Ritchie Valens

• Born: May 13, 1941
• Birthplace: Pacoima, California
• Died: February 3, 1959
• Place of death: Near Mason City, Iowa

American musician

Although killed in an airplane accident in 1959 before he had even turned eighteen, Valens in a matter of months had become the first Chicano rock-and-roll star, his popularity on the rise with three influential hits and a following that transcended race and class barriers.

Areas of achievement: Music

Early Life

Raised in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California, Ritchie Valens (RIHT-chee VAL-ehnz) was born Richard Steven Valenzuela, the son of Joseph Stephen “Steve” Valenzuela, a tree surgeon, horse trainer, and munitions factory worker, and his wife Concepcion “Connie” Reyes, who also worked at that factory. Valens’s mother had an older son, Robert Morales, from a previous marriage. Valens’s parents divorced when he was three years old, and in 1951 his father died from diabetes. At this time his mother moved into his father’s former house with her two sons and Valens’s two younger sisters, Connie and Irma; because the house was so small and crowded, Valens was sent to live with a series of nearby relatives, spending a lot of time at the home of his uncle and aunt, Lelo and Ernestine Reyes. From an early age Valens demonstrated a love for music, and, as an urban Chicano in the post-World War II period, he had grown up exposed to traditional Mexican music, rhythm and blues, Hollywood singing cowboy performances at Saturday matinees, and country music on the radio.

Valens took up the guitar at the age of eleven, and at the age of sixteen he joined the Silhouettes, a multiracial rhythm-and-blues band from his San Fernando High School. They played many local public and private parties, and with Valens taking on the responsibility of singing lead, they developed a following that included both white and Latino car clubs.

Life’s Work

The stage charisma and innovative stylings of the young performer were brought to the attention of Del-Fi Records producer Bob Keane, who caught a Saturday-afternoon performance by Valens in May, 1958, and promptly invited him to Keane’s home studio to make some demonstration tapes. Valens signed a contract with Keane’s company, and Keane would use Gold Star Studios in Hollywood to make Valens’s marketed recordings. As a promotional strategy, at Keane’s suggestion, the musician anglicized his stage name to Ritchie Valens.

Valens only made two records that were released before his death, but both were innovative and influential. His first single, “Come On, Let’s Go,” was recorded in July, 1958, and released locally. It became a hit in Los Angeles, and its popularity spread throughout the Southwest, so it was released nationally in August, eventually rising to number forty-two on the Billboard singles chart and selling a half million copies. Rather than return for senior year, Valens decided to drop out of school to concentrate on his musical career, but he recorded a doo-wop tribute to his high school girlfriend Donna Ludwig as the A side of his next record: “Donna.” The song went to number two nationally. Valens made personal promotional appearances in Los Angeles, New York, and Hawaii; performed on the televised popular music show American Bandstand twice; and appeared in Alan Freed’s rock-and-roll film Go, Johnny, Go! (1959). Planning for the future, Valens was recording more tracks in the studio, too.

However, his next hit turned out to be the B side of “Donna.” Taking a traditional Mexican song, speeding it up, and giving it a raucous rock-and-roll flair while maintaining the traditional lyrics in Spanish and a distinctively Latino sound at the same time, Valens had another hit with “La Bamba.” Regardless of their ethnicity, young people responded positively to the rhythms and vivaciousness of the song, whether they understood the words or not. Since he had grown up speaking English, Valens had to learn the words to the song phonetically; his Aunt Ernestine helped him master the lyrics.

In early 1959, Valens was one of the hottest young stars in the United States, doing a Winter Dance Party Tour through the Midwest with Buddy Holly, Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr. (also known as “the Big Bopper”), Dion and the Belmonts, and Holly’s new back-up band. After their tour bus broke down, Holly arranged for a small four-seater private plane to deliver some of their entourage to their next destination in Fargo, North Dakota. Valens won his seat on a coin toss. On February 3, 1959, the plane took off in a terrible snowstorm, crashed, and killed all aboard: the pilot, Holly, the Big Bopper, and seventeen-year-old Valens. This came to be known as “The Day the Music Died.”

Significance

Valens was the first Latino rock-and-roll star. He came out of a multiethnic urban background and demonstrated great crossover appeal while integrating across musical traditions. With “La Bamba,” he was the first to adapt traditional Mexican music and successfully remarket it through rock and roll to a large audience, and he paved the way for all Latino rock-and-roll musicians to come. Like Linda Ronstadt, who would record an album in Spanish in 1987, Valens did not speak fluent Spanish, yet he made Spanish-language music with Mexican roots accessible to and popular with millions of English-speaking Americans. The 1987 biopic La Bamba, directed by Luis Miguel Valdez and starring Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens, brought his life story to a new generation of Americans, and the sound track album that accompanied that film went to number one in the country in September, 1987, suggesting the broadening acceptance of Latino music in the dominant culture at that time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Bibliography

Lehmer, Larry. The Day the Music Died: The Last Tour of Buddy Holly, the “Big Bopper,” and Ritchie Valens. New York: Music Sales, 2003. In-depth review of Winter Parade concert tour and the ill-fated flight.

Macias, Anthony F. “Bringing Music to the People: Race, Urban Culture, and Municipal Politics in Postwar Los Angeles.” American Quarterly 56, no. 3 (2004): 693-717. The rise of Valens in rock and roll is contextualized within the multicultural musical and political world in which he lived.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935-1968. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2008. Racial and ethnic identity evaluated through the creation and evolution of Chicano music in this period.

Mendheim, Beverly. Ritchie Valens: The First Latino Rocker. Tempe, Ariz.: Bilingual Press, 1987. Background biography that explores Valens’s life through emphasis on his songs: their origins, stylings, and recordings.

Reyes, David, and Tom Waldman. Land of a Thousand Dances: Chicano Rock ‘n Roll from Southern California. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009. Revised and expanded edition. Traces the roots and development of Mexican American rock and roll.