![]() ![]() Pressed and released within days of the recording session, the record was a success. The first songs recorded at Gold Star Studios, at a single studio session one afternoon in July 1958, were "Come On, Let's Go", an original, credited to Valens/Kuhn (Keane's real name), and "Framed", a Leiber and Stoller tune. The musicians included René Hall, Carol Kaye, and Earl Palmer. Valens was ready to enter the studio with a full band backing him. ![]() At this point, the musician took the name "Ritchie" because, as Keane said, "There were a bunch of 'Richards' around at that time, and I wanted it to be different." Similarly, Keane recommended shortening his surname to "Valens" from Valenzuela to widen his appeal beyond any obvious ethnic group. Valens performing on American Bandstand in 1958Īfter this first audition, Keane signed Valenzuela to Del-Fi on May 27, 1958. ![]() His recording equipment comprised an early stereo recorder (a two-track Ampex 601-2 portable) and a pair of Neumann U-47 condenser microphones. Impressed by the performance, he invited the youth to audition at his home in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, where he had a small recording studio in his basement. Swayed by the Little Richard comparison, Keane went to see Valenzuela play a Saturday-morning matinée at a movie theater in San Fernando. Kids knew the performer as "the Little Richard of San Fernando". At his appearances, he often improvised new lyrics and added new riffs to popular songs while he was playing.īob 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. Career Ī self-taught musician, Valenzuela was an accomplished singer and guitarist. Valenzuela also attended San Fernando High School. On October 19, 1957, he made his performing debut with The Silhouettes. He began as a guitarist, and when the main vocalist left the group, Valenzuela assumed the position. When he was 16 years old, he was invited to join a local band, The Silhouettes (not to be confused with the group of the same name famous for its hit song "Get a Job"). īy the time Valenzuela was attending Pacoima Junior High School (now Pacoima Middle School), he would bring his guitar to school and sing and play songs to his friends on the bleachers. Recurring nightmares of the disaster led to Valens's fear of flying. He was not at school that day because he was attending the funeral of his grandfather. Valenzuela was a 15-year-old student at Pacoima Junior High School at the time of the 1957 Pacoima mid-air collision. Though Valenzuela was left-handed, he was so eager to learn the guitar that he mastered the traditional right-handed version of the instrument. He was encouraged by his father to take up guitar and trumpet, and later taught himself the drums. Valenzuela expressed an interest in making music of his own by the age of five. Valenzuela was brought up hearing traditional Mexican mariachi music, as well as flamenco guitar, R&B, and jump blues. The son of Joseph Steven Valenzuela (1896–1952) and Concepción "Concha" Reyes (1915–1987) He had two half-brothers Roberto "Bob" Morales (1937–2018) and Mario Ramirez, and two younger sisters, Connie and Irma. Valens was born as Richard Steven Valenzuela in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles. In 2001, Valens was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as pilot Roger Peterson. On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as " The Day the Music Died", Valens died in a plane crash in Iowa, an accident that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J. He also had an American number-two hit with " Donna". Valens transformed the song into one with a rock rhythm and beat, and it became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement. Valens had several hits, most notably " La Bamba", which he had adapted from a Mexican folk song. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens was killed in a plane crash eight months into his music career. Richard Steven Valenzuela (– February 3, 1959), known professionally as Ritchie Valens, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. ![]()
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