Sobre las olas

For articles with similar titles, see Over the Waves (disambiguation).

The waltz "Sobre las olas" ("Over the Waves") is the best-known work of Mexican composer Juventino Rosas (1868–1894), who first published it in 1888.^[1] It "remains one of the most famous Latin American pieces worldwide", according to the "Latin America" article in The Oxford Companion to Music.^[2] It remains popular as a classic waltz, and has also found its way into New Orleans Jazz and Tejano music.^[1]

Piano sheet music cover (Germany)

Recordings

• Dave Brubeck on Bravo! Brubeck! (1967)
• Chet Atkins, on Alone (1973)
• The Beach Boys, on Feel Flows (2021) (recorded in 1970 as “Carnival”)
• Willie Nelson, on Red Headed Stranger (1975)
• Pete Fountain, on Mr. New Orleans^{[citation needed]}

In popular media

• A Mexican biographical film about the life of Juventino Rosas, titled Sobre las olas [de], was directed by Miguel Zacarías in 1933.^[3] Another Mexican film biography using this title was directed in 1950 by Ismael Rodríguez and starred Pedro Infante.^[4]
• In The Philadelphia Story (1940), Cary Grant hums the opening bars while playing with candlesticks.
• Snippets of the melody were used in Warner Bros. cartoons, including in An Itch in Time (1943) and Canary Row (1950).^[5]
• A cover with English lyrics is performed as "The Loveliest Night of the Year" in the 1951 American film The Great Caruso.^[6]
• In Mary Poppins (1964), the character Bert (played by Dick Van Dyke) briefly hums "Sobre las olas" while pretending to be a tightrope walker, reinforcing the melody’s association with circus acts.^[7]
• "Sobre las olas" is the main musical theme of the 1980 arcade game Carnival.^[8]
• The theme is used in the Atari 2600 video game Pitfall II: Lost Caverns (1984).^{[citation needed]}
• The theme is used as the song for the "Observatory" ride in the 1994 video game Theme Park.^[9]
• A rendition by the Mexico Festival Orchestra, conducted by Enrique Bátiz, is included in the in-game classical radio station Radio Eterna of the 2021 racing game Forza Horizon 5.^[10]