And they gave us ten is one of the most emblematic songs by Joaquín Sabina. It was one of the singles from Física y química, the album he released in 1992. A curiosity related to its origin is that there is another Spanish song that begins exactly the same and that was released a year earlier.
"It was in a town by the sea one night after a concert. You reigned behind the bar of the only bar we saw open. Sing me a song in my ear", indicate the first verses of the aforementioned composition. It also starts like this Ojos de gata, from Los Secretos.
Apparently, Sabina met Enrique Urquijo, singer of the band, in a place in the early 90s. The two began to talk about music. The man from Madrid confessed to the man from Jaén that he had lost the inspiration to compose songs for his next album. He was preparing Adiós tristeza, which he would publish in 1991.
The singer-songwriter taught him the first few verses of a song he was working on. His professional colleague liked them and he took them away in a napkin. Although certain details of the story vary depending on the narrator, it appears that Enrique Urquijo completed the lyrics for Ojos de gata during the taxi ride home that night. Sabina didn't know and she kept writing And they gave us ten.
This is how Álvaro Urquijo remembered what happened in Rolling Stone: "Joaquín Sabina gave Enrique the beginning of the lyrics, but then we are all a disaster, we never spoke about it again and suddenly both Joaquín and my brother decided to write a song with that lyric, and both were hits.
The biography of Enrique Urquijo, titled Adiós tristeza y obra de Miguel Ángel Bargueño, states that the matter generated several misunderstandings between the two authors: "They were about to tear down the friendship that united them." Sabina stated in the group's documentary, Una vida a tu lado: "We were both falling very much in love with the Mexico of José Alfredo Jiménez at that time."
The waitress she talks about and they gave us ten, by Joaquín Sabina, was interpreted in the video clip by Goya Toledo. It was one of the first works of the Canarian actress, who later triumphed in series and films.
Juanma Castaño interviewed the artist in 2015 for El Comercio and asked him if the girl from the bar who inspired the composition was in Gijón. The musician shared: "The good thing about the songs is that in this case it is valid for all places that have a sea, that's why one writes them. But it was Lanzarote!"
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
