Valens, Ritchie (1941-1959), was a Mexican American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He became one of the first major performers of rock music and the first Hispanic rock and roll star. His most famous song, the Spanish-language “La Bamba” (1958), is considered a rock classic. The song was based on a Mexican folk song that Valens updated with a rock and roll beat. “La Bamba” is the name of a traditional Mexican dance performed at weddings.
Valens was born in San Fernando, California, near Los Angeles, on May 13, 1941. His real name was Richard Steven Valenzuela. He played guitar, trumpet, and drums as a child. At age 16, Valens performed in a rock band called the Silhouettes. He also performed as a solo artist.
Valens’s first recording was “Come On, Let’s Go,” released in 1958. The song was a success. It was followed later that year by “Donna.” Valens’s other recordings include the instrumental “Fast Freight” (released under the pseudonym Arvee Allens), “That’s My Little Suzie,” “In a Turkish Town,” “Little Girl,” and “We Belong Together” (all 1959); and “Big Baby Blues” and “Stay Beside Me” (both 1960).
Valens died in an airplane crash near Mason City, Iowa, on Feb. 3, 1959, at the age of 17. The rock stars Buddy Holly and J. P. Richardson (the Big Bopper) were also killed in the crash. Valens’s life was dramatized in the popular motion picture La Bamba (1987), starring the American actor Lou Diamond Phillips as Valens. Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
