La Colegiala
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"La Colegiala" ("the schoolgirl" in Spanish) is an iconic Latin song composed in 1975 by Walter León Aguilar, leader of the Peruvian cumbia ensemble Los Ilusionistas, and made hugely popular in the early 1980s by the Colombian singer Rodolfo Aicardi, crediting it to Rodolfo y su Tipica RA7.
Walter León Aguilar, leader of the cumbia music band Los Ilusionistas, composed the song inspired by a young girl who was passing by while León Aguilar was riding a public bus. He called his friend, singer Carlos Ramirez Centeno, to sing and record the song for the first time in 1977. The song was a hit in Peru, mainly in the rural areas of its capital city Lima.
Rodolfo y su Tipica RA7 cover version
Rodolfo used the arrangements of the version of El Combo Palacio (1980).El Combo Palacio is en Peruvian cumbia band. The director of the band Óscar 'Pitin' Sanchez made the arrangements that we know worldwide. The song was popularized in France and continental Europe in 1981 through the usage of the Rodolfo y su Tipica RA7 version for a Nescafé advertisement broadcast on French television.[1] A longer version of the Nescafé ad was used in movie theatres. The ad concept had been tried initially in Ecuador by the ad agency Publicis, later spreading in other Latin American countries before making it to Europe.
In 1982, the Rodolfo y su Tipica version was released as a single in France by RCA, with the B-side containing "La Subienda", composed by Senon Palacio and interpreted by Gabriel Romero. Nescafé sales hugely increased as a result.
