The Tragic Story of Ritchie Valens, the Singer of “La Bamba”

It is essential in the playlists of birthday parties, weddings, evenings organized in tourist villages. And yet “The baby”, a song that seems to have no age, as if it had always been present in the history of music, hides a tragic story: that of the interpreter who made it popular, Ritchie Valens, disappeared at just 17 years old without even being able to witness the success of the song. Known as the Little Richard of the San Fernando Valley, Richard Steven Valenzuela, this is the real name of the musician born in 1941 in Pacoima, a suburb of Los Angeles, to a family of Mexican origins, in a handful of years he went from working as a farm laborer to help the family – who were in a condition of extreme poverty –

to climb the American charts with his singles. His story inspired a 1987 movie titled – guess what – “La bamba”, conceived and directed by Luis Valdez, who made the story of Valens and the famous song, played in the film by the The LobosNominated in 1988 at the Golden Globes for “Best Motion Picture – Drama,” the film – which starred Luo Diamond Phillips – is about to return to theaters almost forty years after the original, but in a new versionto pay homage once again to the dramatic story of a rock star whose life was cut short too soon.

A self-taught musician with extraordinary talent – he was given his first guitar when he was 5 years old: it was a second or third hand instrument missing four strings, which Valens, as he grew up, gradually added, continuing to practice – Ritchie saw his life change when in 1958 Bob Keaneowner and president of a small Hollywood record label, Del-Fi Records, after receiving a tip showed up in the audience at a performance of the musician in a movie theater in San Fernando.

Struck by the potential of the boy, he offered him a recording contract with his label and paired him with experienced and experienced musicians such as .René Hall, Carol Kaye and Earl Palmerwho took Valens under their wing and helped him record his first songs, “Come on, let’s go”, “Donna” and “La bamba” itself, which was not an unreleased track, but a revisiting a classic of Mexican music and in particular that of the state of Veracruz, where the song was usually performed during weddings. Proud and proud of his Mexican roots, Valens was initially hesitant to revisit the traditional arrangement of the song, fusing Latin sounds with rock’n’roll ones.. Then he convinced himself, giving new life to the song, that became the first rock’n’roll hit sung in Spanish.

Soon the name of Ritchie Valens began to circulate among the insiders and the musician collected a series of appearances on very popular American TV programs of the late 50s such as Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand”, the “Dick Clark Show”, as well as performing in temples of American live music such as the Apollo Theater. A success that pushed the promoters to organize a tour that was supposed to celebrate the new gods of American rock’n’roll: the “Winter Dance Party” would have involved, in addition to the seventeen year old Ritchie Valens, also Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, Dion and the Belmonts and Frankie SardoThe tour started on January 23, 1959, but ended a few days later, on February 3, following a plane crash in which three of the artists who were part of it lost their lives, including Ritchie Valens. Remembered by Don McLean in his hit “American Pie” as “the day the music dies”, the day the music died, that accident in the sky above Fargo, North Dakota, in addition to the life of Valens also took the lives of Buddy Holly (who was 22 years old) and The Big Boppper (who was 28 years old), wiping out the future of rock.

The film “La bamba” redeemed Ritchie Valens’ fate, and was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2017 for its cultural and historical importance. Luis Valdez, screenwriter and director of the original film, is credited as executive producer of the new version, the result of a collaboration between Mucho Mas Media and Sony Pictures. The screenplay, on the other hand, is by José Rivera, a Puerto Rican who was nominated for an Oscar in 2004 for “The Motorcycle Diaries”.We are honored and humbled to retell Ritche’s story, the story of an incredible young Latino who inspired so many through his music and his prodigious talent.”, say the producers. The legend continues.