for several decades and was covered in later recordings.Virginia O'Brien's recording (a zany version apparently taken from a live radio broadcast) can be found on a 1984 AEI LP, "Virginia O'Brien Salutes the Great MGM Musicals."
Bing Crosby had sung it early in his career in 1926 on stage and later on radio during his time with thePaul Whiteman Orchestra.[2] In 1955 he recorded it for use on hisradio show as a cha-cha with accompaniment fromBuddy Cole and His Trio. This proved so popular thatDecca Records mastered the radio track and issued it as a single.[3] This charted briefly in 1956 at No. 49 in the USA and No. 22 in the UK.[4]
A similar melody to "In a Little Spanish Town" was used for "Why", written byBob Marcucci (words) and Peter de Angelis in 1959, which topped the charts forFrankie Avalon in the USA that year and then forAnthony Newley in the UK in 1960.[5] Copyright cases were launched on both sides of the Atlantic but neither succeeded. The English High Court said that there was a degree of similarity but no infringement of copyright because the plaintiffs could not prove that there was a conscious or subconscious act of copying.
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