On this date March 19, 2001 Ritchie Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of “Performe…
On this date March 19, 2001 Ritchie Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the category of “Performer” by Ricky Martin. He was born Richard Steven Valenzuela in Pacoima, CA. Valenzuela was brought up hearing traditional Mexican mariachi music, as well as flamenco guitar, R&B, and jump blues. Valenzuela expressed an interest in making music of his own by the age of five. He was encouraged by his father to take up guitar and trumpet, and later taught himsel…f the drums. By the time Valenzuela was attending junior high school, he would bring his guitar to school and sing and play songs to his friends on the bleachers. When he was 16 years old, he was invited to join a local band, The Silhouettes. Bob Keane, the owner and president of small record label Del-Fi Records in Hollywood, was given a tip in May 1958 by San Fernando High School student Doug Macchia about a young performer from Pacoima by the name of Richard Valenzuela. Keane went to see Valenzuela play a Saturday-morning matinée at a movie theater in San Fernando. . Impressed by the performance, he invited the youth to audition at his home where he had a small recording studio in his basement. After this first audition, Keane signed Valenzuela to Del-Fi on May 27, 1958. At this point, the musician took the name “Ritchie”. The musicians at his first session included (members of The Wrecking Crew) René Hall, Carol Kaye, and Earl Palmer. The first song recorded at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, at a single studio session one afternoon in July 1958, were “Come On, Let’s Go”. . Pressed and released within days of the recording session, the record was a success. Valens’s next record, a double A-side, the final record to be released in his lifetime, had the song “Donna” coupled with “La Bamba”. Valens was a pioneer of Chicano rock and Latin rock, and inspired many musicians of Mexican heritage. He influenced the likes of Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys, and Carlos Santana, as he had become nationally successful at a time when very few Latinos were in American rock and pop music. He is considered the first Latino to successfully cross over into mainstream rock. Valens dies in a plane crash in Clear Lake Iowa, February 3, 1959 along with the pilot, Buddy Holly, and “The Big Bopper” J.P. Richardson. #RitchieValens #chicanorock #rockandrollhalloffame #singers #guitarists #50smusic
Published at Fri, 19 Mar 2021 19:59:37 GMT
