There are many famous Spanish guitar songs that people around the world recognise and love, so coming up with a definitive list of the top five is always going to be a challenge. However, we’ve taken it up and looked to bring you our own top five. We’ve moved away from the traditional meaning of the word “song,” however, as many of these don’t have words so, strictly speaking, are pieces of music rather than songs. Still, it is likely that most people wouldn’t differentiate between the two, so we won’t, either!

Here are our top five famous Spanish guitar songs.

Romance Anonimo

You might have heard of this piece being called Spanish Romance or Romance of the Guitar, but we’ve stuck to the traditional name here. Although it is a stunning piece of music that is great to learn, even on a traditional acoustic guitar, part of the fame of this piece comes from the fact that there is great debate around who composed it and where it came from.

Various musicians have been credited with writing the piece, but all that is certain is that it comes from the mid-to-late 19^th century and would appear to come from Spain or South America. Narciso Yepes is widely credited with making it popular, but not thought to have been the composer (he wasn’t born until 1927).

Asturias, Patria Querida

This piece of music is actually the anthem of the Asturias region of Northern Spain, while the melody was also used in The Doors’ Spanish Caveman.

When played as the Asturian anthem, it is more regularly played with bagpipes, but is a popular and famous Spanish guitar song in its own right.

El Porompompero

Manolo Escobar is perhaps more popular around the world for his version classic party track Y Viva Espana, but El Porompompero is the Spanish guitar song that probably represents his best work. Such was his success on the back of this track that his home in Benidorm was named after it.

This is another great track that all aspiring guitar players should look to learn.

Bésame Mucho

Bésame Mucho is actually a Mexican track yet one that uses Spanish guitar to its fullest. It is one of Mexico’s most popular songs, as well as one of the most famous of all bolero-genre pieces, and is also the most sung and recorded track from the Central American nation.

In recent years, a number of successful contemporary artists including Michael Bublé, have recorded versions of the song in many versions, with upbeat and big band versions recorded in contrast to the original bolero.

La Isla Bonita

Most people wouldn’t expect to see a Madonna track on a famous Spanish guitar songs list, but it is almost impossible to leave this one off. It is widely seen as one of the tracks that made Madonna a more experimental and daring artist (although she’d had great success before releasing this track trying out a variety of musical styles) and has been covered by many Latin musicians since its 1987 release.

The track was actually offered to Michael Jackson before Madonna took it, so it may have ended up as a wildly different song from the one we know today!