It’s Throwback Thursday once again so this week we’re going with Jose Luis Perales and one of the greatest breakup songs in the history of Spanish music. This song is an essential Sad Hours song (for more of those sad hours tracks, look here).

Jose Luis Perales was born in the Spanish province of Castile- La Mancha in 1945. Perales began his career, not in music, but as an electrical technician. Although musically talented from a young age, Perales didn’t have the confidence to pursue music full time. He stuck to his career as an electrical engineer, composing music on the side, until he began singing in the mid-70s. His reluctance eventually gave way and his career blossomed. He has recorded 27 albums and sold over 50 million records over the course of his career. After 5 decades in the music industry, Perales announced his retirement in 2019.

Y Como Es El gives us the story of a man who’s lost his woman to someone else. The song is sang from the perspective of a man speaking to the woman he loves as she leaves him. There are two interpretations of this song, one being of a failed relationship and one being of a father losing his daughter to her husband. I interpret it the first way, a song of heartbreak but a compassionate departure. Maybe that says more about me than I would like to admit.

Perales originally wrote the song for Julio Iglesias but was encouraged to sing the song himself. So he did. The song has become an eternal anthem in Spain. Its safe to say this song is the biggest hit of Perales’s career and one of the most enduring songs in Spain’s history. The song was covered by Marc Anthony for his 2010 album Iconos.

From 1982, Y Como Es El.

For our past Throwback Thursday click here, here, or here.