05/14/2025
Remembering Ritchie Valens who was born Richard Steven Valenzuela on this date May 13, 1941 in Pacoima, CA.
A self-taught musician, Valenzuela was an accomplished singer and guitarist. Bob Keane, the owner and president of small record label Del-Fi Records in Hollywood, was given a tip in May 1958 by San Fernando High School student Doug Macchia about a young performer from Pacoima by the name of Richard Valenzuela. Kids knew the performer as "the Little Richard of San Fernando".
Keane went to see Valenzuela play a Saturday-morning matinée at a movie theater in San Fernando. Impressed by the performance, he invited Valenzuela to audition at his home in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, where he had a small recording studio in his basement.
After this first audition, Keane signed Valenzuela to Del-Fi on May 14, 1958. At this point he took that name Ritchie Valens. Valens was ready to enter the studio with a full band backing him. The musicians included René Hall, Carol Kaye, and Earl Palmer. The first songs recorded at Gold Star Studios, at a single studio session one afternoon in May 1958, were "Come On, Let's Go", an original, credited to Valens/Kuhn (Keane's real name), and "Framed", a Leiber and Stoller tune.
Pressed and released within days of the recording session, the record was a success. Valens' next record, a double A-side, had the song "Donna" (written about a real girlfriend Donna Ludwig) coupled with "La Bamba". It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America.
By the autumn of 1958, the demands of Valens's career forced him to drop out of high school. Keane booked appearances at venues across the United States and performances on television programs.
On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as "The Day the Music Died", Valens died in a plane crash in Iowa, an accident that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, as well as pilot Roger Peterson. Valens was 17 years old at the time of his death. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, The Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame, The California Hall of Fame, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
