"Quiéreme mucho" is a criolla-bolero composed in 1911 by Gonzalo Roig with lyrics by Ramón Gollury and Agustín Rodríguez.
In 1917, it was included in the sainete El servicio militar obligatorio and performed by Becerra and Rafael Llorens to critical acclaim.
Roig published and sold the rights to the song in 1921, and the first recording was made in the United States by singer Tito Schipa in 1923.
Roig and Becerra had just got married in 1911 and decided to paraphrase verses by a now obscure poet and journalist, Ramón Rivera Gollury.
[6] However, this version was not published, since Roig decided instead to directly quote Gollury's poem, which became the widely known first stanza of the song: "Quiéreme mucho, dulce amor mío, que siempre amante te adoraré...".
[6] The second stanza ("Cuando se quiere de veras, como te quiero yo a ti...") was written by librettist Agustín Rodríguez (1885–1957), who would write the lyrics to many other songs by Roig.
[6] The song was premiered by tenor Mariano Menéndez at the Nicolás Ruiz Espadero Hall in the Hubert de Blanck Conservatory of Havana under the title "Serenata cubana" (Cuban Serenade) in 1911.
Years later, Roig decided to include the song in the sainete El servicio militar obligatorio about World War I, which premiered at the Teatro Martí in 1917.
[3] Italian tenor Tito Schipa, backed by an orchestra directed by Rosario Bourdon, made the first recording of the song on March 12, 1923, for the Victor Talking Machine Company.
[18] The success of the Spanish version of the song prompted its translation in the United States, where lyricists Albert Gamse and Jack Sherr published "Yours".
A German version was published under the title "Du bist mein erster Gedanke" (You Are My First Thought) and first recorded by Mieke Telkamp (1956, Philips), becoming her first hit in the country.