Ritchie Valens died too young. His legacy will live on forever

This article is adapted from Merrrick Morton’s “No Bamba: visual history”, Posted by Hat & Beard Press.

“Dancing !! Dancing !! Dancing !! For the music of the Silhouettes band !!” Read hands. “The Fabulous Lil ‘Richi and his crying guitar !!” – In the emergence of 1958 in the American San Fernando Hall, the Legion in southern California.

He was 16 years old. The silhouette was the first Richie’s band, and they released it in history. But the silhouette itself is an interesting thing: you can see the general shape of something while you don’t know the shape that casts the shade. Valels’s musical story begins with silhouettes, we fill his story, and expected ourselves on her since his departure.

He was a founding father of rock and roll, who would barely lose his life a year later, when the plane carrying members of the Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Valens – on February 3, 1959, crashed into a snowstorm in Iowa. Chicano icon. A strange person.

Richie was a child playing his guitar to earn money for his family, and one song was played by a copy of “Malagueña”. The number was rooted in the centuries -old Flaminko music, which spread in all directions, and became a classic music and Hollywood graphic music by the fifties. In his hands, he became a catapult to paint the guitar of God’s hero.

“Malagueña” is an experience and Rico Saf escapes from his fans. Meanwhile, his mother was selling homemade Tamalis at his shows in the American Legion Hall. 17 -year -old Chicano Kid found a way to introduce himself to America by taking something familiar and making him not feel anything before.

From the start, Richie heard the possibilities to turn a familiar voice forward. He saw, even when the teenager would have us forever, how to re -invent a song, you can re -invent yourself. Listen to “Donna”, which is the hearty love song that felt knowledge of the ears of Chicano, and the listeners who for years seized black sound collections. In this process, he wiped the road in favor of many of the spirit of Chicano in the next two decades.

Valencies performed to a crowded house.

(C3 Entertainment)

The most important of all, of course, listen to “La Bamba”. A centuries -old song from Virakrose, Mexico; The tone has African and Spanish DNA, the original and Caribbean. In the film, he faced the song for the first time when his brother Bob took him to the Tijuana prostitution house, but yet he heard it for the first time, Valends looked at a perspective, a way to flood everything in front of him with his voice and guitar.

The music that he made came from Mexico, and came from Los Angeles, where the tunes of the swing were defeated in the Spanish language in the 1940s, the sounds of the black hat and the photography of the jelly guitar in the game of MolCajee Y Tejolote. The most important of all, it came from the radio, which lined up voices that were not like those that came before and detonated them on the AM stations from the corner to the corner across the south. The radio faded and diverted, and if Richie is now a pioneer in Chicano’s music, it was in a short time, time, producer of democracy, a silhouette with a bright spotlight on it.

Danny Valdez knew all the songs. In the early seventies of the twentieth century, the artist and activist “Mestizo”, which was described as the first album of Chicano’s protest, which was placed by a major sign. The singer, songwriter, and friend Taylor Hakford were drinking beer, packing the songs of Richie Valencs and making big plans. They talked about filming a movie one day, as Valdez played the role of Richie and Hakford. “None of us had a bowl to urinate, so we did not make this movie,” Hakford said. But years later, after Hackford achieved great success with a “noble officer and man”, Valdez called him and raised the idea again.

There were many steps to get “La Bamba” on the screen, but it began to understand it would be about music. This means that they had to make music feel vigor – any handful of recordings produced by Bob Kane that Richie left behind. Kane, the owner of the Del-Fi Records, was a guideline in the life of the singer, recording his songs, and urged him to hide his race by changing his name from Richard Stephen Valencallia and giving him a professional advice. Keane Studios Gold Star Studios, cheap at a price of $ 15 per hour, and brought great musicians in the Ritchie’s Packing Band, including Earl Palmer and Carol Kai. But the records that he did were not the latest, even in their time.

Hakford said, “They were not high quality,” and compared it to the early Ray Charles sessions to nominate the time of swing. He said: “I had a commercial idea in mind, about the music that sells the movie, and people coming out of the theater singing” no Bamba “who had not heard of it before. This means that he needs contemporary musicians who understood the records and can re -register Richie’s songs and reach an audience who was listening to Michael Jackson, Madonna and George Michael.

Valencies signatures for his fans.

