Weiping Ponce’ (a play on the word ‘pale’, which is used a lot in Spanish); these songs are usually sung in a certain way to a particular pitch of voice. Most often a soft pitch of a higher octave followed by an uvular melody is the accompaniment.

The word chorizo comes from the Portuguese words meaning ‘dark’ and’musical musician’ – a musician with a musical background.

When did the word chorizo start to have meaning? Chorizo is from the Portuguese verb ‘cou’ meaning ‘to sing’, with ‘cou’ meaning ‘to play’, as in playing chortles etc… The first recorded use of the word chorizo in English was in 1824 by Walter Reed, one of the best known songwriters today. Reed wrote a song called ‘The Chorizo Song’, based on a 19th century English folk song, ‘The Old King Cole’, which was one of Reed’s two big hits in that century.

Chorizo was revived in song several times in the 19th century, and was mentioned in Thomas Hardy’s 1850 novel ‘Chorizo’ (see picture). Hardy had been the musical director of Broadway shows in New York when he first heard ‘The Old King Cole’ before an audience in 1850.

Hardy’s ‘Chorizo Song’ has been covered by many groups, including John Lee Hooker, Fats Domino, Billy Joel, the B-52’s, and John Lennon, among numerous others.

Chorizo was always, of course, associated with the country (the singing country folk) (See below). The song has also been attributed to George P. Henry, but nothing is certain about that. The earliest documented use of ‘Chorizo’ anywhere outside of its American context was by the composer and guitarist Jimmy Tippe (1915-1992) who wrote ‘The Chorizo Song’ in 1916, but that isn’t sure if he did it in the USA, or just in Europe (He did that because “he was a little country boy”.). Most of the later music with the word chorizo can be traced to the USA.

You might wonder what exactly a chorizo is. A chorizo is a bird: a chorizo is a crow.

The origins of the word chorizo is most likely linked to