The words might be very similar, but chances are if the title and key word in the song that was a hit for both Phyllis Dillon and Pam Hall as cover versions would have had very little impact if it the English had been used instead of Spanish.

So when Milton Leeds added English lyrics Alberto Dominguez song, he left perfidia instead of changing it to perfidy, which is defined as breach of faith; treachery.

The lyrics naturally reflect the perfidy, or perfidia as is actually in the song.

To you

My heart cries out perfidia

For I found you, the love of my life

In somebody elses arms

And it takes a philosophical look at the foibles of relationships of the heart:

With a sad lament my dreams are faded like a broken melody

While the gods of love look down and laugh

At what romantic fools we mortals be

In the end, the betrayed lover gives up, apparently without much bitterness, and bids goodbye:

I find my love was not for you

And so I take it back with a sigh

Versions of Perfidia have been utilised in movies, among them Days of Being Wild, In The Mood For Love and 2046. More recently, Linda Ronstadts version was used in the 1992 film The Mambo Kings. It is directed by Arne Glimcher, starring Armand Assante and Anthony Banderas. It is about two brothers who leave 1950s Cuba for the United States, dreaming of making it huge in Latin music.

Glen Millers version of Perfidia appears on the 100 Success De Glenn Miller album; an instrumental of another kind was delivered by dub genius King Tubby.

The Princeton Nassoons, an a cappella group at the United States university formed just before World War II, uses Perfidia as its signature song, that coming about as a result of going directly against instructions in 1941 and performing the song, to huge applause.