(C3 Entertainment)

The Ricci family, including his mother, Kony, and his bracket, had already heard that Los Le Popus was playing “Come on, let’s go” live in East Los Angeles when the band played a concert in Santa Cruz, where the Valzuela family lived by the eighties of the last century, which is a friendship.

“Danny Los Lubus knew in the seventies of the last century when they just started,” says writer and director Luis Valdez. They were paying honor.

“They called themselves the spiritual heredity of Valencies,” Hakford says. “They entered and recovered the songs of Richie, as well as many songs he played at a concert, but they were never recorded.” Hackford now had his own album of old melodies that turned forward.

After that, Hackford is sure of the roles of modern performance artists to play classic rock from the winter dance party. He threw contemporary performance artists who can also re -register their materials: Marshall Krincho as a friend of Holly and Brian Citzer in the role of Eddie Cocran and Hunderberi in the role of Jackie Wilson.

Then there is a surprise for the first song that I heard in the movie – a huge version of Bo Diddley’s entitled “Who do you love?” That was Carlos Santana, who was appointed as a soundtrack composer, plays with Los Le Popus, and Bo himself introduces a new voice on everything.

“We were very happy with the touch of Carlos Santana as part of Richie’s story,” said Luis Valdes. “It is his guitar that emphasizes many scenes and he had a topic for each of the players. We showed the entire film first, and it was completely transferred and prepares to go immediately as soon as it was seen without its contribution. He was alone in that in the sound stage in Paramount, where we recorded an audio, where his magic became.

Actor Le Diamond Phillips in the role of Richie Valencs in the movie “La Bamba” for the year 1987.

(Merik Morton)

The original pictorial music recording bopybord and dual platinum gold charts.

Hackford love pop music. His first feature film, “The Idolmaker” (1980), was rock music. The launch of successful music has become a major promotional element in the package. Before 1982, a “Up Officer and Man” came where we belong to “Jokkar and Jennifer Warns. He went to No. 1 after the week after the opening. For 1984, entitled “Against All difficulties”, Phil Collins chose to sing the title of title, a song released three weeks before the opening; The song soon got the number 1. “White Nights” for 1985, they had two songs No. 1, “Say You Say Me”, Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin Duet “Lives”.

One of the problems waving on the horizon for “La Bamba” was that in 1987 he was not aware of the name Ritchie Valens name Ritchie Valens. Hackford also had ideas for that. He began to introduce it to the contemporary masses – persuading the studio to finance a unique humor trailer for operating it weeks before entering the official movie trailer.

The product collected a procession of familiar faces to re -introduce Valencies. The short film included Canadian Hittand Maker Brian Adams and Liel Richard talking about the symbol. There was also a Bob Dylan’s vision in a convertible ride from top to bottom along the Pacific coast road. 17 -year -old Dylan was present at the Valz Party in Dolotooth, Minnesota, just a few days before the plane crashed; She came up talking about what Valentine’s music means to him. Hakford said: “You are betting that it’s the most recent difference,” Hakford said.

After the soundtrack “La Bamba” became a success (there was also the second volume), Los Lobos achieved the fullest use of its high success. They have suffered from the celebrities who turned into their head with “La Bamba”, and they followed the matter with “La Pistola y El Corazón”, a selection of Mariachi and Tejano songs that were played on traditional vocal tools. They presented cultural capital and directed their new audience to this music that many had not heard before. “La Pistola Y El Corazón” won the Grammy Award in 1989 for the American Mexican performance.

The soundtrack “La Bamba” helped define a precedent for the global success of Latin music, which has become a major power in the main pop culture. From Ricky Martin and Jennifer Lopez to Shakira, Bad Bunny, Peso Pluma, Becky G, Anitta, J Balvin, Karol G and Maluma, among others who dominate graphics, get billions of rounds, make huge tours and festivals.

Does Hackford think that “La Bamba” helped appoint a subsequent Latin pop star success?

“I think the person who put the table is Ritchie Valens. He recorded a Spanish song, which is a rock and roll music version of a popular song, and made it a great success.

“I challenge you, any party you go to – a wedding, a Metzfah bar, whatever – when” La Bamba “comes, the tables are clear and everyone wakes up to dance. This is Ritchie Valens; he deserves this credit. We came after that.”

RJ Smith is the author and headquarters of Los Angeles. He wrote to the mixer, R.It is the voice of the village, spin, gq and R.It is the New York Times. His books include “The Great Black Way” and “The One: The Life and Music of James BrownAnd “Chuck Perry: American Life. “