A great deal of Lecuona's music was first introduced to mass American audiences by Desi Arnaz, a fellow Cuban and Lucille Ball's spouse.
•
Lecuona was included as a character in the novel The Island of Eternal Love, by Miami-based Cuban writer Daína Chaviano, together with other important names in Cuban music.
Ernesto Lecuona, Cuban composer and pianist, brother of Ernestina.
Ernesto Zedillo | Ernesto Rossi | Ernesto Lecuona | Ernesto Sábato | Ernesto Neto | Società Italiana Ernesto Breda | Ernesto Tomasini | Ernesto Rossi (politician) | Ernesto Pérez Balladares | Ernesto Samper | Ernesto Sabato | Ernesto Nieto | Ernesto Nathan Rogers | Ernesto Laguardia | Ernesto Juan Castellanos | Ernesto Hoost | Ernesto Herrera | Ernesto España | Ernesto De Pascale | Ernesto "Che" Guevara | Ernesto Castano | Ernesto Burzagli | Ernesto Bellandi | Ricardo Ernesto Montes i Bradley | Luis Ernesto Tapia | Luis Ernesto Derbez | José Ernesto Sosa | Ernesto's Burning | Ernesto Pujol | Ernesto Pérez Acosta |
One of his most important musical achievements has been a consistent research, performance and recording of the Cuban piano repertoire that include a long list of composers such as: Manuel Saumell, Ignacio Cervantes, Ernesto Lecuona, Alejandro García Caturla, Harold Gramatges, José Ardévol, Edgardo Martín, Hilario González, Fabio Landa, Leo Brouwer, Carlos Fariñas, Héctor Angulo, Roberto Valera, Carlos Malcolm, Armando Rodriguez Ruidiaz and Juan Piñera.
Two famous Cuban composers in particular, Ignacio Cervantes (1847–1905) and Ernesto Lecuona (1895–1963), used the danza as the basis of some of their most memorable compositions.
Terra Verde is strongly rooted in ragtime (examples: Scott Joplin, James Scott, Joseph Lamb), new (or contemporary) ragtime (David Thomas Roberts, Frank French, Scott Kirby), Latin American music (Ernesto Nazareth, Ernesto Lecuona) and Romantic music of the 19th century (Frédéric Chopin, Louis Moreau Gottschalk).
It appeared in the MGM movie, The Cuban Song, with Ernesto Lecuona as musical advisor; Judy Garland sung a fragment of the song in the 1954 film, A Star is Born.