From: dmac@julia.math.ucla.edu (saki)
Subject: Re: Latinesque music in pop
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 18:57:22 GMT

In article <9220@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU> weiss@hougen.seas.ucla.edu (Michael Weiss) writes:
>In article <randall.727578470@seashore> randall@informix.com (Randall Rhea) writes:
>>Valens is an interesting question though.
>[...]
>>"La Bamba" was quite an important record in my opinion, as it
>>was the first big rock-n-roll hit to be sung in another language
>>besides English, and was one of the first to incorporate ethnic
>>music.  Had he lived, perhaps he would have experimented more
>>with the music of his Latin roots.
>
>Does this mean that Latin music could have really become a well-followed style
>that early?  I just note that there was little prominence in Latin music styles
>until the 80s, when the Miami Sound Machine, coupled with the popularity of
>Miami Vice, helped to propel Latin music and culture into the mainstream.

Latin music was popular much earlier than "La Bamba", to wit, Xavier Cugat
and Desi Arnaz (really!) in the forties and fifties, dance crazes like
mambo and the cha-cha in the fifties, bossanova (Joao Gilberto, Antonio
Carlos Jobim) in the early sixties. And Paul was influenced by the
relatively-mainstream "Besame Mucho" when he was but a pup, musically
speaking.

The East Los Angeles sound, of which Richard Valenzuela (a.k.a. Richie
Valens) was a popularizer, was heavily influenced by Mexican music
common to the families of those who emmigrated to the Los Angeles
area; Richie's family settled in Pacoima, a suburb in the San
Fernando Valley, but his ethnic roots were very much in evidence
in his music. "La Bamba" was covered by another Los Angeles band,
The Carlos Brothers, who were backed by the ghostly spectre of Richie
himself (the label resurrected Valens' guitar lead and backing track
from "La Bamba") and the Carlos Bros. had a modest chart hit with it
after Valens' death (also check out the Tokens' cover from c.1962, a
band which was decidedly not Hispanic in origin).

"La Bamba" was one of the prominent pop hits sung in Spanish and is
actually a wedding song (the subject of which seems to involve
establishing the new husband's suzerainty over his spouse, though
with some jocularity, needless to say), but it wasn't the only hit
in that language. There was "Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero" from about
1965 (I may be off by a year or two, and I can't recall the group
either, blast it...guess I'm going to have to start hauling Whitburn
to work), Ray Barreto's rambling "El Watusi" (1962), and I'm probably
missing a few others.

Latin influence was also heard in the jazz-crossover hit "Watermelon
Man" by the group Mongo Santamaria (1962, covering Herbie Hancock's
original). And it was somewhat suppressed in L.A. bands whose
heritage was Mexican/Hispanic, like the Olympics (who IMHO did
the superior version of "Good Lovin'"), Santo & Johnny ("Sleepwalk"),
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Cannibal and the Headhunters, and
Question Mark & the Mysterians. This doesn't even begin to encompass
East Coast bands whose Latin heritage was Caribbean, or Tex-Mex
bands from southern Texas (The Sir Douglas Quintet was proficient
at a synthesis of this sound with their own innate talent).

Interested parties may wish to seek out the Rhino Records CD
compilation called "History of East-Side Rock", the "side"
referred to here being East Los Angeles.

--
"Here's the first big chart-busting bombshell of '63!!!! The Beatles
have made *THE* RECORD OF THE YEAR!"
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saki (dmac@math.ucla.edu)-----------
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