05/15/2025
Remembering singer, and guitarist Trini Lopez who was born Trinidad López III on this date May 15, 1937 in Dallas, TX.
Lopez formed his first band in Wichita Falls, Texas, at the age of 15. Around 1955/56 Lopez and his band worked at The Vegas Club. In 1957, at the recommendation of Buddy Holly's father, Trini and his group "The Big Beats" went to producer Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico.
Petty secured a contract for them with Columbia Records, which released the single "Clark's Expedition"/"Big Boy", both instrumental. Lopez left the group and made his first solo recording, his own composition "The Right To Rock", for the Dallas-based Volk Records, and then signed with King Records in 1959, recording more than a dozen singles for that label, none of which charted.
In late 1962, after the King contract expired, Lopez followed up on an offer by producer S***f Garrett to join the post-Holly Crickets as vocalist. . After a few weeks of auditions in Los Angeles, that idea did not go through. He landed a steady engagement at the nightclub PJ's in Hollywood, where his audience grew quickly. He was heard there by Frank Sinatra, who had started his own label, Reprise Records, and who subsequently signed Lopez.
His debut live album, "Trini Lopez at PJ's" , was released in 1963. The album included a version of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer", which reached number one in 36 countries (no. 3 in the United States),. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. He also performed his own version of the traditional Mexican song "La Bamba" on the album; his recording of the tune was later reissued as a single in 1966
Another live album from PJ's was recorded later that same year under the title "By Popular Demand More Trini Lopez at PJ's" which contains the song Green, Green which was written by Randy Sparks and Barry McGuire and originally recorded by the New Christy Minstrels earlier that year for their Columbia album "Ramblin".
Lopez scored 13 chart singles through 1968, including "Lemon Tree" (1965), "I'm Comin' Home, Cindy" (1966), and "Sally Was a Good Old Girl" (1968).
On the adult contemporary chart, he racked up 15 hits, including the top-10 singles "Michael" (1964), "Gonna Get Along Without Ya' Now" (1967), and "The Bramble Bush" (1967), which he sang in the movie "The Dirty Dozen". . Beyond his success on record, he became one of the country's top nightclub performers of that era, regularly headlining in Las Vegas. In 1968, he recorded an album in Nashville entitled "Welcome to Trini Country".
Lopez produced a single promoting the Coca-Cola soft drink Fresca in 1967. In 1969, NBC aired a Trini Lopez variety special featuring surf guitar group The Ventures, and Nancy Ames as guests. The soundtrack, released as "The Trini Lopez Show", has him singing his hits with The Ventures as his backing band.
In 2002, Lopez teamed with Art Greenhaw for Legacy: My Texas Roots. The album used the "Texas Roots Combo" including Lopez, Greenhaw, and Lopez's brother, Jesse.
Lopez was still recording and appearing live in the years leading up to his death August 11, 2020 at the age of 83.
