MADRID (Associated Press) - Luis Aguile, an Argentine singer-songwriter whose career blossomed after he moved to Spain, died in a Madrid hospital on Saturday, his manager said. He was 73.

Best known for worldwide hit song "Cuando Sali de Cuba" ("When I Left Cuba"), the baritone had been suffering from stomach cancer. He was being treated at Sanchinarro Hospital in a northern suburb of Madrid, where he died, said manager Victor Saboya.

Born Luis Maria Aguilera Picca on Feb. 24, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Aguile moved to Spain in 1963 just in time to benefit from the birth of popular music television programs that suited his lighthearted, polished style perfectly.

The singer-songwriter composed some 400 songs and recorded twice that number in a career that also encompassed the Spanish operetta style known as "zarzuela."

Aguile had been working on two major projects before his death, Saboya said.

The first, a zarzuela entitled "Viva Madrid, Grandes exitos de Broadway" ("Long Live Madrid, Big Broadway Hits"), was approaching completion and the other, an homage to "Martin Fierro" an epic work by Argentine poet Jose Hernandez, had long been Aguile's cherished personal ambition.

He is survived by wife Ana Rodriguez Ruiz, whom he married in 1976.