The song was written by a Cuban composer (Signo Garay) many years ago in a theatre in Cuba, for Ursula his girl friend. However, a group of Italian and Russian singers heard it and liked the tune. When these girls went back to Russia, they only knew the tune not the lyrics. Apparently some Russian composer wrote the lyrics in Russian and received world wide credit for the song calling it Ochee Chornya. The Cuban author never claimed any credit since he was not recognized outside his native country and Russia later became the protector of Cuba, assisting the Cuban government (Castro regime) in many ways during the cold war years. The video "The Roots of Rhythm" by Harry Belafonte has a small clip where the real author is interviewed in Cuba and he explains what actually happened with his song, and how Russia takes the credit and why he really does not mind the error. All of this was recorded before his death. I really don't care what anyone says. The Russians have taken so much from everyone and copied from other people claiming everything to be their own, that one song from the small Island of Cuba does not matter much!