Concerning this, we should point out the letter send to him by Armando Defino on the 3rd of July of 1932, commenting on the presentation of Gardel in Radio Colonial of Paris the 25th of May, in which he mentions the interpretation of the style of “Amargura” where “you have introduced some modifications that make it interesting and innovative” (3); although we will never know what they consisted of, we can’t discard that they affected not only the musical style, but also the lyrics.

His interventions were not whimsical. On the contrary, they enriched and improved a lot his repertoire. The use of the exact word in the right moment –which we often see in letters and interviews-, was one of the innate characteristics of “El Morocho” (nickname often given to Gardel). He sang for his public, and he had to do it with his musical rhythm, his clothes, his gestures and also his vocabulary. And the poets, far from getting annoyed for the corrections, also found them right.

Other were the reasons –which show how well-known he was in those years- that made him modify “Bajo Belgrano, where García Jiménez had to replace “están de asado y canta Gardel”(they are having a barbeque with Gardel playing) for “están de asado, baile y cantor”(they are having a barbeque, with dance and singer)-even though the STUD is not an appropriate place for dancing-, or “Corrientes y Esmeralda” –tango that he never recorded, but he sang in 1933-of which the tradition says that instead of ending it with “cualquier cacatúa sueña con la pinta de Carlos Gardel”(Anybody dreams with the look of Carlos Gardel) he ended it with “cualquier cacatúa sueña con la pinta de Charles Boyer”(4) or with “Maurice Chevalier” according to other versions.

With Alfredo Le Pera by his side, the story was different. He was not just another author, but rather his “other half”, his right-hand man, his trustworthy person. With very different personalities, there is no doubt that they got along at work. However, “Le Pera had to write sometimes one dozen lyrics before he would give him his approval (…) the demands of Gardel where unheard of” (7). Obviously, the songs were being varied, and we cannot know to what extent they were due to the poetic inspiration of Le Pera himself or to suggestions of Gardel. It’s only know the case of “Mi Buenos Aires querido”(My dear Buenos Aires), tango that at first was going to start with “El farolito de la calle en que nací”(The little streetlamp of the street in which i was born), but Gardel was not completely happy with that start, so he decided to add at the start “Mi Buenos Aires querido, cuando yo te vuelva a ver no habrá mas penas ni olvido”, verses that were originally only at the end of the song(8)

Sometimes, it wasn’t only about replacing one word or reiterating one verse, but they were faced with the need of remaking the whole poem. Such is the case of the song “El Rosal” (The rosebush) of Gerardo Matos Rodríguez and Manuel Romero, that Gardel sings in the movie “Luces de Buenos Aires” (Lights of Buenos Aires) and as it’s mentioned in an old magazine which is impossible to identify due to the lack of the cover and some pages, the author had to change it on request of gardel.: