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José Alberto Iglesias | |
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 Tanguito, c. 1970 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | José Alberto Iglesias |
| Also known as | Tanguito, Tango, Ramsés |
| Born | September 16, 1944 San Martín, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina |
| Died | May 19, 1972 (aged 27) Buenos Aires, Argentina |
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| Years active | 1965–1972 |
José Alberto Iglesias (September 16, 1944 – May 19, 1972), better known as Tango or its diminutive Tanguito or Ramses VII, was an Argentine rock singer-songwriter. Born into a working-class family from western Greater Buenos Aires, he began his career in the early 1960s as the lead singer of the nueva ola group Los Dukes, which recorded two singles released on label Music Hall. In the mid-to-late 1960s, he became a leading figure in the countercultural underground of Buenos Aires, a scene that gave birth to Argentine rock (known locally as rock nacional, Spanish for "national rock"), the earliest incarnation of Spanish-language rock. Tanguito is celebrated for co-writing Los Gatos' hit "La balsa", that catapulted the burgeoning rock nacional into massive popularity in the summer of 1967–68. This success led to a contract with RCA Victor which soon ended after the little impact of the 1968 single "El hombre restante". Tanguito later worked for Mandioca, Argentine rock's first independent record label founded by producers Jorge Álvarez and Pedro Pujó in 1968.
In the early 1970s, his amphetamine addiction worsened and deeply damaged his career and personal life. He was arrested on several occasions and later hospitalized at the Hospital Borda, where he was subjected to electroshock therapy. In May 1972, he was declared legally insane and transferred to a prison for psychopaths. That same month, Tanguito escaped and lost his life under the San Martín train. His only studio album, Tango, was posthumously released in 1973 and compiled his recordings for Mandioca between 1969 and 1970. The album turned Tanguito into a cult figure among suburban rock fans and installed the persistent myth that he had been the original author of "La balsa" and Litto Nebbia had taken advantage of his fragile state of mind. The musician later became a cultural icon as the subject of the 1993 film Tango Feroz, becoming the archetype of the tragic rock hero. In 2009, the archival album Yo soy Ramsés was released, which compiled unedited 1967 recordings for RCA Victor. In 2007, the Argentine edition of Rolling Stone ranked Tango fifty-sixth on its list of the "100 Best Albums of Argentine Rock".