There is this Heineken commercial here in Israel that has been playing for the past few months. They have a song in it that I finally found out was “Quando, Quando, Quando” by Engelbert Humperdinck. I don’t really like the song, but I really need to know – what does Quando mean?
It’s “cuando” and it means “when”
In Italian it’s “quando” (and it also means “when”). And in fact the name of the song is “Quando, Quando, Quando.” You can hear it on “The Dance Album” by Hump. Or in RealAudio at http://www.bp.lv/sounds/quando.ram
Yeah, me too.
Actually, according to this site, that’s only true of the “Spanish mix.” The original is “quando” from what I can tell and I’m guessing it’s Italian. It’s “when” either way.
Like with “Que Sera Sera,” the other lyrics are a big help. “Tell me when will you be mine/Tell me Quando Quando Quando/We can share a love devine/Please don’t make me wait again.”
Sorry to tread on your coat-tails there, Jeff Seigle.
Hmmmm. After actually listening to this, I must say that it is supposed to be Spanish (South American motif in the music, a few Spanish phrases in the background near the end of the tune) but every reference I saw, including Amazon.com, spelled it with a Q. The songwriter goofed.
In latin, it’s cuando, which also means ‘when’. Shows you how much those romance languages ripped those good ol Romans off!
It’s Quanto, with a Q, and means Quantum “(I) any of the very small increments or parcels into which many forms of energy are subdivided , or (II) any of the small subdivisions of a quantized physical magnitude”
I believe the song was first recorded by Albert Einstein as the “Doppler Blues” in the 1930s and in the 70s it was recorded by the famous Max Planck as the “Ultraviolet Shift”.
I hope that clears everything.
Also covered by Schroedinger on his album, “Is the Cat Dead Yet?”
This thread goes to show how drastically Spanish dominates over Italian in the American mind.
Just now I went to Starbucks and the so-called barista was explaining to a customer that grande is “Spanish” for ‘big’. Well, that happens to be true, but in the Starbucks context the fact is that they took their coffee terminology from Italian. He went on to say that venti is the 20 oz. size, but if he’d thought about it, he would have realized that venti is Italian for 20, since in Spanish it’s veinte (pronounced “beinte”).
I used to wonder why everyone says the phrase mano a mano is Spanish, since it’s exactly the same phrase in Italian. Why not say it’s both Italian and Spanish at the same time?
I got nothing against Spanish, one of the most beautiful languages in the world; it’s just that Italian (one of the few languages more beautiful than Spanish IMHO [sub]no I don’t got a cite for that, wiseguy[/sub]) keeps getting short shrift in America. I have a particular affection for Italian, it being the first foreign language I ever studied back when I was a wee bairn. Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, Italian was fashionable here, but now it has sunk into oscurità. Face it, when was the last time anyone heard of Mario Lanza? "Volare" was once more than just a car commercial.
FTR: Quando with a Q is Italian and Latin. Cuando with a C is Spanish. Both are pronounced identically.
The song “Quando Quando Quando” (later recorded in English translation by E. Humperdinck) had already been a big hit in Italy during the early 1960s, granted that was before most of you were born. The original song by Alberto Testa & Tony Renis went (with my translation):
Dimmi quando tu verrai,
Dimmi quando quando quando
L’anno, il giorno, e l’ora in cui
Forse tu mi bacerai
Tell me when you will come,
Tell me when, when, when
The year, the day, and the hour in which
Perhaps you will kiss me
Ogni istante attenderò
Fino a quando, quando, quando
D’improviso ti vedrò
Sorridente accanto a me
Every instant I will wait
Until when, when, when
Suddenly I will see you
Smiling near me
Se vuoi dirmi di sì
Devi dirlo perchè
Non ha sensa per me
La mia vita senza te
If you want to tell me “yes”
You have to say it, because
It has no meaning for me
My life without you
Dimmi quando tu verrai
Dimmi quando quando quando
E baciando mi dirai
Non ci lasceremo mai
Tell me when you will come
Tell me when, when, when
And kissing, you will tell me
We will never leave each other
Glad you got that off your chest, there, Jomo Mojo.
Do you feel better, now? 
Jomo Mojo, I agree with almost everything you said.
But,
Isn’t that phrase mano e mano? And isn’t it Latin? (For the education of our other readers: meaning “hand to hand”, not “man to man”.)
Yeah, I feel much better now, thanks. Obviously my trip to Starbucks had something to do with those run-on sentences.
No & no.
In Italian, e means ‘and’; a means ‘to’ (the latter word is the same in Spanish).
The phrase translated into Latin would be manus ad manui.
Sorry, but I can’t think of that song without thinking of The Blues Bros.
Well, I think you may be wrong here. While it may be “cuando” in spanish, which is the language of most of south america, in Portuguese it’s indeed “quando”. And Portuguese, aside from sounding a lot like Spanish, as we all know is the primary language spoken in Brazil, which with coastal cities such as Rio de Janeiro is chaulk full of “south american motif”. So the assumption that he was writing about brazil would explain the Q, the south american motif, and the “spanish” phrases in the background.
This song is about Brazil? What led you to conclude that? It’s Italian. It was written and performed by Italian guys in Italy.
I don’t know how much Italian pop you’ve heard (a lot of it is really syrupy and not worth listening to), but it often has a strong Latino beat. Part of the similarity with other Latin music is that they all originate from Latin (obviously), but part of it comes from Italy having been occupied by Spain from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Some Spanish guitar strumming got into Italian music. If you listen to the 1950s Italian hit “Chitarra Romana” (Roman Guitar), the rhythm is definitely Latino.
The Latino beat turns up in the Philippines and in unexpected places. Listen to the filmi pop songs of India, you hear a lot of Latino rhythm, guitar strumming and all, which is very non-Indian. That’s because the music in the Bombay film industry has a lot of people from Goa, who come from Portuguese ancestry.
The song “Quando Quando Quando” is anyhow Italian and not Portuguese.
Ok well I don’t know a damn thing about the song in question. I was simply bringing together another poster talking about the latin/south american stuff with the OP saying it was a Q… my bad
“Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati”
or
“When All Else Fails, Play Dead”
Motto of the International Possum Brotherhood.
(The Red Green Show on CBC)
Someone mentioned the quantum. In Romance languages the words for “when” and “how much” are similar. Int Italian, for example, “quando?” means “when?” and “quanto?” means “how much?”