“La Bamba” by Ritchie Valens
This week for Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has prompted us with “La” in the title or lyrics. I found this difficult as there are so many obvious songs. I wanted to go off the beaten path, but couldn’t. I had to go with what I know and love.
- Ritchie Valens became the first Latino Rock n’ Roll superstar, hailing from LA (Los Angeles, California).
- “La Bamba” is a Mexican folk song, originally from Veracruz that combines Spanish, Indigenous and African musical.
- In 1958, “La Bamba” was produced on the 45 record, Side B, as a fluff piece to Valen’s soon to be hit, Side A “Donna”, a hit Valen’s wrote for his girlfriend.
- Producer, Bob Keane added “La Bamba” to the record because he didn’t think anyone would listen to a song with spanish lyrics, putting “Donna” in the spotlight. It backfired.
- Los Lobos performed “La Bamba” for the 1987 movie “La Bamba” starring Lou Diamond Phillips.
- In 1987, “La Bamba” reached number 1 on the US and UK singles charts for Los Lobos.
- Ritchie Valens died at the age of 17 in a plane crash with 2 other greats, Buddy Holly & J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson heading to Fargo, North Dakota.
- Valens was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
"La Bamba" Para bailar La Bamba Para bailar La Bamba se necesita una poca de gracia Una poca de gracia Pa' mi, pa' ti, y arriba, y arriba Y arriba y arriba Por ti seré, por ti seré, por ti seré Yo no soy marinero Yo no soy marinero, soy capitán Soy capitán, soy capitán Bamba, bamba Bamba, bamba Bamba, bamba, bam Para bailar La Bamba Para bailar La Bamba Se necesita una poca de gracia Una poca de gracia Para mi, para ti, ay arriba, ay arriba Para bailar La Bamba Para bailar La Bamba Se necesita una poca de gracia Una poca de gracia Pa' mi, pa' ti, ay arriba, ay arriba Y arriba y arriba Por ti seré, por ti seré, por ti seré
14 Comments on ““La Bamba” by Ritchie Valens”
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I loved the Go, Johnny, Go! video from the 1959 rock and roll film starring Alan Freed and with Chuck Berry sitting at the table. That plane crash was a horrible destruction of so much talent.
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There were too many plane crashes during that stretch of time that took so much talent.
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Loved this movie. Good song for today.
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Thanks. Thought it was too obvious. 😊
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Not at all.
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Excellent choice for the prompt!
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I remember this was played a lot on the TV is in the 90s and/or 2000s for TV ads. It is a go-to song for promotion, I think?
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I don’t remember it being a promotional song. Interesting. My memory can suck sometimes.
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This song is such a joy to me. When I was up in Wales over the holidays, we played it on the Alexa and all the little ones (we have a lot of little ones in our family) were dancing and shimmying away!
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That sounds like a lot of fun actually.
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Love the song and the movie. excellent choice.
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Thank you. 😊
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Love the song and lots of his other ones, too. The movie about him was good. So sad he was taken so soon in his life. We live here where Buddy Holly grew up, and we have many memorials to him. I’m sure they all would have and should have had many more years to create wonderful music.
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I’m sure we missed out on what would’ve been. I love all the music they all created.
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